<p>As the saying goes, I nearly spit out my coffee at the computer monitor when I read the NY Times story about how ‘the Cable Guy goes upscale.’ While describing the work of one newly minted cable installation professional at a job in a home in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood, the reporter noted that the house had 6, count 'em 6, TVs, 5 Xboxes, a few PlayStations and various Apple i-devices and laptops. Whoa!!!</p>
<p>What nonsense!!! And we wonder why our kids, and more than a few adults for that matter, are so socially disconnected because of non-existent interpersonal skills.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m no curmudgeon. I realize that it’s no longer 1980 in America and that there’s more than one TV in the typical U.S. family’s home, but really?!!! Then again, I am a curmudgeon :-(</p>
<p>We don’t have X-boxes but we do have 5 TVs and my H and I each have our own laptop. He also has an I-Pad. When our girls are home, that’s 5 more laptops around! My 84 year old dad even brought his laptop when he visited at Christmas. And, no, we have no problems with social connection. ;)</p>
<p>That’s ridiculous. My boyfriend and all his brothers and friends use his parents house as a communal gaming spot and they don’t have nearly that many (but more than any place I’ve ever seen). </p>
<p>What a waste of money. I’ll never understand why people need so many things.</p>
<p>We don’t have any gaming systems, XBox, Playstation, etc. My kids no longer live at home but everyone in our family has a laptop and so if everyone was here at one time, that would be four laptops, and there is also an older table top computer. I also don’t think it is that unusual to have several TVs in a home in various rooms. I rarely watch TV but own several of them.</p>
<p>One wonders whether the electronic entertainment devices outnumber the books in that household…BTW, a “house” in Chelsea bit enough for that many TVs? Really?? These people must be gazillionaires.</p>
<p>We have only one TV in our house. One desk top computer (6 years old) and one laptop.
No game systems,Ipads, Ipods, smart phones or Kindles. We don’t even have a gps in our cars.</p>
<p>When our two S’s were living at home, they each had a small tv in their bedrooms and there was an ancient one on the office that the playstation was hooked up to. We had one desk top computer. S1 got a lap top when he went to college. S2 got a(cheap) laptop when he was 16…to keep him from messing up our desktop w/ music download et.al. </p>
<p>We do have a wireless roaming device for our laptop to use when we got out of town every few weeks.</p>
<p>Both our S’s (22 and 24) now each have a tv, a smart phone and a laptop.<br>
The 22 yr. old college sr. shares a house w/ three roommates. One of whom has all the toys.</p>
<p>A few years ago during the conversion from analog to digital TV broadcasting, our senior center offered a program on the change-over. Coupons were available for seniors to obtain lower-cost converter boxes - two per household. One lady was upset because she had THIRTEEN televisions in her rambling old house and didn’t see how she could manage with only 2 coupons! She lived with two adult sons and apparently the family liked not having their TV viewing interrupted when they moved from room to room.</p>
<p>I have only one TV (which is in the living room) and, although I’d love to have one in my bedroom, it really is for the best that we only have on in a remote location. That way I don’t get carried away with TV watching.</p>
<p>My sister and I share a table-top computer, each have an ipod shuffle, and I have an iPad. Oh! and my mother has a laptop.</p>
<p>I really feel like I don’t need more. Although it would be nice to have a laptop I didn’t have to share with my sister.</p>
<p>At one point a few years ago, we had seven TVs in our six bedroom home. Now, since we had to switch to the cable boxes and the price has gone up, we still have about 6 TVs but only four have cable so we only really use those. (one in the living room, one in my parents’s room, one in my sister’s room and one in my brother’s)</p>
<p>Still a lot but we’re a big TV family and this will never change. We are also a decent sized family. We also have one computer and my brother and I each have a laptop. He also has a PS3. I also got a Kindle for Christmas And my mom and brother have iPod touches.</p>
<p>Why do people get so judgmental over the choices of others?</p>
<p>So what if they have multiple TVs? TVs are cheap. And if you are playing multi-player games (i.e., all the good games these days) you need a game console and screen per person to do it right. Perhaps this family is into gaming together.</p>
<p>And I really don’t get why some people seem to take pride in how few electronic devices they have in their lives. Did people take pride a hundred years ago that they didn’t use newfangled inventions like electric lights and indoor plumbing?</p>
<p>
There is no comparison between watching TV (or gaming) on a 15" laptop vs. a 50" plasma for example. And if more than one person wants to watch, a laptop is ridiculous.</p>
<p>My suburban house has 4 tvs and 3 laptops (2 are work laptops) among 4 people. Oh and 1 Wii. I think this is normal. seeing as they are spread out, and we are not big tv/gaming people.</p>
<p>^ Totally agree with notrighenough. We have 7 TVs for a variety of reasons - it wasn’t planned (at one point we owned a vacation home and those were brought back here when it was sold). Believe it or not, we don’t actually watch a lot of TV. I haven’t watched a TV series since LOST went off the air (I’ve never understood the appeal of all the reality tv shows out there). My husband watches Bloomberg all the time (he’s an investment broker) and I watch either movies or something with nature or history and that’s basically it. Having extra TVs is simply a matter of convenience more than anything. I can watch TV when I exercise in our gym, my husband can turn on the news in the kitchen while he’s making coffee in the morning, I like to watch nature programs in bed at night before dozing off to sleep.</p>
<p>And for the record, we also have 3 laptops, 1 iPad, 1 netbook, 1 X-box, 1 Kindle, 3 iPods, 1 Wii, 3 smartphones and probably one or two other gaming systems. We also have several desktop PCs but they are rarely used anymore since we all switched to laptops. It’s not like we’ve gone into debt to buy any of these things. We pay cash for everything. OTOH, we don’t drive expensive cars and we live in a relatively modest house for our income level. What people choose to spend their money on is a highly personal decision.</p>
<p>Our family of 5 has 6 TVs. 37" Flatscreen in the living room with the HD Cable package, 24" TV/VCR combo in the kitchen, 32" Flatscreen in parents’ room with HD Cable package, 32" old TV in sister’s room with DVR, 32" Flatscreen in my brother’s room (just bought), and I currently have a 19" Flatscreen in my bedroom. I will be purchasing a 32" Flatscreen in the coming days, but I have to take an additional 19" Flatscreen back first. </p>
<p>My sister has two laptops (1 work, 1 personal), I have a laptop, my brother has a laptop, and my parents have one. </p>
<p>My brother has an X-Box and I have a PS2 although my PS2 gets used for a DVD player more than a game system.</p>
<p>Most of this stuff is fairly recent. I didn’t have a PS2 until my sophomore year of college…</p>
<p>My H has a laptop; I have a desktop. S borrows one of them when he needs one. Two ipods, 2 dumb phones, and S has an Xbox on the one TV in the house.</p>
<p>It’s not judgmental to be amazed at what people can afford–apparently the economy’s doing great for some of us!</p>
<p>My 80 year old mom and dad have a TV w/cable in every room (2 bedrooms, living room, family room, kitchen, study AND THE LAUNDRY ROOM). Mom says she needs to watch her talk shows when she irons. It makes them happy …and they can afford it :)</p>
<p>We have just one TV for a family of 4. It’s over 10 years old. We rarely watch it.</p>
<p>But we have 4 laptops and an Ipad; my parents have just one desktop computer… so I guess we are even.</p>
And my mom and brother have iPod touches.</p>