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Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Dr. Schor from Harvard University wrote the book The Overspent American which provides some marvelous insights on television watching. She conducted a large-scale study of American spending and saving habits and correlated the results with other lifestyle factors.
She concluded that for every hour of television a person watches per week, the average American spends $200. Sitting in front of the television five extra hours a week (two sitcoms a night) raises your yearly spending by about $1000.
Indebtedness as an outgrowth of TV watching arises not so much from viewers repeated exposure to advertising, but from their attempts to emulate the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by fictional characters in soap operas and prime-time television dramas. The more television people watch the more they tend to believe that ordinary citizens have servants, limousines, and huge houses.
TV will show 24 year old waitresses with expansive lofts and exotic sports cars, not ratty one-room apartments and battered Geo Metros. In addition, folks who watch a lot of TV are more willing to go into debt in pursuit of what they believe is an accurate depiction of normal life. Consumers rack up heavy credit-card debt chasing the televised fantasy or in academic jargon "engage in competitive consumption for the purpose of image management."
Contrary to popular conceptions, Dr. Schor found a positive correlation with higher education and indebtedness. The further people have climbed up the educations ladder, the less likely the are to save money.
The heaviest shoppers are women with graduate degrees, which may be attributed to their heightened awareness of the trappings of social status.
Those most likely to live within their means and save money are the millionaires next door, folks with less formal education who have worked hard building their own businesses. Not surprisingly, the more successful people are with their own businesses the less time they have for watching TV.
Kids are by far the most voracious viewers, A report in a recent JAMA claims that children in the US watch 15,000 to 18,000 hours of television between he ages of 2 and 17 as compared to 12,000 hours of school.
Many medical studies have correlated excessive TV viewing with childhood obesity and adult depression. Certain crime statistics also correlate well with the market penetration of television, larceny and burglary both increased as a corresponding rate following TV's rise in popularity in the 1950s.
Stereophile October 1998 43.
COMMENT: We have to seriously restrict our TV viewing if we want are to ever have any hope of recapturing time for relationships and the important items of life
from Mercola.com
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Heh, good thing I don't have a TV.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Maybe we should get these kids going to school at 2. Did anyone notice in the statistics that the calculation on TV watching 5 years before they start school in order to bias the numbers? And if these factiods are correct, where are these 2 year olds getting $4600 to spend? 1200hrs/52 weeks per year is 23 hours per week so they must be spending $4600.
And BTW Ryan, Shor is not at Harvard. She is at Boston College, having been dumped by Harvard when they cleaned their faculty up to get rid of token incompetents.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I've heard of this study before and it makes sense. The trendy apartments and designer clothes (of course different in every episode). The worst is Sex and the City. At least on Friends they don't shop all the time. How can a journalist have $80,000 worth of shoes? And of course, tons of women want to be Carrie Bradshaw.
Luckily I'm working when all these shows are one. I watch stuff like Springer and the news.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I refuse to get cable. I think TV in general rots the brain.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I hardly ever watch TV other than news channels. I read and surf the net when I'm at home, which is usually pretty rare when it's warm out and the kiddo's not around (god damned weather). There are a couple of shows I like to watch but I consistantly miss them damn near every week.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Quote:
Originally Posted by RYAN link=board=9;threadid=6322;start=msg69245#msg69245 date=1075692141
Dr. Schor from Harvard University wrote the book ...
Harvard? Wait, Ryan bud, I thought you didn't like what people from Harvard wrote. I got that impression from this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by RYAN link=board=5;threadid=5747;start=msg62280#msg62280 date=1073874701
Your so called scientific study probably wasn't all that scientific.
Which was in response to a comment that I'd tossed onto the board that came from a *ahem* Harvard study on long-term nutritional results.
*****
But I don't watch TV much, either. We do have a wide-screen high-definition number that we mostly use for DVD movies. (No debt attached.)
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
What about watching the TV in the strip club? This has been shown to put customers in even more debt ;D
But seriously, as someone who has worked in the TV industry for many years, it is both a mirror and creator of societal norms. Besides, with the new 300 channel digital cable boxes, there is lots of stuff on to watch (very little of it any good, but like some of the dancers I know, very nice to look at but very little in the way of intellectual content.)
Media have always shown us what to aspire to. Just because there is a statistical correlation between two independent.
events doesn't necessarily mean there is a causal relationship.
And can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? :boggled:
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I agree, TV is evil. One exception.....I watch all NFL games. Can't help it. Along with the DVD movies from time to time. I have it on for noise, but read most the time...how strange.
Pamela
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I'm a big movie watcher but not a big TV watcher: no cable, no antenna, no access, no need - I don't own a video game console either as I'd get nothing done.
What I noticed working in an office environment was that other people had a habit of insinuating that you weren't living up to what others perceived should be your material show of status if you didn't aspire to the affluence shown in the media. None of this had ever occurred to me because I'd always been a classic, tailored dresser but apparently my designers (not trend du jour) were all off. Whatever, right? I can tell the difference between designer A & B but I know what works on my body. Almost everyone I used to work with had to declare bankruptcy by 30 or so, too!
Now where do people get these ideas? I was actually raised with (some) money so my idea of class had been restraint in style not trendy materialism! Something well made and classic, y'know; like something that would endure and could be considered tasteful far into the future because it suited you maybe mixed with an *of the moment* accessory. That along with nice skin, teeth, hair... personal grooming things. Splashing flash around was considered tacky. I know... things change...
The media's version of affluence is conspicuous consumption to the point of slavery! I mean, that is where overspending gets you, isn't it? You can never take time off or time for yourself or any endeavor for the self when you are in debt to your possessions or lifestyle.
Ryan, I don't know about the TV study, per se, but I've always personally seen the US as a classist society created by perceived consumerism which of course has to be driven from some outside inspiring influence or one wouldn't know what that expectation was. If you can convince the lower to middle classes that they need enough things to aspire to the upper classes and create an external sense of self because of it than you can keep them down by either creating a huge debt load or a huge lifestyle obligation load, whatever that entails to get there! I equate that with slavery. Credit is a form of slavery for most people. It is a tool only in the hands of a very few.
And as for the the reference in the study to people with a certain amount of education, blah blah; well, most people with an "education" are better at job interviews, narrow specialties and party conversation. They are not necessarily "educated" because they've been awarded a piece of paper. Most colleges and universities have ceased education in the classical sense (you know, more than a cursory attempt at being "well-rounded" among other things).
(and I know this is going to sound bad to some people but I'll apologize for the wording in advance if not the content as I am having a beer drinking night which makes me less than my usually erudite and restrained self)
~V~
(our lady of the parenthetical nightmare)
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Isn't this sort of an odd topic to have shared in Hustle Hut?
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I like Pamela's quote.
"I watch ony NFL games"
Pam, if you watch only NFL games, then you had to be impressed with Janet Jackson's "unintentional" brease exhibition! ;) Stripping should be left to professionals!
Sorry. I had to. You can hit me now Pamela. :twak:
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Quote:
Originally Posted by MeganS link=board=9;threadid=6322;start=msg69724#msg69724 date=1075822307
Isn't this sort of an odd topic to have shared in Hustle Hut?
I thought that too when I came back to look here and realized it was in this section. ::)
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
too much TV may be a sign of escapism....which can contribute to/indicate debt.
but sometimes, when time permits, i enjoy a show. it allows my brain to relax. it's great for background distraction when cleaning the house.
some programs can be considered valid forms of art (and the Simpson's is excellent satire).
everything in moderation...
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I don't own a TV either...IMO it just sucks your brain right out of your head.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I've noticed that my freinds who do have televisions talk a lot about tv. Not just my freinds, everybody. Somebody will say something and somebody will crack a joke about a TV show, and everyone will get it (except me).
I think it's sad that I don't have a TV but I know the characters/basic plot of popular shows like Freinds, Sex in the City, Gay Eye for the Straight Guy, etc.. What is the world coming to when a good chunk of peoples interactions with eachother are based on television drivel?
Lena
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Lena, I often experience the same thing. People will comment on a tv commercial or show and I have no idea what they are talking about.
I occasionally rent movies to watch, usually ones based on true stories, but I just can't watch the fake ass ridiculous shows and commercials on tv. Even the news it totally glorified and distorted.
I would throw my tevevision out (like I did to my microwave) byt my girlfriend would have a fit, she could not go 1 day without it.
Plus, many children sit glued to the "tube" contributing to lack of activity, lack of fresh-air, and lack of socializing.... All negative as far as I'm concerned.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Personally, I've traded in my meager television watching for full-out stripperweb addiction! There is no more time to watch TV anymore....ahahahahah!!
Besides, SW is actually interactive and far more entertaining...the last thing I tried to watch on tv was The Apprentice, and it sucked ass.....
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Similar studies have been done on the impact of video games and television violence. Honestly, they are all inconclusive. There is no way to pinpoint weather the television is actually to blame because of so many outside influences. Fellow psych students will agree. Advertizing is everywhere. salesmen take classes to improve their techniques. It is almost impossible to draw an inferance about tv being the main cause of over spending. I think it is just the American way.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Ryan i thought you left stripperweb voluntarily? You remind me of an inspiring intellect who forms conclusionary results without full objective research. You have gusto and passion invested in your hypothisis; yet true fruition of adequate facts/results/proof lie beyond your grasp...and your conclusions lack true and complete data... propaganda and easily confused statistics is your specialty...you left out the proportion increse (24%) in food, the increase in video game play, loss of recreational activities in and outside the classroom, processed food consumtion, and wait THE COMPUTER (and you seem to be in fine shape, right?)..in essence your seemingly substantiated facts and banterings are more in accordance with swiss cheese than actuallity...sensational wording backed with loosely parallel factuality gives very little credibility to any of your posts.
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
i know this may seem even more obscure than the original post...all who responded, look at what you wrote...were you overly influenced by the original topic? I watch TV when i want, so do most that i associate with....no shame...think, seriously how were you persuaded to respond by the initial post?
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
I personally couldn't go without TV even tho' I'm on the internet ALOT more than I do watch TV. I have my favourite shows and if I'm working whilst they are on.. the VCR tapes them for me.
I find watching TV is a great way for me to wind down after working. It allows me to escape ESPECIALLY if I've had a not-so-fantastic shift... after watching one of my favourite shows.. I'm not so down anymore.
Besides.. talking about TV shows is great for small talk (starting conversations). It isn't as "deep and heavy" as talking about politics and/or religion... that's why I like to watch TV. It allows me to participate or initiate conversations....
I also stay away from the News and "current affairs" type of programs (ie Today Tonight and A Current Affair here in Australia). The news is too negative (lots of death, etc. not much about the good side of humanity) and current affairs type of programs usually only support one-sided arguments or have fluff "articles"...
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
It makes sense. I mean, how many people would watch a show full of people struggling to survive on minimum wage? I think it's in part the escapist aspect of TV plus the fact that, frankly, a lot of TV execs are just ignorant to the fact of how truly boring and plain the lives of most Americans are.
I almost fell into that Carrie Bradshaw trap, but I've stopped myself by telling myself that yes, that $600 pair of jeweled Blahniks ARE gorgeous, but where the hell am I gonna wear them to? I like being around and looking at pretty things as much as anyone else, but I don't crave the bling as pathologially as so many Americans seem to.
I know I am lucky in that I have my health, people in my life who truly care about me and that I know where my next meal is coming from. For literally billions of people on this earth, they can't even count on one of those things.
Sorry if this depresses anyone, but it's easy to lose perspective with shows like "Fabulous Life Of..." and "It's Good to Be...". As cheesy as it sounds, I really AM thankful for what I have, even if that happens to include 4 pairs of (very practical AND cute, all bought on sale) Blahniks. ;D
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
There are a few successful TV shows with people struggling on low paying jobs, but they are few and far between (i.e. Roseanne).
I'll tell you what though...when I'm around people that are spending wildly, I get into that too. And because we can identify with TV characters and almost feel like friends with them, it happens there too. I have a girlfriend I can't go shopping with because she spends like crazy and I will too. And the same applies for women's magazines...they are evil!
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Re:Watch TV and Go Into Debt
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katrine link=board=9;threadid=6322;start=msg70576#msg70576 date=1076030536
Personally, I've traded in my meager television watching for full-out stripperweb addiction! There is no more time to watch TV anymore....ahahahahah!!
Besides, SW is actually interactive and far more entertaining...the last thing I tried to watch on tv was The Apprentice, and it sucked ass.....
LOL..I agree