01
Name it
A film, a show, a game, a video, a feed, a song, or a book, in the box at the top of the house.
What we score · A 501(c)(3) nonprofit
What we score.
Films, shows, games, online video, social media, music, and books. The same eight questions for each. Those are the sources a house actually opens.
2,369 titles have a Live Historic Score. We write thousands of new scores a day. A title is scored, or it is next. The number is our judgment of the story. It is not a rating from the state, not a ban, and not a promise that a service still carries it.
The eight questions are ours. A house in 1800 did not print them, and many houses then failed the duties they did preach. Slavery, and a vote closed to most people, were among the failures. We do not borrow the authority of that century. We use a standard a free household can still apply.
The whole day
About ninety-nine percent
People ask for a measure that covers ninety-nine percent of the media that exists. We will not print that percent. The census did not say it, and this page does not invent one. What the last full count does say is on the chart. Press a slice.
Shows, online video, games, and social media are 74% of the measured screen day for ages 13 to 18. A movie at home sits inside Shows or Online video. The survey does not split films from series, so we do not invent that split. Music and books are scored here too. The census folds much of that reading into the remainder, and often counts listening beside the screen. Browsing is the slice we do not score as a title.
1 hr 49 min
a day, on average, for ages 13 to 18.
Television on a set, and television on another screen.
Open ShowsSlice 1 of 6.
Common Sense Census, Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021. Entertainment only. The hours can overlap. The research, and what we will not say.
Open a room
Each room uses the same rule. Log what this house opened. Read the number. Sit with it, or leave it. What you mark stays on this device, so a week can be set next to the country's day.
02
Read the number
The eight measures sit under the number.
03
Keep the night
Four parts, then the set goes off. No streaming password is required.
Eight questions
The standard
A high number means the story can be sat with. It does not mean the evening should run on.
- Work
- Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?
- A home
- Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?
- Piety
- Can conscience actually stop someone, or is reverence only in the shot so it can be mocked?
- Courage
- Does anyone risk something they would miss, or is it only noise?
- Ordered liberty
- Does anyone owe a neighbor, a law, or a town — or is every person out for themselves?
- Temperance
- Is appetite shown and then put down, or are you being trained to want the next one?
- Truth
- Does a promise still hold, and does a lie come with a bill?
- Something left after
- What is left for the people who come after — a place, a craft, a name?