According to a recent survey of college students across the United States, students are spending less time studying, reading or frolicking in the sunny weather, and more time on the couch in front of the boob tube.
Nielsen Media Center, a leading provider of television audience measurement and related services, found that college students watch an average of three hours and 41 minutes of television every day.
But according to Terryn Giampietro ’05, the president of the HAM Channel, these numbers are high in comparison to the average Fairfield University student.
“I feel that most students watch about two hours of television a night,” Giampietro said. “Saturday and Sunday are probably when people watch the most, because it’s a great procrastination tool.”
Giampietro acknowledges that one’s year in college may influence how much time is spent in front of the television.
“I think that during freshman and sophomore year, nearly four hours of television may seem reasonable because you may not be involved in on-campus clubs and [you] don’t work,” said Giampietro. “But during junior and senior year, you have to deal with internships, jobs and on-campus clubs.”
But Ashlee Downing ’08 feels that three hours and 41 minutes is an overestimate of a student’s television watching.
“That’s a lot of television in one day,” Downing said. “I don’t see how people have that much time in their day to watch nearly four hours of TV.”
Some of the programs that are the most popular for Fairfield students are The OC, Law and Order, CSI, 24, American Idol, and according to the Nielsen study, the 10 most viewed programs last October were all baseball games.
The survey also found that college students are more likely to watch television with their roommates or in small groups.
“I watch TV with the girls in my hallway on Thursday nights when The OC is on,” Downing said, “and on Sundays because of baseball.”
The results of the Nielsen study are not surprising for some students. Alex Hernandez ’07 feels these numbers are more than reasonable for a college student.
“It seems a little bit much at first,” said Hernandez, “and then I think about all of the time that I have the TV on in the background while doing my homework, or hanging out with friends late at night and it seems right on the average.”
But for Whitney Maus ’08, this amount of time doesn’t seem appropriate, particularly if people are able to get all of their work done.
“I barely have time to do the stuff that I am supposed to do,” Maus said, “although I know most people watch maybe one or two shows consistently and apparently these shows are very addictive.”
Even if the results are accurate, for Morgan West ’07 this points out a problem that the university should address.
“I think that the results are probably average,” West said, “but I feel that this is excessive and that these kids need to get outside.”
Leave a Reply