A recent study by Canadian researchers has shown that some teens are online and watching television for forty or more hours a week, as much as a full time job. While 52 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls in the study reported more than the standard work week of “screen time”, 24 percent of boys and 7 percent of girls reported that they spent the same about of time on the internet exclusively. The American Heart Association is presenting this information at their conference in Colorado, and will be targeting ways to find “safe and appealing active alternatives to sitting in front of screens.”

While I laude this researchers for finally confirming what I have believed for years, I think they are missing the point. What we as a society should really be focusing on is what these kids are doing during this time online. The fact of the matter is, the internet is a wonderful resource that can be used to possibly get American students competitive on a global level again, but only if it is used correctly. Yes, I understand that the more time kids spend indoors the less time they can spend getting fit outdoors, but how about we encourage these kids and their parents to incorporate exercise into their daily lives? Let us reintroduce walking or bicycling to school and work.

Once we can get children and parents to incorporate exercise into their daily lives, we can work on redirecting this time spent online to productive things. Some of the most talented webmasters, coders, and designers are under the age of 18 because of the things they learned while online. Syed Balkhi and Ashley Qualls are two of these young, successful, self-made webmasters. Let us inspire our children to spend their time on the internet wisely instead of shunning their activity.