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The casual Westerner, the Orientalist and the Midwesterner are American regional stereotypes. Is this true at a time of increased homogenization of the American culture induced by television? Surprisingly, they still do it.
There are striking differences in the way people spend their time, especially when we take into account other differences, such as education, their age, whether they reside in large cities, their race and their affiliation ethnic.
An average American adult works 28 hours a week, spends more than 60 hours in sleep and 18 hours watching television, according to an ongoing government poll that collects 1,000 daily daily newspapers selected by selected citizens each month. randomly. But the chart below shows that Southerners report spending an additional 0.6 hours of sleep per week compared to residents of the Northeast. Midwesterners work 20 minutes more each week than Northerners; and Westerners work nearly an hour less each week than Midwesterners.
Southerners are the regional champions of television viewing, devoting 1.6 hours more per week to this topic than Westerners, who spend the least. Westerners spend 1.1 hours more than Southerners on leisure activities other than watching television.
What explains these differences? Maybe people who want to enjoy the western lifestyle are settling in the west. But differences can also come from opportunities offered to people.
Nearly half of Westerners are Californians. and maybe, as Joe Jones said in 1960, "they're out there having fun, under the hot Californian sun." Why stay indoors and watch TV like other Americans, while the climate makes outdoor recreation so appealing? Perhaps the weather and the clear sky offer Californians and Westerners a good reason to spend time outdoors.
Our stereotypes about location do not only concern the regions – they also concern individual cities. For example, we are thinking of the very short "New York minute" which, as Johnny Carson has said, is the time between green fire and other honking horns to move you.
Oxford University Press
New Yorkers live their lives differently, even among the inhabitants of the other four largest American cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia). They work more than an hour more per week than other residents of larger cities, watch nearly an hour less per week and spend more than half an hour less on tasks. housewives than the inhabitants of other big cities.
These differences could also result from the incentives offered by a metropolis. Why cook or shop when "take away" or delivery is readily available? Why spend a lot of time watching TV when there are so many cultural events accessible? People spend part of their time responding to the conditions around them – the attractiveness and cost of the different activities they could undertake.
Stereotypes exist because they contain a hint of truth, but they are not completely – one of the reasons why we should always be careful when we use them. Those on regional differences are partly correct; There are notable and remarkable differences in the way Americans spend their time. The Americans are certainly pluribus, but they are also unum.
Daniel S. Hamermesh is a researcher emeritus of Barnard College in New York and director of the network of the Institute for Labor Studies in Bonn, Germany. This is adapted from his book "Spend time: the most precious resource".
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