I don’t quite understand why – in this age of digital video recorders and streaming Web sites such as Hulu.com — people pack so many televisions into their homes.

The average American home now has 2.86 televisions and just 2.5 people, according to a new survey by Nielsen. The number of TVs jumped from 1.57 in 1975 to 2.43 in 2000 as the Internet gained popularity. The number of units per home continued to grow through the 2000s, but more slowly.

I’m part of the 2% of Americans that doesn’t own a TV. I haven’t had one for 7 months now and I don’t miss it. It turns out that the computer is quite an efficient television. No more surfing channels, and spending hours watching cable news channels waiting for some actual news to happen. Now I watch what I want when I want and don’t have to suffer through as many commercials.