151 hours
Neilsen reported last week that the average American watches 151 hours of television a month. We get 720 hours for every 30-day month. If you work full-time, 176 of those hours go to work. If you sleep 8 hours a night, you’ve spent another 240 hours. After sleep, work and television we have 153 hours left for everything else.
Is watching television the third most important thing we do? Probably not. But that’s the lesser question. The greater question: What aren’t we doing with those 151 hours we’re spending consuming television?
Well, at very least every one of us could have a second job. Presuming that job was of the retail variety, that’s an extra $10k annually (post taxes) you could bring home. Of course if you have a professional skill, you could work more at a higher rate. If that was the case then you may only work the 51 hours – still leaving yourself 100 extra hours – and bring home an extra $15k-$30k post-taxes (based on $30/hr – $75/hr).
Say work isn’t your thing. (I did say it was the least you could do.)
You could write books. Learn to play an instrument. Play sports. Teach your kids to fly a kite, yo-yo, ride a bike and throw a boomerang. Garden. Paint. Serve your neighbors, and your neighbors’ neighbors. Maybe you’d be terrible. But I promise you wouldn’t be worse than you are right now, and at least then you’d know.
Instead we’ve deemed it acceptable that everyone would trade all of that activity for the right to pay to consume entertainment.
I don’t have issues with entertainment. Or even passive entertainment. In fact I watched part of an episode of BBC’s Life this morning with my kids. But to think of 21% of my life, or 21% of the life of any of my friends, would go to the soul-dampering consumption of one-directional televised entertainment is sad.
What would you do if I offered you 20% more life? What would I do? I don’t know. I do know that while I don’t watch anywhere near 151 hours of television, I watch enough to know I am missing so much to gain absolutely nothing.
I remember staying with you guys and being a little surprised that you didn’t have some TV service. But, like you say, your kids are more entertaining than cable.
For a time, owning a TiVo had me watching more television. Now, I watch less TV, but it’s on my schedule. I find that I’d rather be doing lots of other things. I watch perhaps 10 hours of TV a week, which makes me wonder who out there is weighting the average back to the mean for the Wonderfam and me.
[Then there are nights like tonight, when I mostly veg'd out and watched TV. I feel guilty, and perhaps I should.]
Comment by Geof F. Morris — March 30, 2010 @ 12:00 am
we have been cable-free for seven years now, and i can’t say i miss it. we do have some dvd’s which we watch very occasionally, and i admit we do download LOST every week. still, compared to most people that’s nothing. i much prefer to sit on the couch and read or draw while watching the boys play the nightly game of “dinosaur”–a game which involves a quilt, some stalking, and a whole lot of loud growling and squealing. sitcoms have nothing on us.
Comment by Jenn G — March 30, 2010 @ 8:19 am
[...] 151 hours It's true: I watch a lot less TV now than I used to watch. I was mad when my SATA DVR extender died, but now I find that I either make time for TV or I don't. I don't need to have more than 20 hours of TV stored up to watch, ever. (tags: gfmorris_comment television) [...]
Pingback by links for 2010-03-30 | GFMorris.com — March 30, 2010 @ 10:30 pm
[...] watches 151 hours of television a month? That is about 5 hours a day! Insane if you ask me. This article talks about what we could be doing with those 151 [...]
Pingback by Articles Worth Reading | The Happy Housewife™ — March 31, 2010 @ 12:06 am
I didn’t have a tv for two years, and people were always shocked to hear it. When I needed to veg, just watched DVDs on my laptop. Now I have tv again and it sucks me in and wastes my life. I watch LOST, Extreme Home Makeover, And Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. And whatever is on before or after these shows, because I don’t have the willpower to turn it off once it’s on. That’s why I didn’t have one before. It saps my strength. Go TV! …
Comment by Meghan — April 3, 2010 @ 4:37 pm
ahhhh no TV, but how much time is spent on the computer?? Is one media outlet taking the place of another, and to what good?? I may not watch as much TV nowadays, but I am on the computer more…
Comment by carol — May 16, 2010 @ 9:01 am