People on TV have bigger houses and nicer cars and newer appliances than real people, plus depending on what you watch you see the inside of their houses (you probably don’t see the living room of most people you interact with). That affects what you think of as normal, which affects your consumption habits. The same with the friends you have – if “everybody” has a Lexus, you’re not going to be very happy with a nice new Toyota, much less an old, reliable, sort of dingy one.

I’ll bet you’re right that sports has less of an effect, though (unless it makes you feel bad about your body and go hire a personal trainer.)

A growing collection of websites (hulu.com and many of the network websites like nbc.com, and cbs.com) offer free streaming episodes of tv shows and movies. Typically there will be a single advertiser for each episode, and you usually see the same commercial 3-6 times during the episode.

It’s great for many reasons: we get to watch the shows we want to watch, when we want to watch them. Before we moved to online-only television, we would plop down in front of the tv and watch filler until our favorite shows were on. Or we would stay up later than we wanted to see how they ended. We also endure fewer commercials. Most sites have a few 30-second commercials for the same product. A couple have 1:00 commercials, but still less than the average televised version.

I agree that it’s “cheap” entertainment – and I also think that if a person is easily influenced by the ads they watch, or the lifestyles of the show’s characters, they probably do spend more. But part of being frugal is finding a way to resist the temptations we’re constantly attacked with – whether they come from television, roadside billboards, celebrity endorsements, etc.

Just my $0.02. ;)

http://thisisntbrainscience.wordpress.com

There are plenty of ways to entertain for free (as Stacey shows), but it depends on the person and the situation. I know that when I lived in Boston, there was little chance of going to library or walking outdoors in the wintertime after 5PM (when it gets dark and cold). I’m sure that once or twice or month, we’d use the idea of taking a full hour to eat dinner and talk to a restaurant (it’s more entertaining to eat out than stay in when you’ve been locked in due to the cold and dark outside).

Getting sucked into television shows is a somewhat different discussion that the one presented here. The idea from the study is that by watching 90210, you’ll want to live that lifestyle… not that you’ll lose the opportunity to make more money in elsewhere (which is certainly true for me).

I don’t want to dismiss that discussion, it’s a good and important one to have… just thought it was interesting the influence of watching television.

I didn’t mention it in the story because it occurred to me know, but I think the friends you keep impacts spending more. If they are into the latest fashions, electronics, etc. you may find yourself keeping up them.

Let’s see… my family can go to the library, take a walk outdoors, or take a full hour to eat dinner and talk (all $0). We’ve been television-free for two years now. It was an economic necessity at first, but we never got around to turning the TV back on.

There’s nothing wrong with television – but you’ve got to be aware of the financial, physical and time costs of “cheap entertainment.” I’ve personally found that I would get sucked into shows and waste entirely too much time watching television – it’s just easier to do without.

Watching TV is lot cheaper than some of the other hobbies. Its cheap entertainment. Lot of other alternatives will cost more money.

You reduce the cost if you don’t see the commercials. But companies pay to influence what goes into the shows too. When Apple Computer pays for a product placement, they aren’t doing so to enhance the development of the plot.

They’re out to get us!

Rob

I think, however, it isn’t even necessarily the commercials (although I’m sure that’s a big part). If you’re watching a sit-com, you might see their lovely living rooms, and feel the urge to re-do your living room so it can be lovely. And look how well put together than bedroom is! I need to get a new comforter and lamp stands and definitely need to get some striped wallpaper up…and so it goes.

You’d get along well with my wife. Our TV is constantly on to provide “background noise”.

Yeah, you’re probably more immune to making impulse decisions based on TV, due to personality traits. Many people DO buy a lot of product that are advertised on TV, though. Heck, look at all the advertising money in NASCAR. (This article points out my odd tendency to unconsciously avoid products that my favorite driver endorses -> http://www.observingcasually.com/nascar-and-brand-loyalty/ )

I watch very little TV (other than sports). When Monk and Psych are on, I watch them, but the only “appointment viewing” I have now is “The Office”. I’ve managed to watch anout 20% of the episodes this year, which isn’t bad for me :)

I prefer to actively be doing something. Writing articles, researching topics of interest to me (baseball, murder, etc), reading a book, or listening to my Rockies games. I can multi-task and do a few at once.

FYI – I think you might mean that the average American has $8000 in CC debt, not $800.