Eli’s Mind

Television has become a major time-consuming activity in the modern era. In 2017, most American teenagers spent up to 20 hours a week watching television, and that average time has continued to rise. As a teenager in their sophomore year of high school, I had to record my hourly usage of tv daily. I am below average when it comes to TV and Social Media usage compared to other teens. Despite this being said, after calculating my hourly usage per week, the results were outstanding.

Entertainment blossomed in the 1930’s during America’s worst economic tragedy, the Great Depression, and became popular to cheer up the citizens and to diminish the melancholy that permeated the streets of America. The first trace of media was radio and comedic talk shows which anyone could listen to, then it evolved into the famous television where one could gaze their eyes upon the small silver screen for hours without work. Almost 90 years later, televisions have become 5 times bigger, and due to the film industry, 5 times more interesting. This is important because this is what keeps our citizens addicted, a 17 inch wide screen tv with the best quality, and many overly interesting movies. This was the beginning of the end of the future generation’s time management skills and attention span.

Every citizen has heard the phrase “time is money”, and it is one hundred percent true, when individuals spend hours watching unproductive television, the many opportunities to make money is lost. As a teenager myself, I watch up to three hours of tv a day. With this information taken into account, at minimum wage of $20 an hour, that will be $60 a day, $420 a week, and $1680 a month. If this time were to be spent into my business, in 10 years with a 10 percent interest added annually, I would have made roughly $4,357. Now lets increase the hourly wage to $50 an hour, that would be an outstanding $10,893. Time will pass, if I were to keep this unhealthy habit until the age of 70, how much money would I have missed out on could reach up to $794,048!