ABSTRACT
Changes in media environments and children's practices of use, lead to changes in childhood and socialization and in the development of their view of the world as well. The chapter deals with children's media consumption and how it changes over time. It focuses on long-term trends in children's media use and this mainly with a look at function rather than technology. Therefore, it takes the most relevant forms of media use – reading, listening to audio content, watching audio-visual content, gaming, and digital communication – and describes which media children have used in order to realize the respective functions. In addition, against today's backdrop of an increasingly converging media environment, the chapter takes a more holistic view of children's media use and discusses trends in children's cross-media practices. Finally, we discuss consequences of the trends in children's media use with regard to social and political implications.
