Media occupies half of Americans' lives, data from Census shows
Toolbox
By BOB DART Cox News Service - Published: December 15, 2006
WASHINGTON — Next year, Americans will spend 65 days watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio and about a week each surfing the Internet, reading a newspaper and listening to recorded music.
That's nearly half of our year, including the time spent sleeping. Of the 8,760 total hours next year, 3,518 hours — almost five months — will be occupied by media, according to the Census Bureau's "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007," a massive assemblage of Americana being released today.
"The Statistical Abstract is a collaborative effort that showcases our government statistics and the work of the international community, private industry and nonprofit agency researchers," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.
With more than 1,400 tables and charts of facts about the United States, the Abstract paints a by-the-numbers portrait of an ever-changing nation.
Next year's total of 3,518 hours spent with the media is an increase of nearly 200 hours — more than eight days — over the 3,333 hours each American spent on these activities in 2000. But it's 37 hours — a day and a half — less than they are projected to spend in 2009. The figures apply to adults and teen-agers, but not younger children.
What does all this time spent with media mean for society?
By spending so much time with the media, Americans have less time for families, friends, hobbies, travel or other parts of traditional lives, said Wayne Fields, director of American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
"What people used to rely on people they love for, and get face to face, maybe they get that electronically now," he said. "This is a brave new world and we don't know what the consequences will be on a mass scale."
"What seems to be happening is that a kind of fragmentation takes place," said Fields. "People get information from sources they don't really know. They go to chat rooms and spill personal and confidential stuff. It's a confusing time as to what is a personal relationship and what is an impersonal one."
Certainly Americans are putting their money where their minds are occupied.
Spending on media will total $966.75 per person next year, up from $606.31 in 2000, and is projected to increase to $1,023.69 in 2009. Media consumers are spending less on newspapers, while their spending on the Internet will have nearly tripled between 2000 and 2007, according to the Abstract.
When purchasing recorded music, nearly 70 percent of the expenditures went to record stores in 1990 and virtually none to the Internet or for digital downloads. By 2005, less than 40 percent went to record stores and more than 8 percent to Internet purchases and 6 percent to digital downloads.
But even in an Internet era, Americans will spend about $55.5 billion next year to buy about 3.2 billion books — nearly $6 billion more than on the nearly 3 billion books purchased in 2004. There was no data on how many of these books were actually read.
The number of cell phone subscribers has gone from 5.3 million in 1990 to nearly 208 million in 2005.
But in this same period, the average monthly cell phone bill has fallen from $80.90 to $49.98.
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