Who’s Watching? Most People Have The TV On, But Not Everyone Actually Pays Attention To It

It’s an often overlooked truth.

But here it is. Life doesn’t stop when people switch on the TV.

Household activities keep on keepin’ on.

Forget for a moment all those studies suggesting that we’re glued to the tube for hours and hours each day. Instead, talk to your friends, co-workers and classmates about their actual viewing habits. They’ll tell you. In the real world, the television set does not have our undivided attention.

Now nobody is saying that many of us don’t watch a ton of TV. Let’s face it. We do.

But to get a clear picture of Americans’ television-watching patterns, you have to consider more than just what people watch or the amount of time that they watch.

You have to notice how they watch. And when you pay attention to that, you’re apt to discover something.

A lot of the time, TV just provides background.

Credit union clerk Lee Carlson often knits or crochets while parked in front of her set. “I just hate to sit there idle,” she said.

Theater owner Don Clifton sometimes walks on his treadmill while viewing.

Nurse Vivian Ryan puts a loom across her lap and does bead-weaving. “I can honestly say that I don’t ever just watch TV,” she said.

Now let’s not get carried away here. Nobody is trying to imply that every last person tuned in to the Seahawks game or staring at a “Mad About You” rerun is doing something else at the same time. That would be an insane suggestion. After all, vegging out in front of the tube and channel surfing for geologic periods of time is the real American pastime.

And there is no denying that millions of kids spend a fair chunk of their childhoods in a slack-jawed TV trance.

Moreover, it wouldn’t be fair to ignore the fact that there’s plenty of good stuff on TV, programs worthy of our full attention.

But here’s the deal. In a great many households, the mere fact that the television is on does not necessarily mean it is center-stage.

A lot of us might have a tough time resisting the urge to hit the remote’s “On” button. But to hear people talk, ignoring whatever is on the screen isn’t hard. Storage facility manager John Ehrhardt sometimes does crossword puzzles, occasionally glancing up at the tube.

George Stanton, a district manager for a plumbing supplies company, typically uses a chunk of his TV time to read the newspaper. The same goes for Sandpoint machinist Mark Todd.

OK, this isn’t a breathtaking revelation. It’s just a snapshot of life as we know it.

But think about it. The idea that much TV watching is of the distinctly halfhearted variety is a reality all but ignored in our hand-wringing cultural obsession with TV’s impact on our lives.

Ask around and you find that the sets are on but the audience has other things on its mind, too.

Accountant Cary Snyder sometimes attacks her stack of take-home work while the TV is on.

Patricia Durpos of Kettle Falls, currently running for a political position, campaigns by phone with one eye on her television.

Sign specialist Steve Bishop and transportation consultant Rick Galloway work on their computers, looking up at the TV once in a while when they hear something that grabs their interest.

Art Hill, a publisher of technical materials tailored for electronic retrieval, sometimes plants himself and his laptop computer in one end of his living room and has the TV on at the other end. And then he works.

“But you can only do that with certain types of programs,” he said. “You know, something on KSPS or a concert or something.”

Now there’s no telling how many people start out concentrating on some other activity and wind up pretty much focused on, say, “Baywatch” or “Monday Night Football.”

And, of course, it’s worth remembering that some people fib about their TV habits.

But any notion that TV watching can be defined only as staring at the screen with rapt attentiveness does not reflect the way things are.

There’s a reason people in movie theaters bothered by loud talkers complain, “They act like they’re in their living rooms.”

Trained by TV-watching habits, few people regard on-screen entertainment as some sacrosanct offering that can’t be ignored or regarded with less than total respect.

Elementary school teacher Mary George does her evening ironing while watching TV.

“Usually we never just sit and watch,” she said. “We’re always doing something else.”

Mary Stein, whose family runs a sausage-making business in Odessa, has a small TV in her kitchen. So she sometimes has it on while she’s cooking.

Nurse Joan Chase and car mechanic Dee Sparrow have both been known to read with the TV on in the background.

Firefighter Loren Swan and bird bath-designer Terrell Johnston both said they sometimes perform housecleaning chores while they’ve got the TV running. Ditto for Edith Martin, office manager at a plant nursery.

And Clarence House, who crafts belt buckles and jewelry, writes letters.

Important family conversations take place between people who are all but ignoring the screen. Cats are stroked. Homework is done. Bills are paid. Pizzas are critiqued and eaten. Spouses are kissed. Puzzles are finished. Guns are cleaned. The list of things people are really doing while “watching TV” has no end.

There are exceptions, of course. Cabinetmaker George Bryant takes in only a couple of hours of TV each week.

“So I pretty much just sit down in front of the TV and watch it,” he said.

Many others, however, divide their attention.

Gemologist Arlene Stromberger folds laundry or sorts through the mail.

“I can’t just sit and watch,” she said.

Jim Smith, a retired truck terminal manager, has a TV in his hobby shop. He sometimes glances at his set while working on models of World War II airplanes.

Luggage repair specialist Gil Cox works in his garage. And if his wife has to be away from home, he’ll switch “All My Children” on out there so he can catch her up on what she missed.

Julie Bohman, who sells headstones, does cross-stitching.

Fred Hilker, who manages a portrait studio, often plays his guitar while watching TV.

At Colfax mason Jacob Watson’s home, the tube might be on but taking a back seat to anything from piano practice to knitting.

So why not just turn it off?

“I don’t want to miss anything,” explained one Spokane woman.

Fair enough. And who is to say there is anything inherently wrong with divided-attention TV viewing. After all, the requirement that one be able to cope with distractions is already a well-established fact of modern life.

“We watch television and do hair at the same time,” said Colville stylist Pat Freeman. “Usually the soaps or a game, if one’s on.”

You could chalk it up to the way many of us live in the ‘90s.

There’s always something on TV. And there’s always something else that needs attention.

A lot times the choice people make is to do both.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire