Believe it or not, more Americans value their microwaves over their televisions.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, only 42 percent of Americans polled this year felt that their TV was “a necessity.” That’s down from a high of 64 percent in 2006.
Guess what we value more than TVs — microwave ovens, landline phones, clothes dryers and air-conditioners.
This doesn’t mean, however, that Americans aren’t buying TV sets. On the contrary, more than half of American homes have three or more — yes, three or more — televisions. (Including mine — and I live in a small rental!)
What’s going on is simply that people don’t think of TVs as a status symbol the way it used to be. Instead, folks are more apt to purchase — and value — computers, smartphones and iPads. The TV is less and less important.
I was talking with a girlfriend of mine at the Hawaii Kai dog park the other day and she said she never used to watch TV until two things: DVR and Netflix. Now she’s up-to-date with everything from “Bones” to “Glee.” (Now she’s into “Burn Notice” and “Dexter.”)
Even for me, I don’t watch much TV programming anymore, sticking to “Seinfeld” reruns, “The Colbert Report,” “SportsCenter,” “Top Chef” and whatever’s on the Food Network. I’m not sure I’ll even tune into “Hawaii 5-0” when it premieres on CBS next Thursday.
So is this true, that TV isn’t central to your lives anymore, the way it used to be a few years ago? Or are you still TV addicts?
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Dishers, meet Cat and the rest of the Nonstop Honolulu crew tonight at the Official Launch Party. It’s from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday — that’s tonight, people — at Ka in Ward Center. Free — and yes, there will be food. Or fuud. Come on down!
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To read all of Cat’s blogs, visit www.nonstophonolulu.com/thedailydish. Follow Cat on Twitter @thedailydish or send her an e-mail at [email protected].
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21 Comments
I’m shocked. Not sure if you’re going to watch the Hawaii Five-0 premiere? Oh my. BTW, it’s on Monday, 9/20. For myself, I fall in a different category, as I’ve not had a TV at home for the last 15 years. Nothing meaningful to watch. Except now for the new Hawaii Five-0.
@Ron I’ll watch it. Probably blog about it, too. We’ll see. What I did see of the show looks pretty good. I like the way Scott Caan plays Dano. Seems like he’ll bring some much-needed comic relief to the show.
@Ron I’ll be watching… Grace is puuuurty! 😉
Hello Cat!
I can do without TV, I don’t watch much.
I have to go to my sons mandatory grad meeting tonight. I wish I could make it to the launch party… 🙁
when our last TV, it was a 15yr old tube set 36 inch monolith, finally went south, we started looking for a new flat screen. that was two years ago. we never got one. everything we wanted to watch was available online from one source or another. and the best part? no more compromises. we can sit side by side in bed and she can watch Candice Olsen and i can watch old Dragnet episodes. and plus, plus – when football season rolls around we go out to watch the games.
@turkfontaine Can’t wait NFL from my microwave! 🙂
I think the wording of the poll skewed the response. I’m sure the response to TV being a vital necessity would be different if the wording included : SPORTS. ESPN. Pro and college football. NCAA Road to to the Final Four. NBA, NASCAR, World Series, Ultimate Fighting, etc. When watching sports, only the biggest, 1080 p HD plasma LCD TVs will do. For guys, their whole world revolves around their precious TV when it comes to sports. Anyway, in the near future, TVs and computers / video game consoles will be combined into one set, so the numbers stating regarding necessity will rise
Addicted.
I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my HDTV. I have about 1500 movies and several hundred TV shows on it (on attached external drives) as well. I can control it from my iPhone to play it on the TV. I have it stream to my iPhone (or iPad) as well using Air Video Server and iPhone app. I also use Elgato’s EyeTV-HD to record TV (100 times the storage as DVR) and can have it stream over the iPhone/iPad too.
Again… addicted. 🙂
@MaxMaxMax At first I thought you meant you were addicted to your microwave! LOL!
Anyway, I gotta get that setup… I would never leave my living room!
@Cat @MaxMaxMax I built a PC as a “super DVR” a few years ago that had an extra large hard drive and multiple TV tuner cards so that I could record up to 6 shows at once (not that I ever had to do that, but hey I got carried away with the build OK!). After it had a major meltdown recently I rebuilt it with a simpler setup. I found that I started to get lazy about watching a lot of shows that I recorded and let them pile up, and eventually I would just end up deleting them. I don’t have to record as much nowadays anyway, with the rise of streaming sites like Hulu it’s much easier to catch up on current network TV shows. And of course there are “other sources” to download TV episodes as well, even for shows on channels I don’t have (thank you internets for Entourage and No Reservations in HD)! ;-D
@808marv wrote:
“…but hey I got carried away with the build OK!).”
—–
Haha! You are my brother from another mother! I have the same problem, LOL!
As for streaming media, I just like the comfort of knowing that I have it and it will always be available, etc. I just had the same discussion with a friend the other day who is in love with his Netflix/iPad/iPhone combo with the TV out cable.
@Cat wrote:
“Anyway, I gotta get that setup… I would never leave my living room!”
——
The trick is to have it all streamable to multiple screens in your house as well as iPhone/iPad. Nothing better than catching up on Mad Men or Dexter while waiting for a meeting or a table at a restaurant!
@MaxMaxMax This is A LOT of work. Over my head. I’ll hire someone. 🙂
To me it depends on the definition of TV. Yes, it’s nice to have a big screen, but i have no need to pay for cable anymore. But on the contrary, this weekend was a HUGE weekend for TV viewers, mainly because of the start of the football season.
I’m now addicted to Netflix instant and anything else I can find streaming on the web – i.e. Web Therapy and Hulu content.
@jennalanger I just discovered Web Therapy YESTERDAY!!! No joke… yesterday. Lisa Kudrow just kills it! So funny!
https://www.lstudio.com/web-therapy/
@MaxMaxMax @jennalanger Not only football season — but “Hawaii 5-0” starts next week. Not sure if I’m going to tune in, though. Maybe just the first episode.
Watch TV and Netflix on my computer. Do video calls on QQ and Google chat. As soon as something like iPad can do everything I need the ONLY reason to keep the ‘TV’ will be so my son can play the Wii and XBOX through them.
Even more so! There are more content providers today, not just Oceanic Cable and Blockbuster Video. Have my Nintendo Wii streaming Netflix and my AppleTV streaming web content. There’s a $1 DVD kiosk in every supermarket. And can’t forget about the video games (there’s rental-by-mail services for that now, too). They’re begging us to use our TVs more!
Oh, this poll was of “adults”. Hah. I guess I consider myself a big kid. 😉
I actually watch a lot of television on my computer. With the advent of Hulu and networks streaming new episodes, I can actually watch more shows when I have time as opposed to trying to fit my schedule around the episode’s airing. Although, now that we have Netflix, we do watch a lot of streaming shows and movies on the television thanks to my PS3 streaming disc.
I wish I had a DVR! I think I’d go nuts. Especially if I could combine that with HBO/Showtime. One day…
@HawaiiBookBlog I’m the same way. I’ve downloaded numerous episodes of various TV shows as well as renting movies from iTunes. I’d actually rather NOT watching something on TV (except America’s Best Dance Crew) until the season is over, get the entire season online, and then watch it on my laptop. I think the internet is going to continue to reduce the need of a television for “traditional” viewing purposes. And now Steve Jobs is wanting to offer TV shows for 99 cents…times are definitely changing.