cars and TVs

Back when I was young, American life revolved around the TV and the car!

I used to watch a lot of TV and wanted to one drive a car (especially that green lowrider you saw on Ice Cube's "Today Was a Good Day")

Well, I still don't have a car, and for TV............... my TV can go weeks without being turned on. My entertainment is all from the stereo or a computer.

And i'm not even alone on those trends. 

http://www.mercurynews.com/family-relationships/ci_20375950/young-americans-less-likely-drive

Driving is becoming so last century.

Since the end of World War II, getting a driver's license has been a rite of passage for teens, but that's less and less the case. The share of people in their teens, 20s and 30s with driver's licenses has dropped significantly over the past three decades, not only in the United States, but also in some other wealthy nations with a high proportion of Internet users, transportation researchers have found.

One possible explanation: Virtual contact through the Internet and other electronic means is reducing the need for face-to-face visits among young people, researchers say.
From 1983 to 2008, the share of 16- to 39-year-olds with driver's licenses declined markedly, with the greatest decreases among drivers in their late teens and early 20s, according to a study at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in Ann Arbor. About 69 percent of 17-year-olds had a driver's license in 1983. By 2008, that had dropped to 50 percent. Among Americans ages 20 to 24 in 1983, nearly 92 percent had driver's licenses. Twenty-five years later, it was 82 percent.

and

 There are likely several factors behind the trend: a difficult economy for young workers, the high cost of buying and maintaining a car and a migration of young adults toward large cities, where there are more alternatives to driving, Sivak said. There also is evidence that social networking may be reducing the need for face-to-face contacts, he said.

Look what I highlighted in green. That means suburban life has also lost its appeal to young adults. 

And another comment in the article

  "I am tall enough and look old enough to pass as old enough for most practical purposes, and I have a passport for all other purposes," he said. "As for transportation in general ... I have no hesitations with walking and using public transit: BART, and buses where BART doesn't reach."

And look what I highlighted in green.  Walking and mass transit has gained appeal to young adults.  That's how I roll!



However, if I become a billionaire, I might still green lowrider that I've always been dreaming about! 

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Now for the TV's

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/07/zero-tv-homes/2061127/

Some people have had it with TV. They've had enough of the 100-plus channel universe. They don't like timing their lives around network show schedules. They're tired of $100-plus monthly bills.

A growing number of them have stopped paying for cable and satellite TV service, and don't even use an antenna to get free signals over the air. These people are watching shows and movies on the Internet, sometimes via cellphone connections. Last month, the Nielsen Co. started labeling people in this group "Zero TV" households, because they fall outside the traditional definition of a TV home. There are 5 million of these residences in the U.S., up from 2 million in 2007.

and

Nielsen's study suggests that this new group may have left traditional TV for good. While three-quarters actually have a physical TV set, only 18 percent are interested in hooking it up through a traditional pay TV subscription.

Zero TVers tend to be younger, single and without children. Turrill says part of the new monitoring regime is meant to help determine whether they'll change their behavior over time. "As these homes change life stage, what will happen to them?"

Cynthia Phelps, a 43-year-old maker of mental health apps in San Antonio, Texas, says there's nothing that will bring her back to traditional TV. She's watched TV in the past, of course, but for most of the last 10 years she's done without it.

She finds a lot of programs online to watch on her laptop for free — like the TED talks educational series — and every few months she gets together with friends to watch older TV shows on DVD, usually "something totally geeky," like NBC's Chuck.

As for me, I still have the same TV set I had from my teen years.

But I rarely ever use it! I don't have time! Why schedule 30 minutes to 2 hours to watch some TV show?  I have other things to do. If something funny or interesting happened, I can just view view some clips of it on YouTube whenever I feel like it!


I'm much more of a music fan than a TV/film fan . TV shows are 30-60 minutes long. Films are about 2 hours long! When do I have time in my schedule to accommodate that?

Songs are just about 5 minutes long!

And a series of songs don't have to fit a 30-60 minute format!

Music is a much more time efficient form of entertainment for me!