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Being a Couch Potato Is Actually Good For The Planet, New Study Says

Melissa Massello
Melissa Massello
Boston girl gone Austin + pixie dust spreader on the Tilt-A-Whirl. In her past life, Melissa was the founder of Shoestring Magazine, DIY Boston + The Swapaholics. Now she just wants to drink wine, hike, do yoga + save all the damn dogs, is that so wrong?
published Feb 10, 2018
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Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day, or Pal-entine’s Day next week, one new study gives us an all-new reason to cancel plans and stay in. Why? Because it turns out that being a couch potato is actually greener we thought.

A new study finds that more time on the couch uses far less energy than venturing out for entertainment.

Published in the journal Joule, “Changes in Time Use and Their Effect on Energy Consumption in the United States” found that we’re spending more time at home — the equivalent of eight days more in 2012 than we did in 2003 — leading to a 1.8 percent decrease in our national energy consumption, mainly due to the impact of technological advancements and socio-economic trends that have enabled rapid changes in lifestyle that influence energy use. And that’s even though we’re spending nearly four more hours watching television and playing games now than we did in 2003.

According to TreeHugger:

This research tracks lifestyle changes in the United States through changes in times spent on different activities and measures the associated energy effects. We find that Americans are spending more time at home and correspondingly less time traveling and in offices and stores. We find that more time at home implies lower energy consumption due to reduced automobile travel and energy use in non-residential buildings.

So go on and cuddle up in your Feejays or Snuggie and spend some quality couch time this sweetheart week. Here’s what’s new on Netflix this month, if you need it.

Not sure if your TV date is all that into cuddling? A recent survey by the couch-hounds at Joybird sniffed out just how much people cared about their personal space — and found that a whopping 40 percent of people don’t care for it at all. Men do care seem to care more about personal space when cuddling on the couch with a pet (45 percent to women’s 37 percent) and platonic friends (57 percent to women’s 50 percent), but out of a list of activities people prefer to do on the couch cuddling came in the top seven.

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