Televisions Now Dominant Life Form In United States
If televisions are plotting to overthrow their human masters and take their rightful place as rulers of the United States, it's time. A Nielsen study shows that there are now more TVs than people in America.
In 2009, there were nearly 115 million TV homes in the US, each averaging 2.86 TV sets, according to a new Nielsen study.
That computes to nearly 329 million TV sets — more than the entire US population, estimated at 307 million by the US Census Bureau.
Some items make sense to have more of than people, like shoes or dinner plates. Others don't. How many TVs can a person watch at the same time? My own household has three people and three TVs, though one is unplugged and in storage. How about you?
MORE TVS THAN HUMANS [NY Post]
(Photo: gbaku)
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There are three TVs in my household as well. I find it's easier to keep an extra television in the house than to carry one around.
When I'm at college, however, I don't watch television.
I counted the TV's in my home. OMG! 2 people, 1 cat, and 4 TVs!!! Gonna have to get rid of one of them.
Leela: "Fry, this isn't TV. It's real life. Can't you tell the difference?"
Fry: "Sure. I just like TV better."
3 in my living room, one in my kitchen because i am hacking it into something and one in my bedroom.
yes, three in my living room. one for the satellite/roku/vcr, one for the sega genesis and atari 2600 [they have to share] and one for the playstation 2.
[www.flickr.com]
I have three TVs, and it's just me. There's one in my bedroom, one in my office, and one in my living room.
@syr2012:
I also find it easier to put TVs in the rooms where I might want to watch TV rather than unplugging and carrying a single TV from room to room.
Though thanks to the new baby, we are technically at TV-to-human parity right now (4 people in the household, 4 TVs), even though the baby doesn't watch TV.
Three. Two are in the bedrooms, rarely used. It's better than throwing them out.
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care:
Single? Dreamcrushers... er, I mean gamer girls are in rare supply around here.
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: [i should mention that two of my tv's were being thrown away and two were from goodwill. i have never purchased a tv brand new]
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: It looks like you're preparing more for the apocalypse than a fun gaming night.
@farcedude:
Have you ever thought about getting a decent sized LCD tv and hooking it up to the computer? Then you can stream netflix to a TV, as well as watch your shows on the TV.
Did this with my new laptop which has HDMI out and made it super easy, as well as with the HTPC I built. Worked pretty well, but it's not everyones cup of tea.
Two here, one in the bedroom and one in the living room.
In CA we had four, one in each bedroom, one in the office, one in the living room.
I have five televisions in my apartment, two of which do not work.
When you buy a tv pay the extra $300 for a good one (like a Sony). I have a bargain TV that I thought would be good enough for the intended purpose. The picture is pretty good, but the speakers SUCK! It has to be turned up all the way to understand what is being said on some shows. I thought about getting one of those soundbar speaker things - but cost of cheap tv + cost of soundbar needed to make it decent = cost of a nice TV that wont need the soundbar. DOH!
Just one TV, which my consoles and media center computer are connected. Technically my "Laptop" is a second TV because I use it to watch movies and Netflix streaming.
Yeah, well, how do we know they're not watching us?
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: That's the way to do it. I've only got 1 TV, but I picked it up as a closeout display model when Walmart was unloading their tube TV's. Technically new, but a good deal nonetheless. Dumpster diving works well too-most of the time people toss a TV, the fuse is blown. 10 minutes and you have a working TV.
@socalrob: Only problem is, I don't really have room for it. I live in a really small house (think 1 bedroom apartment size), and I'm lucky to have enough room to have my desktop set up to watch movies on. But I have thought about it in the past, and have seen it done that way with much success.
@Coles_Law: i look for electronics as dumpster dives the day after gift giving holidays. the big tv in that picture i got off the side of the road dec 26th 2000. [next door to the coffee table i still have in fact]
the volume button is a little sticky and it weighs a ton though.
the little ones to the right of it i got for $7 and $10 respectively at goodwill right after the digital transition.
the tv in the kitchen - i need a new balun for it to hook it to the convertor box because it doesn't... well here:
but someday that old black and white bakelite tv is going to be the monitor for my pong console.
2 people, 1 dog and 2 flatscreen LCDs.
@WraithSama: single, yes, but i bet you there are more gaming girls than you'd expect around you. they just don't leave the house either. i mean, if you just get up ten more levels you could kill that frikken' boss and then you will be halfway through the.........
also, i am reminded of the days when i got into arguments on the diablo blizzard forums about the fact that i was a real female, not just some kid pretending to be one. and it turned nasty and i got called names and no one wanted to go into dungeons with me and there was a bounty out for my ears [in the game]
so i quit letting my gender be known amongst gamers.
1 Person in a 1 bedroom apartment: 2 TVs.
One is a hand-me-down from the sis, and the other i bought for 60 bucks off craigslist.
right now we have as many TVs as people...4. one in my loft bedroom, one in the living room, one in my sister's room and one sitting unplugged on the dining room floor. i think it will be moved to the basement when my mom turns it into a game/workout room
@MostlyHarmless: And 3 computers, 3 monitors, 3 personal music players, 3 external hard drives, a PSP, a PS2, and a Roomba.
For someone otherwise frugal, I sure have perfected the art of accumulating stuff.
Though in my defense, Only the main laptop, one monitor, the slacker radio, and the external drives were bought at full price. The roomba was at 50% discount, other two computers were bought used, the iPod is a 4 year old gift, the PSP was a gift too, and the sansa player was for 10 bucks.
What is even more surprising is that except for two monitors and one desktop which are waiting to be craigslisted, I use everything else for multiple hours over the week.
[I am sure I am forgetting something in the list.]
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: Anyone with those many TVs (none of them new) automatically gets a heart.
I used to have 7 sets (2 60" rear projection, 1 54" rear projection, 1 30" tube set w/ VCR & DVD player built in, 1 22" tube set w/ built in VCR, 1 36" flat screen HDTV that I hook up to my laptop in the bedroom, and 1 15" tube set for the mother to watch in the kitchen or her bedroom). One of the big sets busted and I sold the other when I moved and my soon to be ex took the 54" so I just have the 5 of them now. 1 in the living room, 1 in the bedroom, 1 in mother's room, and one in the basement waiting for hookup to the gaming systems for the kiddies.
I don't even watch TV much anymore; mostly I watch everything online so it's on when I want to see it and have the time to watch uninterrupted (I get up very early in the morning to go to work so I don't stay up much past 8 or 9 at night and miss most shows that I have an interest in).
Four people, one TV, and most importantly, one TiVo.
One person, two TVs... but the one in the bedroom, everything in the upper left quadrant looks sort of greenish, which I assume means it's on it's way out. When it goes I won't replace it.
I for one - OH WAIT, you almost got me you tricky little bastards!
I don't know why but reading about televisions overthrowing us made me think of the following (even thought it is not about us being overthrown by them).
How many of you remember;
"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits."
@morlo: You got it twisted. My husband loves me, so he got me the bedroom flatscreen for my birthday last year.
My dog is 13 and doesn't seem so interested in tv, else we'd have to wrangle up a flatscreen for him too.
@ctaylor: TiVo is key. As noted above, 2 people, 1 dog, 2 flatscreen LCD and 2 HD Tivos (one with an expander, one with a 1.5TB replacement hard drive that holds 200+hrs of HD).
@socalrob: What kind of computer do you have with an HDMI output? I've only found one such computer, a Dell netbook.
One person, one TV.
Growing up, we had five people in a house with two TVs. I never understood (and still don't understand) why a house needs more than one or two TVs.
Remember this from "Back to the Future" where Marty is in good old 1955 having dinner with his parents?
"do you have a television?"
yeah you know, we have two of them.
"wow, you must be rich! no one has two TV's"
he's just pulling your leg, no one has two television sets.
I have four TV's, one 32" LCD, three CRT's, only one of the CRT's get used regularly, and it's the kitchen set. The other two are in spare bedrooms that never get used.
Two people, one dog, two TVs. One computer.
@TCama: There are many videocards out there with HDMI, so any desktop can have it. Also, I've seen many HP laptops with HDMI.
@TedSez:
Leela: "Fry, you're wasting your life sitting in front of that TV. You need to get out and see the world."
Fry: "But this is HDTV. It's got better resolution than the real world."
@pupu:
It think some of the manufactures assume that if you are willing to shell out a ton of money for a TV you're going to do surround sound so they cheap out on the speakers.
@Skaperen: Why do you have to get rid of one? Just because there's more TV than people doesn't mean it's bad? This whole thread is kinda lame because it's not logical. Should you get rid of your house which has two bedrooms if you're a single person? No. You're good with four. If you use 'em regularly, no biggie. Enjoy your TV.
But my computers outnumber my TVs and I have too many of both. The phone numbers will keep them tamed since I have a land line, one cell for each person and then a work blackberry.
Five people, one cat, two televisions as of last week - before that we only had one. And we don't get cable - anything we watch on TV is OTA. However, we also have five computers, which we use to watch TV via Hulu or, you know, whatever source makes them available.
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: We're similar. We have one in the living room with the DVD player and the Wii ... and then two side-by-side in the basement rec room with the Atari Flashback, X-Box, another DVD player, etc. The basement ones are junkers, but they've got nice-sized screens for gaming!
@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care:
Heh, I get out regularly, but it's hard to meet them if they don't meet me halfway, yeah? ;)
And yeah, my ex-wife was a gamer girl and it took a few weeks before the people in her WoW guild really believed she was a girl, even using Ventrilo all that time to talk to them. There were 3 or 4 others in her guild, too, and they were in the same seat until they were all finally accepted. Because, you know, female gamers don't exist.
No "TV's" in this house. I do netflix and watch the movies on my computer, and watch stuff like CSI on the internet. I really don't miss the commercials, the inanity of broadcast news, or the rush to have to be there to catch a show.