So What is Average?
According to a study by the Consumer Electronics Association, the average US household owns 26 consumer electronic products and spent $1,200 on CE products during the past year and it looks like this number is only going to grow if the speculations are correct. So basically, the Joneses now have 26 CE products in their home! Are you keeping up with the Joneses?
I wasn't entirely sure if the Joneses were ahead of our family or not so I decided to take inventory. My husband is a "gadget junkie" so in passing I asked him if we had more than 26. With his head held high he responded "we have WAY more!" I guess this must be a "male ego" thing. I wasn't aware that the number of CE electronics a male has was a badge of honor!
Taking Inventory
So out of curiosity, and perhaps the hidden agenda of explaining to my husband that we are ahead of the "Joneses" and therefore we don't need any more CE products for a long, long time, I decided to actually take inventory. How many did we really have? What qualifies as a CE product? I guess anything electronic in our house. I have a feeling this will take a while!
So, lets see. In the family room, one Sony 50" Widescreen HDTV, one HDTIVO, a Philips DVDr-75 DVD recorder, a HDTV recorder, Polk Audio speakers, a Pioneer receiver, a Philips Pronto Pro and a Marantz RC5200. In the master bedroom, a Panasonic DVD player, a Philips TIVO and a Sharp 27"TV (which we were given and my husband would love to replace with an HDTV of course!) In the office we have 2 home built computer systems, a Dell SC400 server an HP scanner, an HP printer a Canon Pixma IP2000 and a Panasonic fax machine. And to top off the list we have additional items throughout the house such as a Panasonic Cordless Phone system, a Neuros Audio MP3 player a Samsung A550 cell phone, a Samsung I-550 Palm, a PPC 6601 Audiovox Pocket PC a Canon Video camera, a Panasonic digital camera, 2 Craig Portable DVD players and an Apple IPOD with Video. Do the kids Nintendo DS-lite systems count as well?
Not Enough Toys for a Man
One hour later, the list is done! Drum roll please. The final number is: 32! My husband was surprised at this. I think he thought we had more so his pride was hurt a little bit. His justification of such a "low" number was the fact that we had consolidated several of our CE items. Instead of having both a palm and cell phone on his belt, he now has a pocket PC phone. He said that there were more products he had that were inoperable around the house too. That's fine, but the number is still 32 and it is still more than the "Joneses!" Will this help him realize that we have enough "toys" around the house? Probably not. If the number had been 50 or 100 I don't think it would have mattered. But nevertheless, we are very close to average it seems, which is a good thing I guess.
Now as for the size of our house? I heard there was a segment on 60 Minutes that houses are getting bigger. That is definitely an area that I wouldn't mind keeping up with. I could use a bigger closet! I could use 10 more closets! A walk in pantry and a four car garage would be useful too! Honey!? Would you like some more gadgets for our home? With a little more space I think we could compromise.
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