Holy crap, really?

[johnridley]

Apparently Americans on average spend FIVE HOURS A DAY watching TV?

Wow. I feel kind of guilty about wasting otherwise productive time when I spend more than an hour, though I do that many nights after getting home from work; to watch a new Mythbusters episode or a NatGeo or History show for instance. I've started to be selective even about what documentaries I watch, since so many of them are repetitive (when I start realizing that almost every bit of footage in a history channel special is stuff I've seen before, and I've heard the text before too, it's time to move on). Having to fill 24 hours a day with history leads to repetition, and competing for ratings leads even the best-intentioned networks like History or Discovery to air garbage a significant portion of the time.

Once in a while I'll do a marathon and watch 3 or 4 hours of Red Dwarf or something on the weekend.

Five hours? I think my brain would turn to jello in just a few days of that.

As a friend has said before, people are amazed that I don't know who (name some TV star here) is, but they also wonder where I find the time to learn what I've learned. Folks, spend 5 hours a day trying to learn something. Hell, spend ONE. You'll be "smart" before you know it.

Comments

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

I might spend that much time with the television on... does it count if you're reading and knitting while the television is playing in the background?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Some people on /. mentioned that.

Personally that drives me up the wall. I can't really listen to music while I'm trying to do something either. I do kind of regret that, it really means that I hardly ever listen to music, even though I love to. If I turn music on, within a few minutes I'm just sitting and listening to it. Usually I'm too busy for that.

Also, we don't have televisions anywhere that I'd really be doing anything else, other than maybe reading. The idea of having a TV running while I'm trying to read absolutely boggles my mind.

When I visit my family, they've ALWAYS got a fucking TV running. Honestly, I have to leave the room; they're always watching network TV and it's like having a train wreck going on outside the window; it's horrible but you can't ignore it.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

I also sometimes have the tV in the living room and the radio in the kitchen going. And if I'm doing laundry, I'll put music on upstairs. I don't do it when there are other people in the house, usually. The kids are sometimes watching something, which is when I'll read and knit. I don't usually have a problem reading, watching something on TV and knitting all at the same time...

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

Crap, now I know we're related!

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you've been to my mother's place -- all TV, all the time, and LOUD!! And people wonder why she drives me crazy...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Also, our main TV is a 42" LCD, and it draws about 175 watts. I'm not going to leave something that draws 175 watts running unless someone's actually paying attention to it.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I sometimes like the background noise or music or a DVD, but pretty much never sit down to see what's on, nor do I know what shows air when. The tiny amount of TV I watch is done via netflix/iTunes/Pirate Bay, not broadcast or cable.

K.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I do use background noise when doing something I don't particularly need to concentrate on, but I use audiobooks, either whatever book I'm working on or a TTC lecture series.

It's funny, I haven't had time to worry about updating my MythTV DVR box to handle HD, so even for shows that I get legitimately and the DVR did record, I still go out to Usenet and download a 720p HD version and watch that, then delete the standard def version from the DVR. The DVR is sort of just a backup in case nobody posts an HD copy.