The Shocking Truth About Our TV Viewing Habits

Do you realize how much TV you are watching every single day? The Nielsen Company has done some research and they report that an average person in the United States watches the equivalent of nearly 5 hours of TV per day. It is just an average so you may not watch nearly as much as that, but people all over the country are watching that much and more in order for it to average out to that, which is shocking.

Watching TV used to be a family activity as televisions used to be expensive and extremely bulky, but since the launch of LCD TVs then suddenly TVs have appeared in most rooms of the house and that has helped to drive up viewing figures dramatically. Now kids can watch whatever they want in their bedrooms, for as long as they want, because they are out of the prying eyes of their parents. Meanwhile the main TVs in the house are getting bigger and bigger, a 32 inch LCD TV is no longer good enough, or even a 42 inch TV, now people want 55 and even 60 inch TVs to watch their favorite shows on.

Unfortunately if you watch a lot of TV then that is stopping you from doing things which will get you active and help you to burn calories. People also like to eat while they watch TV, so I think our viewing habits are a big cause for the rise in obesity that we are seeing right now. But what kind of interesting things can you do instead of watching your favorite shows?

One of the best things you can do which will be a lot of fun is to try out a new hobby. There are literally thousands of different hobbies that you might want to try out and while not all of them will actually get you up and being physically active, then a lot of them do. However even something like stamp collecting will be more rewarding than watching endless repeats of Friends on TV. A lot of people right now will be using the excuse that they don't have enough time to take up a new hobby and get any good at it, but if you have enough time to watch 5 hours of TV per day then you have enough free time for this. That would give you time to do pretty much anything, you could learn a foreign language easily with that sort of commitment, or you could start to play the guitar etc.

Or another option would be to go back to school. If you want to get a better or even just a different job then with all the extra time you'd have from not watching TV you could take night classes in something to get new qualifications. If you don't think you'll have the energy to do that then instead you can actually study at home with distance learning now. You can see it is quite easy to find interesting things to do if you take a few minutes to search online for hobbies or courses that you want to know more about, and yes you will still have plenty of time to watch your favorite shows even if you do take my advice!