Young Writers

It warms my heart to see young people writing. This may sound strange coming from a 24 year old. (Many would argue that I, myself, am young; the truth is that I feel much older than what I really am!) There are so many distractions out there, so many things that a young person could be doing instead of writing. According to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive, "The average child age 8 to 12 plays 13 hours of video games per week, while teens ages 13 to 18 play 14 hours of video games per week." That's two hours a day! And according to Huston and Wright, University of Kansas, "Children spend more time watching television than in any other activity except sleep." It is estimated that the average kid spends 4 hours a day watching television. If you combine the hours spend playing computer games with the hours spent watching t.v., you're looking at 6 hours a day! On top of school, meals, homework, chores (for some of us) and all the other things that MUST happen in a day, that leaves zero time left over for anything else. What happened to playing in the woods, building tree houses and having pinecone battles? These are things that inspire creativity and improve social skills and physical health, and yet it is rare nowadays to find a young person doing these things! All I'm saying is that I know how hard it is to stay focused on the important things. Believe me, there are times when I would rather spend all of my free time watching television or playing Super Mario Bros. (Yep, it's my favorite.) But I have to remind myself that I have a mission, and that mission is to write X amount of words a day. So I just want to say that I tilt my hat to you young people out there who, in spite of the distractions, find the time and the motivation to write.

References:

http://www.diyfather.com/content/interesting-statistics-about-video-games

http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/facts/mediafacts.asp