Author Topic: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working  (Read 3791 times)

brandino29

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/06/27/heres-how-you-spend-your-days-america-in-10-charts/

I've heard before that the average American watches over 2 hours of TV a day and I've never quite been able to believe it.  What caught my eye here was the chart showing that the average American only works around 4 hours a day but a few charts later you see the average American watches nearly 3 hours of TV per day!  Holy hell.

What's most disappointing to me is that in the first chart, it shows the average person spending around 3-4 hours per day on "leisure" which means that the vast majority of 'leisure time' spent by the average person is watching TV.  What a shame. 

FIRE_HELP!

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2014, 02:45:09 PM »
I would guess the elderly and (early) retirees who don't work skew the averages a bit

We have hit a breaking point - we should get ready because simply raising income taxes higher and higher is not going to solve the problems - get ready for consumption (VAT) and wealth taxes to fill the gap

sobezen

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2014, 03:53:58 PM »
Just imagine how awesome  these individuals could be if they watched less tv and dedicated that time to Mustachian activities! 

Eric

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2014, 05:18:44 PM »
I would guess the elderly and (early) retirees who don't work skew the averages a bit

We have hit a breaking point - we should get ready because simply raising income taxes higher and higher is not going to solve the problems - get ready for consumption (VAT) and wealth taxes to fill the gap

We have hit the breaking point of TV watching, therefore expect new and higher taxes?  That's probably not the conclusion I'd draw, fwiw.

ender

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2014, 05:30:22 PM »
This type of information is nearly meaningless to me without factoring in life situation.

I'd find it far more fascinating to see it broken down by age demographics. Or gender, for that matter, I imagine it'd make men 20-30 range look pathetic (especially if they added video games into the mix).

Emilyngh

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2014, 06:04:08 PM »
An average of 40 min grooming per day?   Whoa, that's a ton of time over a lifetime.   Put down the brushes, America.

wepner

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2014, 08:34:52 PM »
This type of information is nearly meaningless to me without factoring in life situation.

I'd find it far more fascinating to see it broken down by age demographics. Or gender, for that matter, I imagine it'd make men 20-30 range look pathetic (especially if they added video games into the mix).

Nice try.



http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/05/nielsen-gaming-tv-console/

Quote
Females between the ages of 18 and 49 watch more than 151 hours of TV each month on average.
Their male counterparts watch less than 140 hours of TV each month.
Older Americans ages 65 and over watch more than twice as much television as teens, according to new Nielsen data.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/2011/08/blog-women-watching-more-tv-than-men.html
« Last Edit: June 30, 2014, 08:44:44 PM by wepner »

MrsPete

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2014, 08:54:23 PM »
If you generalize this to include all screen-time entertainment (internet, video games, cell phones), I suspect the average American spends more time "tuned in" than he spends at work.

sobezen

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2014, 04:12:08 PM »
Very true!  How many of us check MMM forums while at work or even during breaks?  I'd wager some of us check our finances during work too.

What I'd like to know is more data on the savings rates overlayed on these same age groups. 

Blindsquirrel

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Re: Average American spends same amount of time watching TV as working
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2014, 10:14:02 PM »
 Wow, Me thinks this will not end well in the grand scheme of things.