If you’re looking to find a college student, don’t look in frontof the television, according to the latest ratings released fromNielsen Media Research.
The ratings reveal that the most highly prized TV viewer ship,males 18 to 34 years old, fell 12 percent from the year before andthat males 18 to 24 took an even deeper plunge-20 percent.
The same epidemic that the Nielsen ratings found appears trueacross HowardUniversity‘s maleand female population.
Not too long ago the most popular college past time, TV has nowtaken the back seat to things such as the Internet, DVD players,and video games over the past two years. College students simplydon’t have the time to watch TV and when they do, they would ratherbe doing other things.Loren-JohnsonPerkins, a 20-year-old sophomore business management major sharesthese views. “No, I don’t watch TV as much as I use to. My scheduleis too busy with things more important like studying. And when I dohave time to watch TV there are only a couple of good things formen to watch such as sports or the Dave Chappelle show,” Lorensaid.
Nagelia Greaves, 20, a junior Broadcast Journalism major has ananswer. “I watch less TV now more then I have in the past simplybecause I spend more time in front of the computer. I’m more apt toget entertainment from the internet than from TV,” Greaves said.TV is just not a priority among college students anymore. Busyschedules and the internet is just a couple of reasons TV viewinghas dropped off. Another reason including the other things states astudent is lack of good shows unlike the past, students say.“When I get out of football practice or class, I would rather spendmy down time doing other things than watching TV such as playingvideo games, hanging with the fellas, or chilling with girls. PlusTV ain’t what it use to be, especially without shows like theThundercats,” said 20-year-old Anthony Bombcombe, a computerscience major.
Also sharing the “TV ain’t like it used to be” views is 25-year-oldMike Holmes, a broadcast journalism major. “TV these days is sorepetitious. They show so much of the same programming. The qualityof programming on TV is horrible. It’s all reality TV now with noreal story line. Who wants to see a TV show simply on midgetsgetting married? The only good things on TV are The Food Networkand The Apprentice,” Holmes said.
Although TV is not as good as it use to be, it can still be adistraction from more important things such as school andwork.ShoccaraMarcus, a 21-year-old transfer sophomore, believes is true.”College can get real busy with school and work. And, there aren’tas many good shows on as there use to be especially black shows,like in the hay day of primetime TV such as TGIF and Fresh Prince.But there are shows such as Sex in the City and America‘s TopModel that if I watch them I won’t get any work done.”