Ghost of Midnight

Average U.S. Adult Investing 19% of Life in…

Wow.  This is depressing.  Screen time is on the rise among American adults.  From eMarketer…

That’s about 4.5 hours of TV time for the average adult?  What could we possibly be watching that’s worth 19% of our remaining time on Earth?

And only 2.5 hours on the internet?  Well… full disclosure… I’m way over that amount… as are loads of my peers.  I wonder what the Internet data range looks like… lots of zeros on one end and 8-10 hour/day people on the other perhaps.

And a big jump in brain-cancer-sticks/cell phones… almost an hour/day.  We are a chatty species.  I wonder what percentage of mobile use is inane… compared to other media use?  Maybe it’s similar… but I just don’t have to be aware of what the person next to me in the store is watching on TV or surfing on the Internet.  And why don’t we see landline use in this kind of analysis?  Or books?  No advertising opportunity, I guess, is the short answer… therefore not media?

One more thought… most of this media consumption (despite social media, most of these media hours I’d guess are still primarily passive and consumptive) can occur at many workplaces… mobile, internet, radio, etc.  But not TV.  So, if the average adult is spending 4.5 hours after the workday watching TV… sheesh… no wonder this country is struggling.

A quick cobble of internet-sourced data (here and here) shows how we U.S. adults are spending our remaining days of life…

33% Sleeping
31% Working
19% Watching TV
5% Caring for others
4% Eating
2% Commuting
5% Other stuff… perhaps even including local community involvement

TV is robbing the places where we live of people-hours… of capacity to get things done… of the chance to even get to know each other and live in community.

This is where Front Porch Forum comes in.  We aim to help neighbors connect and get tuned in to local goings on.  FPF seeks a few minutes every day or so of members’ attention to focus on the people and issues right around them.  In doing so, FPF members report feeling more a part of the place they live, more connected… and, eventually, more involved.  I wonder if FPF membership might even help steal some of those 4.5 hours a day away from the cathode ray nipple (LCD nipple?) and return them from whence they came… to our nation’s neighborhoods, clubs, churches, schools, parks, pubs, town halls, polling places, and other gathering spots.