Let's face it: Teenagers spend hours texting, socializing on Facebook and playing video games.And it's driving their parents nuts. Sure, there are real dangers connected with all this screen time--everything from cyberbullying  to couch-potato obesity.Not to mention driving while texting, and shortened attention spans . Douglas Gentile, who studies the effects of media on children, says texting, Facebook and video games are not naturally bad.Nor are they naturally better or worse than watching TV, although they do lead to different risks, such as cyberbullying. But research has shown that the more time kids spend in front of screens--whether it's TV or instant-messaging--the worse their school performances are."That doesn't mean it's true for every kid, but it makes sense, that for every hour a kid is playing video games, it's an hour that they're not doing homework or reading or exploring or creating," he said.If screen time is taking the place of doing their homework, that's bad.But if their homework is done, well, so what? The study also found that the more time kids spend with media, the lower their grades and levels of personal satisfaction are.Gentile said the influence of screen time on school work can be reduced by what he calls "protective factors".Those might include good teachers and a high-performing school, love of reading, coming from a family where education is valued."If you had all these protective factors, then that one little risk factor, who cares?" One thing parents should worry about is the way electronic devices encourage multitasking . "As adults, your response speeds up, you're quicker to look over your shoulder and notice little noises or lights.However this is not what the kids need when they get to the classroom.Scanning to see when the next message comes may not be good for kids.The more distractions  you have, the worse your performance is." Getting kids to turn off their phones, iPods in order to let them concentrate  on homework is a fight worth having. By saying "one little risk factor", Gentile referred to   _
love for reading valuing education screen time good teachers