Brain drain.

Age at which Mozart composed his first symphony             9 YEARS
Cumulative time the average American will have spent
  watching TV, by the age of 65                             9 YEARS
Percentage of Americans who can name three Supreme
  Court Justices                                           17
Percentage of Americans who can name The Three Stooges     59
Hours per year the average American youth spends in
  school                                                  900
Hours per year the average American youth watches TV    1,500
Number of people in the world who had a conventional
  telephone line in 2002                                    1.10 BILLION
Number who had a cell phone by then                         1.14 BILLION
Percentage of his or her "media time" spent on TV or
  radio by the average American, age 12 to 64              77
Percentage of his media time spent on TV or radio by
  the average American boy, age 12 to 17                   62
Percentage of his or her media time the average
  American (age 12 to 64) spends on electronic media
  (TV, radio, Internet, and video games)                   93
Percentage he or she spends on print media (newspapers
  and magazines)                                            7

SOURCES: Time watching TV: A.C. Nielson Co.; Percentages of time spent
on various media: Knowledge Networks/SRI Multi-Media Mentor, 2003; Hours
in school vs. watching TV: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Conventional
vs. cell phone access: Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2004.

Visit www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/mos/ to view other archived Matters of Scale.