The variable most closely associated with a wide range of positive social feelings was the same variable consistently omitted in studies of media use: time spent in face-to-face communication. Higher levels of face-to-face communication were associated with greater social success, greater feelings of normalcy, more sleep, and fewer friends whom the children’s parents believed were a bad influence. Although we cannot determine causality using this one-wave survey, the results for the clear positive correlates of face-to-face communication and the negative correlates of media multitasking are highly suggestive.

Observations suggest that children and adults are increasingly more willing to use technologies when with other people, such as texting at the dinner table and web surfing while chatting with friends (e.g., Abelson, Ledeen, & Lewis, 2008). Indeed, every category of media use except reading was positively associated with using media while interacting face to face. However, unlike media multitasking, the amount of time spent in face-to-face communication was negatively related to face-to-face multitasking. People who frequently interact with people face to face seem to feel less need to use other media while doing so. This is suggestive evidence that these high face-to-face communicating girls do not want distraction. These results provide more evidence that face-to-face communication and multitasking may attract different profiles of children or may represent participation in different social environments.