Americans are spending an increasing amount of time-consuming media. The variety ranges from TV, radio, Internet, newspapers and magazine. According to the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007 half of our lives will be spent consuming some form of media.
In the US adults and teens will spend close to five months in 2007 watching TV, surfing the net or using some other form of media. The total number of hours spent will be around 3,518.
The report says,” “People will spend 65 days in front of the TV, 41 days listening to radio and a little over a week on the Internet in 2007. Adults will spend about a week reading a daily newspaper and teens and adults will spend another week listening to recorded music.”
The data means that Americans on average will spend 10 hours a day next year watching TV, surfing the Internet, reading books, newspapers, magazines and listening to music. James Rutherfurd of Veronis Suhler Stevenson explained it this way. “One of the things to realize about that number is that it is not 10 consecutive hours a day, there are several of these hours spent in tandem. If you drive to work, you drive listening to a radio and drive by a billboard and you consume two media. You might be sitting at home, listening to music, watching television, flipping through a magazine, and you might even surf the Internet with music or TV on in the background.”
The time spent in each media category vary. Americans broadcast television viewing dropped from 793 hours a year in 2000 to 679 hours in 2005. Internet usage increased from 104 hours a year in 2000 to 183 hours in 2005.
Consumer spending for media next year is projected to be $936.75 per US citizen.
For 2005 the report found that 97 million Internet users searched for news online. 92 million made purchases online while 91 million made travel arrangements online. Around 16 million used social networking sites and 13 million started blogs.
Mike is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
