A week ago I posted about my movie watching habits, and guessed that the typical person watch about 10+ hours of television per week. My guess, at least as far as the USA goes, was much too conservative. According to a CNN report I just watched, the typical American watch 8 hours of combined television per day. That is 57 hours of television per week! I wonder how South Africans would compare?So can we assume that the typical American is unhappy? Well according to this article, sent to me buy a friend, people that watch less TV are happier than people that watch more TV.
The photo is a Creative Commons image by Aaron Escobar - Flickr.
Ek hou van die foto.
ReplyDelete8 hours per day ?!!! Where do they get time for all that?!! When do they actually live?!
ReplyDeleteI guess that is "living" for them.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who has 8 hours to spend on tv. If a person sleeps 8 hours a night and are awake for 16, then they are spending 1/2 of their waking hours watching tv? No way that is an accurate "average". That sounds more like an extreme to me.
ReplyDeleteMany American children spend that many hours in front of the television in one day. Many US children are on anti-depressants. Those and other psych medications (like Ritalin) are a major industry that is aimed at children. Maybe one cure for that would be to shut off the idiot box and have the kids go outside and play.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, this problem probably isn't unique to the US. I've seen the same thing in some of the kids in my family and I suspect that, although this study focused on the US, other 'developed' nations are just as bad.
ReplyDeleteAdam's response got me thinking about how I understood the CNN report - I'm certain I heard "more than 8 hours of TV".
ReplyDeleteSo I returned to the "CNN: Now in the News" video podcast of Nov 25 to listen carefully to what they say. I'm sorry, but I did not listen well. As Adam suspected, the report is phrased in such a way to be most sensational. In any case, it is the typical "American household" (rather than typical American), that watches more than eight hours of combined TV per day. The report also mentions that the "typical American gets less than seven hours of sleep per night".
Yes that is the interesting part about a study. Researchers study a certain group with certain interests, and aim, so the results suites the aim. ( makes sense?) probably it will make sense if you had hands on with postgraduate studies like myself and Sanko:-)
ReplyDeleteThis is very important when you read the research don't believe everything they say, be very critical and challenge the ideas inreturn with a research as well. ( Then you will make more money) Lol:-)
True. They do use biased ways to get data and use language in the right way to persuade people. I haven't gotten into graduate studies, but that's something I know I want to do in the next year or two.
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