WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Many Americans are abandoning televisions and land line telephones, once fixtures in every household, considering them unnecessary, a U.S. poll indicates.
Just 42 percent say they consider a television set a necessity, down from 52 percent in 2009 and 64 percent in 2006, a Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends poll revealed.
Land line telephones fared a bit better, with 62 percent of Americans still calling them a necessary item in their lives.
Still, there's bad news looming for the phones, as almost half those polled said a modern competitor -- the cellphone -- is a necessity.
In the poll, 84 percent of adults said they used cellphones compared with 74 percent of households with a land line, down from 97 percent of households with land lines in 2001.
While television sets may be disappearing, study researchers say, that doesn't mean there's less to watch; it's just not confined to the living room, as 52 percent of those polled said they watch online video on their computers. UPI
