New Free Media Diet Calculator Planned to Launch Dec. 26–Aims to Bring Awareness of Family Media Intake Versus Real Life Interaction

After a season filled with record-setting cell phone and gaming gifts to teens and tweens, iShine is announcing the upcoming Dec. 26, 2010, release of the Family Media Diet Calculator. The calculator is a new tool providing customized awareness to families in regard to how much time they spend connected to media in comparison to the amount of hours they spend plugged in with real life interaction and content consumption.

By visiting FamilyMediaDiet, parents nationwide will be able to plug in amounts of time their families spend texting, browsing online, consuming television and more. They will be able to print a free custom analysis of where their families are spending their time in comparison to their involvement in recreational and faith-based activities along with family time and reading. The campaign is not an anti-technology movement; it is about use awareness and being intentional about the content.

It is estimated that the 20 million tweens in this country spend 25 hours a week watching television and playing video games and only one hour in church. George Barna (The Barna Group), a pioneer in research on Christian culture, recently said kids spend more time absorbing media than anything else in their lives, except sleeping. A recent article in The New York Times titled “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction” also discussed the effects of technology compared to focusing and learning.

“We as parents must be deliberate about what media our kids consume, understanding that it is forming the way our kids look at everything–self-image, friends, parents, leaders, themselves,” remarks iShine founder and Chief Creative Officer Robert Beeson. “If we as parents aren’t actively forming the person our kid’s are becoming–make no mistake–someone else is.”

iShine, known for bringing family-friendly media options through tours, music, television and radio, is sponsoring the free Media Diet Calculator. The organization also will be releasing a new interactive Bible for tweens with Tyndale House Publishers in February 2011.