HDTV Almanac - Please Define “Necessity”

[alfredpoor]

On Tuesday, PriceGrabber put out a press release about its 2009 Consumer Behavior Report: Economic Trends in Consumer Spending. It paints a fairly pessimistic picture; two out of three consumers surveyed have cut back on spending, and 90% indicated that they plan to continue to control their spending even after the economy improves.
But the item [...]

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/columns/2009/07/hdtv_almanac_please_define_necessity.php]Read Column[/url]

[eliwhitney]

alfredpoor

Good morning Sir:

Although a 'month too late' - but - it's shame that it has become considered as Politically Incorrect to ascertain one's age bracket at the time of these endless Surveys!

As a fellow "mature person" as well as one that managed to actually attain the ripe old age of college freshman prior to ever having seen TV (other than those on traveling exhibits/promotions) - I'll wager than MANY of those declaring HDTV to be a Staple-of-Life were 1/3 our ages?

The "Youth" seem to have a completely-different system of values regarding "what MUST I have / get"

Perhaps, it was actually brought about by we parents, who inadvertently made them believe over these past ~ 50 years that it IS "ok" to begin their adult lives w/ 100% of everything available "RIGHT NOW?"

Thanks & have a great day!

eli

[alfredpoor]

Thanks for your comment, Eli. I suspect that you're correct about a correlation between one's age and one's views on the relative importance of television, but don't be too quick to judge the younger generations. I suspect that if you were to visit just about any retirement or extended care facility in this country, you'd find that a large number of the residents have their TVs on for nearly every waking hour (and, I suspect, many of the hours when they are sleeping). I saw this frequently more than 35 years ago, so I don't expect that it's a new phenomenon, either.

It's clear that we have a love/hate relationship with the "boob tube" in this country, but it remains a fixture in our society for all segments of the age range.

Alfred