“No way!” If you are yelling that at the top of the voice in your head, you are not alone. Most of the people who find this think the same way until research data passes them some humility.
Although you may think “the researchers are wrong this time,” it’s always hard to argue with evidence – research data. It didn’t matter what you wore or how much they cost you, when you appeared on TV, you only wear dresses made of just two colors.
In the ‘90s, when I was born, we had TVs but they could only display two colors – black and white.
In the developing country where I lived, the only gadgets you could use for news and other broadcasts were radios and televisions.
Many people could not afford handsets and even if they could, manufacturers were yet to be in the business of producing them to meet the user’s radio and TV needs.
Has TV Lost its Place?
TV sets appeared to have lost their in place the mind of consumers when smartphones came into the picture.
Actually, that’s what it looks like on the surface.
But the 2020 Media Comparisons Study
carried out by GfK, in collaboration with TVB, shows that most American adults spend more time watching TV programs when compared to the time spent on social media, radio programs, and email.
- Aggregate data gathered from this study showed that on a daily basis, most American adults, 18 and above, spend around 5 hours and 17 minutes on TV, 1 hour and 6 minutes on social media and one minute each on radio and emails.
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| Study shows that most American adults, 18+, spend at least 5 hours daily watching television. |
News lovers appeared to be the ones driving up the numbers for TV. Many news lovers have decided to rely more on local TV news channels, following a recent increase in fake news accusations across social media platforms.
- Even local TV news websites and apps are preferred to other media channels: 64 percent of adults, 18 and above would choose local TV news over cable TV and social media.
- Radio (68 percent) and local broadcast TV (75 percent) were the only channels that had more lovers than local TV news.
Why do adults spend so much time watching TV?
Even when sitting for too long to watch TV is not advisable by health professionals, people still ignore the warnings. Here are a few reasons so many of us still love TV.
- TV is cheap and reliable.
- TV helps many of us to unwind at the end of a stressful day.
- Smartphones and laptops still carry a fraction of the ‘work feeling.’ The only thing that keeps most people away from that feeling is TV.
- So many people still love sports. Soccer, for example, will keep you in front of your screen for about 2 hours. (Researchers say this could harm your brain.)
- Childhood may have played an important role. Even old favorites are still loved by many people.
This shows why television still remains a very effective – if not the most effective – advertising medium today.
It is yet to change and may not change in a long time: TV still has an enormous influence on consumers.
Related: How Driving, Watching TV Affects Your Brain