- Americans spend about one-third of their free time, MORE THAN THE NEXT 10 MOST POPULAR LEISURE ACTIVITIES COMBINED, watching television. The average teenager spends more time in front of the television than any other activity besides sleeping.
- Television viewing increases in pre-teen years and declines after age 12. Adolescents aged 9-14 spend over 20 percent of waking hours watching television, compared to 9 percent on hobbies and 3.5 percent on homework.
- The average American teen spends about 20 hours a week watching television, with the heaviest viewers coming from low-income households.
- African-American households, in general, watch more television than other groups in the U.S. African-Americans watch, on average, two more hours of primetime television per week and watch close to five more hours of daytime television per week.
- By age 18, a teenager will have seen 350,000 commercials; 100,000 may be advertisements for beer.
CONSUMING WHILE WE CONSUME MEDIA
While watching TV:
- 31% of kids (ages 8-17) eat or drink while watching in the morning
- 21% of kids eat or drink while watching in the afternoon
- 27% of
kids eat or drink while watching in the evening
- 19% of kids eat or drink while using in the morning
- 2% of kids eat or drink while using in the afternoon
- 4% of kids eat or drink while using in the evening