Stay-at-Homes

Everybody suspects that television has deeply affected U.S. family habits. To get some specific examples, the Charles Alldredge public relations firm asked questions in 400 Washington, D.C. homes. This week, Alldredge reported its findings: P: Among TV set owners, adult attendance at movies has dropped 72% (from an average of 4.51 times a month to 1.27 times). But children's attendance has declined only 46%.

P: Reading has also suffered. Adults spend 29.1% less time reading books than they did before TV came into the living room; magazine reading is down 22.6%, newspapers 4.7%. Children's reading has fallen off mainly in the comics field--a decline of 15.7%.

P: Sports events have been hard hit. The Washingtonians said that they go to wrestling and boxing matches 44.7% less than before; football, 40% less; baseball, 36.7% less.

P: Hardest hit of all has been radio, where the Washington TV owners' nightly listening has dropped from an average of 3 hours 42 minutes to a mere 24 minutes. The chief reason given for even occasional radio listening was "the superiority of [its] news programs." P: But whatever its impact on other leisure habits, TV has been cheering in one respect to sociologists. Said Pollster A'ldredge: "Television is "keeping families together at home." Specifically, husbands spend 42.8% more of their leisure time at home than they did before; wives, 39.7% more; children 41.3% more.

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