Larry Magid of CBS decided to compare his gadget bills to those of his parents, and ended up wishing he didn’t. The network’s tech guru found, to what we would have assumed was no one’s surprise, we spend a lot more on gadgets than the previous generations. How much more? Well check out the quick list below:
Cost of phone in 1970 - $8 a month plus long distance charges.
Cost of phone now - $90 a month, $50 for cell phone, $40 for land line (more if you also have a Skype bill).
Cost of TV in 1970 - Free. Buy the TV, buy an antenna and you were good to go.
Cost of TV now - $120+ for premium package on cable or satellite.
Cost of Internet in 1970 - Inter-what?
Cost of Internet now - $50 seems to be an average monthly fee for fast DSL or cable.
And that’s just scratching the surface. There are also subscription based computer services to contend with, such as Norton or McAfee anti-virus packages, and online services like Yahoo! Mail that charge you monthly fees to remove advertisements.
In the end, according to Magid’s math we spend around $6,500 between electricity and subscription fees on our gadgets and electronics, or more than half of the median family income in 1970. [Source: CBS News]
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