American Entertainment
Created | Updated Oct 20, 2010
<p>As I see it, America is one of the busiest countries in the world, although people in other nations would disagree. To keep busy when we aren't busy though, we Americans play sports, go to the movies, watch TV, play video games, and the latest addition to our hobbies, "surf the web".<BR/></P>
<p>Allright... starting from the top, the movie business is booming more in America right now than any where else in the Country. Top movies make billions of dollars before they're ever released on video cassette. It is estimated that Americans attend between 6 and 10 movies a year.</p><BR/>
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Americans also spend many hours a year in the gyms, courts, and weightrooms. I know from experience that sports often times can consume many hours of a persons life. In only two sports, you can spend up to 20 hours a week for half the year. If you spent those hours in at a job, you'd be earning at least another hundred a week... and that's in a bottom of the line job like mine at a place like McDonald's, that doesn't pay jack, earning at least another 2600 a year. Many Americans participate in more sports than that too! </p><BR/>
<p>Of course, who could forget vid games? The ever tempting rave that everyones tapped into. Video games have even been the subject of many political debates in the US too. They've become so controversial, that video games, like movies, have recently recieved ratings based on sexual content, language, and gore. The government however has used the craze as a scapegoat for increased violence. They just haven't plugged a controller in to a Nintendo 64, and played a game of Goldeneye either in single player, or multi-player. The video game craze is a big money maker though... and it isn't only affecting the young, recently, the craze has been seen in elderly people, who like the rest of us, have nothing better to do with the little bit of free time that we have.</P><BR/><p>
As I sit here typing this, I'm watching the subject of my next paragraph... TV. Almost every house in America has a TV, I know for a fact that there is only one house in my home town that doesn't have a TV in it... and the family that doesn't own the TV isn't poor or anything, it's just that they're extremely strange! Most houses have more than one TV in them... our house has 4 in the house, and 1 in our vehicle... that's right, TV's are now appearing in vehicles... mainly larger vehicles like vans, but now even in some smaller vehicles. The emergence of the television gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" has boosted TV popularity too! Ever since it came to television, it has been shown that the average amount of time spent in front of a TV has increased by about 1 hour a day... the length that the show is on.</p><BR/>
Ahhh.. and of course the "Net". Most people spend so much time on the internet that they basically live their lives on the net. Matter of fact, one man changed his legal name to "Dotcomguy" and vowed to spend one year living entirely on the internet... Companies offered to pay him starting out at $10 a day and doubling every day he stayed in the house. He orders groceries, furniture, and clothing on the internet, and can not leave the house otherwise, he'd stop making the money. Most people, although they spend so much time on the net, don't even know the difference between the world wide web and the Internet.... The difference being that WWW is just part of the internet... e-mail, gopher, and world wide web are just a few parts of the net, there are many others though. </p><BR/><p>
Althogh many think that Americans are extremely lazy, they don't realize that in most American's lives, we don't sit around for 2 minutes without doing something of some sort. The French especially see the Americans as just a bunch of lazy people (just ask my former French teacher, she'll tell you), but what they don't realize is exactly how busy we are between school, work, and our social lives!
<p>Allright... starting from the top, the movie business is booming more in America right now than any where else in the Country. Top movies make billions of dollars before they're ever released on video cassette. It is estimated that Americans attend between 6 and 10 movies a year.</p><BR/>
<p>
Americans also spend many hours a year in the gyms, courts, and weightrooms. I know from experience that sports often times can consume many hours of a persons life. In only two sports, you can spend up to 20 hours a week for half the year. If you spent those hours in at a job, you'd be earning at least another hundred a week... and that's in a bottom of the line job like mine at a place like McDonald's, that doesn't pay jack, earning at least another 2600 a year. Many Americans participate in more sports than that too! </p><BR/>
<p>Of course, who could forget vid games? The ever tempting rave that everyones tapped into. Video games have even been the subject of many political debates in the US too. They've become so controversial, that video games, like movies, have recently recieved ratings based on sexual content, language, and gore. The government however has used the craze as a scapegoat for increased violence. They just haven't plugged a controller in to a Nintendo 64, and played a game of Goldeneye either in single player, or multi-player. The video game craze is a big money maker though... and it isn't only affecting the young, recently, the craze has been seen in elderly people, who like the rest of us, have nothing better to do with the little bit of free time that we have.</P><BR/><p>
As I sit here typing this, I'm watching the subject of my next paragraph... TV. Almost every house in America has a TV, I know for a fact that there is only one house in my home town that doesn't have a TV in it... and the family that doesn't own the TV isn't poor or anything, it's just that they're extremely strange! Most houses have more than one TV in them... our house has 4 in the house, and 1 in our vehicle... that's right, TV's are now appearing in vehicles... mainly larger vehicles like vans, but now even in some smaller vehicles. The emergence of the television gameshow "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" has boosted TV popularity too! Ever since it came to television, it has been shown that the average amount of time spent in front of a TV has increased by about 1 hour a day... the length that the show is on.</p><BR/>
Ahhh.. and of course the "Net". Most people spend so much time on the internet that they basically live their lives on the net. Matter of fact, one man changed his legal name to "Dotcomguy" and vowed to spend one year living entirely on the internet... Companies offered to pay him starting out at $10 a day and doubling every day he stayed in the house. He orders groceries, furniture, and clothing on the internet, and can not leave the house otherwise, he'd stop making the money. Most people, although they spend so much time on the net, don't even know the difference between the world wide web and the Internet.... The difference being that WWW is just part of the internet... e-mail, gopher, and world wide web are just a few parts of the net, there are many others though. </p><BR/><p>
Althogh many think that Americans are extremely lazy, they don't realize that in most American's lives, we don't sit around for 2 minutes without doing something of some sort. The French especially see the Americans as just a bunch of lazy people (just ask my former French teacher, she'll tell you), but what they don't realize is exactly how busy we are between school, work, and our social lives!
