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Read this while watching TV.

I got rid of cable years ago and my TV time went down significantly. I also gave up on TV “news” a few years ago. I just don’t have the time to follow TV stuff anymore.

I seriously hate stats like this. I probably watch between 2-3 hours of television a day, with more on the weekend if you count movies that I get from Netflix.

I run a software company and a horse farm, and to be quite honest once I work my 12-14 hours doing those jobs I am not losing any productive time watching TV. In fact, about the only thing I’m able to manage at that point is watching TV.

It’s a myth that we can work, “get things done”, all the time we aren’t sleeping. One has to have some time spent not getting things done. Some people chose to watch TV. I’m not saying it is best use of that time, but it really isn’t less productive than the alternatives.

Xbox time is another full time job. But at least I ride my recumbent exercise bike for 1-2 hours a night at the same time. :)

As @garyvee puts it: “Stop watching fucking LOST ” -i really like this quote ;)

the average web(designer|programmer|...) reads 4 hours of weblog each day

Who and where are all these people that are having a hard time getting things done? Most people I know are getting plenty done – and also somehow seem to watch some tv.

I’m with Tarus & Scott.

I’m sure your thoughts go deeper than what you wrote in the snippet Matt, but your snippet is full of ambiguous and loaded material. There is no correlation or proof in there to support the hypothesis that average TV watching time by a loosely [geologically] grouped set of people is related to how much “work” they can get done in their lives.

I’d be interested to know the number of hours for the average working American, excluding children and retired seniors.

The average American plays devil’s advocate on blog comments for four hours each day. That’s 28 hours per week. Which is almost like having another full-time job. No wonder it’s so tough for people to get things done. :P

if your not watching something like TLC , TDC, or programs that feed your brain your wasting your time. imho -> get out, get active, hit the gym, stay healthy!

@chrishough

I think maybe the message here is to those of us who say, “I don’t have time to exercise or take a class or read more or write letters or keep the house clean” or whatever—if we’re not finding time, it’s quite possible it’s because we are spending so much time on the couch.

It might not apply to everyone, but it does to me. I am making a concerted effort not to spend so much time watching TV in the evenings during the week. And I am getting more reading, writing, and exercising done.

@tarus, i think to some extent this should be a jab at those who say they cant do things which should be just as relaxing as tv. Such as sleeping or spending time with their kids/spouse , prayer/bible/spirituality etc. Those things should be just as (or more) relaxing than TV news etc. And hopefully more fulfilling too.

Me? I spend my extra hours (when my SO isnt available) reading books about stuff I like (like I’m learning RoR now!) and playing Computer games.

What’s wrong with 28 hours of leisure a week? We work 40 hours a week, aren’t we entitled to enjoy 28 hours any way we’d like?

Im sure i do that much in gaming a week. I dont watch much for tv, except a couple shows on my computer. Which i sometimes do while programming on my laptop.

They should spend more time working instead. Of course then they’ll have to be fired for being workaholics. ;)

To those asking what’s wrong with 28 hours of leisure, you can have 28 hours of TV on the couch, or 28 hours of time with friends, reading books, making things, learning, dancing and stimulating your mind and body.

If you think there’s no difference, then do yourself a favor and experience some of these things.

I like some shows, and I’ll get them on DVD and watch them when I want. But there’s no way I’m giving up 28 hours of my life for TV.

I wish I had 28 hours per week to spend watching TV! I wouldn’t actually watch TV, of course, but I’d love to have that much free time.

Tonight my wife asked me what I wanted for my (38th) birthday Saturday, and I said, “Some more time to myself. Well, some time to myself.”

If they would use half the time for excercising they could compete in an ironman. I did an average of 15 hours per week over the last 9 months for this year challenge.

Matt, something I observe lately ist the following: as soon as someone quotes a statistic, a discussion either ends or the statistics makes the new facts – nobody questions a statistic, right?

Where is this in formation from? Can you provide a source?

Totally agree with Nimski… 28 hours watching TV is, well… Huge ! There are so many other ways to spend leisure time. And even if this time won’t be productive for work, it will be productive for health, or so much more rewarding.

For example, I started to make guitars and basses on my leisure time. I really like that, it led me to learn many things, and maybe one day I’ll do this for a living, who knows? So indirectly, that’s productive. And that’s pretty much the same thing for any active leisure, I think.

I agree with the sentiment of the statement. I gave up TV about 10 years ago and spent 2 of my freed up hours every day working on software projects. Now I’m my own boss making 5x to 10x what I made working for others. Definitely worth it. The only cost is I can’t talk to anyone about what happened on LOST :)

i used to watch 4-5 hours of tv a day, unknowingly. i used to think that i was resting after a hard day’s work. turns out i was just bored. after we got rid of our tv, i started watching my shows on my computer. when they were over, i got up and did something else. it’s amazing how much time there is in the day when you can’t flip thru channels.

@gregor – good question, I Googled around a bit and every reference I could find stated that Americans watch at least 4 hours per day, on average.

And that doesn’t even include gaming. I’m really not sure what is a more pathetic waste of our collective time, TV or gaming. Or surfing SVN ;)

I grew up without a television: major plus. However, I realised a while ago that I spent a huge amount of time reading news (from Rescue Time). Then I realised that reading the news was also a gigantic waste of time. (Great for small talk though).

Now I just ask people what is going on the world to get my news fix, and spend the free time reading books! Sweet I say.

Before I started my own company, I spent ALL my free time building websites, businesses, etc. I couldn’t comprehend my friends who lounged 4+ hours after work each and every day.

Since I quit my ‘real job’ and started running my company full time (4+ years now), I have to watch TV and generally chill out after normal work time. If I don’t I end up working thru the evening and my brain never gets a chance to breathe.

The assertion that TV time is somehow a lesser form of non-working time irks me. The whole point of relaxing is just that, do something that relaxes you and lets your mind take a break. If that’s TV, great. If it’s reading a book, great. It might even be more ‘work’ or work you actually enjoy. Either way, no one non-work activity is better or worse than another as long as you’re relaxing and enjoying it.

I don’t drink, smoke or gamble. TV is my plug-in drug. It relaxes me and is easily available. The content isn’t even that important. It’s the whole laying-there-with-the remote-control experience. Yeah and there’s even something interesting or amusing on sometimes.

Some source data, which includes age breakdowns for those who are interested. The elderly (65+) watch about 7 hours of TV per day.

This might be my favorite footnote: “The panel is primarily comprised of Forced Turnover Households (FTO) from Nielsen’s National TV panel and is therefore not a probability sample or projectable to the total U.S. population.”

Another source says it’s about 2.8 hours a day. Still, that’s a lot of friggin time. I don’t miss my TV at all.

So that is 1456 hours a year.

It takes about 600 hours to become proficient in Italian, French or Spanish. About the same time to learn to play the guitar well.

Matt do you have a source for this?

Also it’s different to say the average American than Americans on average. Any insight on what kind of person the average American is?