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Okay, get this: the average American spent 1,613 hours watching television in 2007. To completely understand this number we need to break that into days. So let's say the Average American cannot watch T.V. for 10 hours a day - maybe 12, but to be on the conservative side we'll use 10. Why can't they watch T.V. for 10 out of every 24 hours? They have to sleep for eight hours, drive for an hour or so, take a shower, go to the bathroom, and probably take out the trash or walk the dogs. Speaking only for myself, I do not have a T.V. in my shower, car, or driveway. If we agree that the maximum time a person can watch T.V. is 14 hours a day - and that is a stretch - then we can compute how many days Americans watch television. 1,613 hours of T.V. divided by 14 (hour days) equals 115 days of doing nothing else but watching television. Since there are 365 days in a year, that leaves 250 days left to do other things.
The Statistical Abstract of the United States, provided by the U.S. Census is a treasure trove of fascinating information. Television is part of a broader category labeled by the feds "Media Usage." The most recent numbers available are for 2007. In terms of overall media usage which includes such things as movies, videos, magazines and gaming, the Average American spent 3,496 hours per year! If we use the 14 hour per day rule we find that is about 250 entire days per year spent on "media usage". There are only 365 days in a year. Which leaves only 115 days of the year for all other activities such as work (a dirty word apparently), going to the Dentist (an even dirtier word), going to the dog park (don't say that aloud in my house), or making sweet.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a sad state of affairs. Studies show that watching television is directly and proportionately related to overall happiness. In other words, the more T.V. watched, the unhappier we are. The media portrays an unrealistic world where everyone has enough money, nobody goes to the bathroom, get sick, or is unattractive. Compared with that fantasyland our everyday lives full of drudgery, pimples, and regular looking people are awful. Exciting things don't happen to most of us everyday, we don't always get the girl or the guy, and we aren't always perfectly beautiful. This leads to a negative assessment of our ourselves and our lives. Only when we get out and talk to others do we find that by comparison we have it pretty good.
In case you think I'm making this up I am referencing an article published by Roni Caryn Rabin, November 2008 in which she says: "Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers - but they don't spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds. That's what unhappy people do. Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland and the author of the study, which appeared in the journal Social Indicators Research."
Moving on, the Statistical Abstract of the United States also has a list of leisure activities Americans participate in when not watching television, or the other 115 days of the year since nobody seems to be working. One quarter or more of Americans admit to spending some time during the 2007 calendar year Barbecuing (33.9%), Dining out (50.2%), Entertaining friends or relatives at home (40.1%), Going to the Beach (25%), and ... wait for it ... reading books (40.9%). Of the 40.9% who claim to have read books within 2007, 21.7% have actually read books two or more times a week. The least popular leisure activities of Americans, with 4% or fewer participating, are Backgammon, Book Clubs, Chess, Concerts on the radio, Fantasy sport leagues, Kite flying, Furniture refinishing and playing Bingo.
This leads me to several conclusions:
