Family Spends $5000 Per Year on Screen Related Services

February 10th, 2010

You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.

—Morpheus, The Matrix

Don’t breathe the air, don’t drink the water, don’t eat the food, but, being saturated with endless electronic bilge, wherever you are, is, “What is expected for people to be functional in society.”

The Matrix quotes and comparisons probably seem so old and overdone because, in the real world, today, people have jacked-in to an extent that was unthinkable—outside of SciFi circles—over a decade ago, when the film came out. The setting of that cautionary tale—The Matrix was just the most successful re-packaging of it—is now, for all intents and purposes, ubiquitous, cool, and, “expected” in a “functional society,” as the quote in the New York Times indicates.

Of course, those of us who have seen this coming, and tried to get off the bus (to some extent), or, at least, keep these developments in perspective, also know that we haven’t seen anything yet.

Via: New York Times:

John Anderson and Sharon Rapoport estimate they spend $400 a month, or close to $5,000 a year, keeping their family of four entertained at home.

There are the $30-a-month data plans on their BlackBerry Tour cellphones. The Roanoke, Va., couple’s teenage sons, Seth and Isaac, each have $50 subscriptions for Xbox Live and send thousands of texts each month on their cellphones, requiring their own data plans.

DirecTV satellite service, high-speed Internet access and Netflix for movie nights add more.

“We try to be aware of it so it doesn’t get out of control,” said Mr. Anderson, who with his wife founded an advertising agency. “But, yeah, I would say we’re pretty wired.”

It used to be that a basic $25-a-month phone bill was your main telecommunications expense. But by 2004, the average American spent $770.95 annually on services like cable television, Internet connectivity and video games, according to data from the Census Bureau. By 2008, that number rose to $903, outstripping inflation. By the end of this year, it is expected to have grown to $997.07. Add another $1,000 or more for cellphone service and the average family is spending as much on entertainment over devices as they are on dining out or buying gasoline.

And those government figures do not take into account movies, music and television shows bought through iTunes, or the data plans that are increasingly mandatory for more sophisticated smartphones.

For many people, the subscriptions and services for entertainment and communications, which are more often now one and the same, have become indispensable necessities of life, on par with electricity, water and groceries. And for every new device, there seems to be yet another fee. Buyers of the more advanced Apple iPad, to cite the latest example, can buy unlimited data access for $30 a month from AT&T even if they already have a data plan from the carrier.

“You don’t really lump these expenses into a discretionary category,” said Robert H. Frank, an economics professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. “As the expectation of connectedness increases, it’s what is expected for people to be functional in society.”

Americans are transforming their homes into entertainment hubs, which is driving up the amount of money they spend, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

“More people are creating experiences in their homes that are very similar to the kinds of public experiences they enjoy in movie theaters and concert halls,” he said. “Our homes are bristling with technology.”

One Response to “Family Spends $5000 Per Year on Screen Related Services”

  1. realitydesign says:

    I find it fascinating that in the movie the MATRIX, Neo signs a release form that expires on 9/11/2001.

    Reminds me of illuminati rules = put it out there, warn them ahead of time

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