December 14th, 2005 - TV habits
Facts and Figures about our TV habits (PDF) is a list of, you guessed it! Some highlights
* Amount of television that the average American watches per day: over 4 hours
* Time spent daily with screen media for U.S. children age six and under: about 2 hours
* Percentage of parents who say that if they have something important to do, it is likely that they will use the TV to occupy their child: 45
* Time per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5 minutes
* Percentage of 4-6 year-olds who, when asked, would rather watch TV than spend time with their fathers: 54
I think I’ll stop. Thats 4 out of the first 10 already! Wait, one more: Average number of hours per week that American one year-old children watch television: 6.
Boy, Maggie sure is below average. Well, technically, the tv might be on about 30 minutes a day while she’s in the room, but she doesn’t actually watch it. Does that count? (Eric watches The Daily Show usually while she’s up. It’s 30 minutes but we’ve TIVOed it, so no commercials, which is only 20 mins per day.) That’s still below average. WOOHOOO!!!
One more stat: Age by which children can develop brand loyalty: 2. I’d heard this one somewhere else recently, because I commented to Eric that Maggie will be lucky to recognize two brands at age 2: Winnie the Pooh and the Eagles. We don’t have a problem with the latter one. And the former is only because she has a number of items with the characters on them and so do I (I have maybe 3 clothing items and she might have 3 such toys, not much really).
You know, she might recognize two others–the only places we eat out at are Fazoli’s and Culver’s so she might recognize those as well. I don’t know if these count, and the Eagles might not either. Anyway, since even when she does see the TV she doesn’t see ads I really hope she doesn’t recognize any brands in another year. That would be awesome! (We also tend to avoid them in her toys and clothes. We see no need for them and other stuff is usually cheaper and better made anyway.)
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