Is Austin different in this way, TV viewing? (Roma, West: work, house)

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

I just read an article in Consumer Reports concerning repair rates on TV's, but one thing that struck me was the average household's TV is on for 8 hours a day. I respect their magazine, and have to assume that number has some diligence behind it, but I can't imagine Austin is that way. Please say "it ain't so Joe!"

For us, our TV is on about 1.5 hours a day on average. We have ONE, and only ONE television in the house. OK, we have another in the guest room, but to be honest, no one comes to visit us.

Demographics really matter here so... We are two parents in our 40's, and two girls, 7 and 8. Both of us have B.A. degrees, and the girls will be going to college, even if it kills them. I work, the spouse is a SAHM working on a teaching certificate, but she doesn't have much interest in daytime TV, so the radio or music will play vs. TV.

Anyways, just curious because I think the more TV programs families watch is directly related to lack of quality distractions from the hypnotic boob tube!

[achtungpv]

We watch Lost and the wife watches Grey's Anatomy also. We watch 2 movies from Netflix per week...but both on a single weekend night. Our 16 month old doesn't watch at all - we don't turn on the TV while she's awake.

We may add an extra hour or two a week depending on if we DVR'd something in particular but that's pretty rare.

So that's 0.85 to 1.14 hours per day for us generally.

I will say though we obsessed over 24 this fall and we watched 4 episodes a night until we finished all 6 season straight. Whew!

[sidewiththeseeds]

Originally Posted by FromCalitoSteinerRanch

OK, we have another in the guest room, but to be honest, no one comes to visit us.

Maybe you should turn on the TV.


(Sorry. I don't know what came over me. I have nothing to contribute here.)

[AustinGuy]

I doubt Austin is any different from the average. The guy I bought my house from had 7 tvs including one mounted outside on the back porch.

[S6Sputnik]

No TV, haven't had one since we moved here three years ago. We love the peace and the kids don't miss it either ...and I advertise on some of the popular shows too...

[readymade]

I don't really get all the hate for TV. Like, you're somehow lower class or less intelligent for watching it. If I read nothing but Danielle Steele & Stephen King all day but never watch TV... does that make me smarter than the guy next door who watches "Dexter", "Lost", & documentaries but rarely reads?

I think you need to first figure out what people are watching before making any judgements. 8 hours/day does sound excessive, but for all you know it's 3 hours of "FitTV" (while they excercise), 2 hours of the Discovery Channel, and 3 hours of documentaries. They might be the most fit and educated people in the world!

[love roses]

Readymade...I love your answer 8 Hours a day seems really excessive though and we don't watch that much tv. But we do watch a few hours in the morning before we go do whatever we're doing for the day, and watch several hours at night. My neighbors kids, who watch virtually no television pretty much stay glued to the tv when they come to my house so their mom always turns my tv's off when they come over now. I'm not quite sure what to think about that, other than that she's pretty brave to do that at someone else's house, but I never say anything because in the grand scheme of things I guess there are worse things that could happen

[S6Sputnik]

Originally Posted by readymade

I don't really get all the hate for TV. Like, you're somehow lower class or less intelligent for watching it. If I read nothing but Danielle Steele & Stephen King all day but never watch TV... does that make me smarter than the guy next door who watches "Dexter", "Lost", & documentaries but rarely reads?

We don't hate TV, we just noticed that once the TV was off we DID things! Our children (1-6 at the time) now 4 and 10 were doing other things like reading, building with LEGO's so instead of sitting on our rears for hours watching shows about stuff that has little or no relevance to us or our lives we just left it off! At this point there is no amount of money you could pay me to turn it back on! That does not mean that I HATE TV . I do hate what it does to people it makes them big, fat, lazy and gives people a strange sense of entitlement to the things they see on TV. And the wonderful folk that appear on TV (between rehab) are for the most part not worth my time.

It is like the Roman Circus!

[AGA]

I watch ALOT of TV. Too much I admit, but I was somewhat relieved to see that the shows I watch/watched were on the list of TV's most intelligent shows!
For example:
West Wing, House, CSI(all versions) and the list goes on...I found it on yahoo just in the last day or two..Interesting stuff.
BTW, there is a list of dumbest tv shows, too.

It is interesting to see what made the lists and why
A

[Willy99]

My girlfriend and I are both 20-somethings and we have a TV in the living room that is used only for DVDs and video games (Super Nintendo, 360). We have another TV in our bedroom equipped with rabbit ears to pick up a few local channels that we watch on occasion. I'd say an average of maybe 2 hours a day, mainly at night before bed. Honestly, paying 50 bucks and up a month for cable just isn't worth it for us.