Articles

A U.S. picture, by the numbers

By Bob Dart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
December 15, 2006

Washington - Next year, Americans will spend 65 days watching TV, 41 days listening to the radio and about a week each surfing the Internet, reading a newspaper and listening to recorded music.

That's almost half the hours in the year. Of 8,760 total hours in 2007, 3,518 - almost five months - will be occupied by media, according to estimates by the Census Bureau's "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007," a massive assemblage of American facts, figures and trivia being released today.

"The 'Statistical Abstract' is a collaborative effort that showcases our government statistics and the work of the international community, private industry and nonprofit agency researchers," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.

With more than 1,400 tables and charts of facts and projections about the United States, the abstract paints a by-the-numbers portrait of an ever-changing nation.

Next year's estimated total of 3,518 hours per person spent with the media is an increase of nearly 200 hours - more than eight days - over the average of 3,333 hours each American spent on these activities in 2000. But it's 37 hours - a day and a half - less than they are projected to spend in 2009. The figures do not include younger children.

What does all this time spent with media mean for society? That Americans have less time for families, friends, hobbies, travel or other parts of their lives, said Wayne Fields, director of American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

"What people used to rely on people they love for, and get face to face, maybe they get that electronically now," he said. "This is a brave, new world, and we don't know what the consequences will be on a mass scale.

"What seems to be happening is that a kind of fragmentation takes place," said Fields. "People get information from sources they don't really know. They go to chat rooms and spill personal and confidential stuff. It's a confusing time as to what is a personal relationship and what is an impersonal one."

Certainly Americans are putting their money where their minds are occupied.

Spending on media will total $966.75 per person next year, up from $606.31 in 2000, and is projected to increase to $1,023.69 in 2009. Media consumers are spending less on newspapers, while their spending on the Internet will have nearly tripled between 2000 and 2007, according to the abstract.

When purchasing recorded music, American made nearly 70 percent of their expenditures in record stores in 1990 and none on the Internet or for digital downloads. By 2005, less than 40 percent went to record stores and more than 8 percent to Internet purchases and 6 percent to digital downloads.

But even in an Internet era, Americans will spend about $55.5 billion next year to buy about 3.2 billion books - nearly $6 billion more than on the nearly 3 billion books purchased in 2004. There was no data on how many of these books are actually read.

The number of cellphone subscribers has gone from 5.3 million in 1990 to nearly 208 million in 2005. But in this same period, the average monthly cellphone bill has fallen from $80.90 to $49.98.

The abstract looks at facets of American culture beyond the media.

For instance, it reports that in screening 738.6 million passengers in 2005, airport security workers confiscated 9.4 million lighters.

The report does a pretty fair job of documenting grade inflation. Nearly half of college freshmen who enrolled in 2005 had an A average, while only one in five had such good grades in 1970. While nearly four in five of the 1970 freshmen cited "developing a meaningful philosophy of life" as an important objective of attending college, three out of four in 2005 said their primary objective was "being very well off financially."

Still, 56 percent of families with credit cards said they "almost always" pay off the balance when the monthly bill comes in, while 20 percent say they "sometimes" pay it off while 24 percent admit to "hardly ever" paying off the balance.

Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. More information: www.ajc.com.

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