Neil Postman's Body Lies A-Moulderin' in the Grave
This is the kind of news that'll get certain watchdogs squriming in their seats. (Which are located outdoors, thank you very much.)
In 2000, Americans spent 3,333 hours consuming media — and most of that time (1,467 hours) was spent in front of the TV, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media-oriented money management company that supplied much of the media data used in the report.
Next year, Americans will spend 3,518 hours with their beloved media, including 1,555 in front of the TV, says Veronis Suhler Stevenson. That means the average American will spend roughly 146 days, or five months, consuming media.
As the experts Janet Kornblum quotes point out, much of this media immersion comes from people soaking in news and information. Four years back, Jesse Walker noticed that television was making people smarter.
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3,333? 1,555? Have the cylons already taken over?
Ever notice how much happier people who watch a lot of TV are than those who don't?
My theory: those who eschew TV don't know what products to buy so they'll be happy, because they aren't able to see as many advertisements.
I was never good on the whole use of vague quantifiers in a sentence. Can less than 50% of the total still qualify as "most of the time"?
Pfffff Wussies! That works out to only 4 hours of tube a day. No wonder I know so much more than everybody else.
While we're at it, cro-magnons spent far too much staring at the fire and drawing violent cave paintings. They also ate too much meat.
Ten hours of EVERY day consuming media? That seems physically impossible. What about an average of six days at work? Oh wait. That leaves eight hours for sleeping, eating, and the rest. So I guess that's all we do. Basic necessities of life, work, and media consumption. Good enough for me.
Mr. Majsterski:
Don't know about your job, but at mine, you can pretty much double count "Hours at work" as "Hours spent consuming media".
Unless 1467 is more than half of 3,333, then television is not making Dave Weigel smarter.
I guess they don't teach the Chicago Manual of Style at Evanston any more. Ironic, no?