The viewing habits of college students is hardly a good source for trend detection*.
There was a two year period in early grad school when I rarely watched TV. And that was a long, long time ago.
Here is some data regarding traditional TV viewing. Young folk have been cutting back quite a bit on traditional TV, but the trend might be leveling off. They might also still be watching quite a lot of TV via other methods.
I found out in college that it’s just easier to use your computer screen to watch anything than to have a separate TV. Granted, back then I had to use a TV Tuner card as YouTube didn’t even exist yet.
The point is, college students, due to their living situation, have a vested interest in not having too many screens. If you can watch all you’d want to watch online, why wouldn’t you? The Internet connection is going to be the best you’ve ever had in your life, and completely free.
My 12yo watches TV, but compared to her friends we have rather draconian policies regarding electronic devices and internet accounts/time online.
She watches Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Drives her mother crazy.
Seriously. The connections for most schools are top notch. I can’t even imagine how good Netflix/Hulu streaming has to be for college kids. Getting a TV in that situation is a downgrade.
Here is The Test:
Duck! Rabbit! Duck!
“Shield and Magic Helmet” or “Kill the Wabbit!”
“Beep Beep”
"There’s food around the corner, food around the corner, food around the corner fo Meee…eee…eee
“do the Michigan rag…” or, for the obtuse: “Hello! ma baby: Hello! ma honey: Hello! ma ragtime gal: Send me a kiss by wire …”
If the kids can correctly id (not necessarily by name, but know the characters and plot lines) the majority of these, their education is assured.
When I was a young adult, I had too much of a social life to care about TV.
Wait until your circle of friends start getting married and having kids. I’ll bet ya’ farm their TV habits will change then.
The 20 and 30 somethings in my office seem to watch a fair bit. TV shows and movies are frequent topics.
I’ve noticed huge differences how my teenage cousins consume TV. Very little viewing is done live; instead, when they want to see a TV show they check the DVR and On Demand. They neither know nor care what time or even what network a show is on. Unlike people my age, who still think of broadcast TV as a default option, they think one channel’s as good as another. Of course that’s still watching TV–if I listen to a song on YouTube rather than CD or LP, does that not count as listening to music?
Why should they? Who cares about TV?
Maybe not just youngsters. I am 75 and for the last 10 years, or so, I hardly watch many shows. I DO have about 10 - 20 programs I record for later watching because, as was mentioned above, having to sit through the commercials really is a waste of time (yes I am aware that that is what pays for the program that I watch the recorded version of).
There was a time when the TV was on most of the day and I always watched the 9 o’clock news. Now I get all my news from the newspaper (yes they still have them) and the internet.
I do stream movies and TV shows through Amazon and Netflix, also when it is something I am interested in and there are a few podcasts I watch through my Roku.
I still pay the same amount, though, as those who watch 24/7. Wish they could do something about that.
Bob
I am 16 years old and I don’t watch TV.
What do you watch?
Jad T Jones from h2getagirlfriend.org on YouTube.
I know; I am hopeless. 
So Netflix, Hulu and DVR’d shows don’t count as watching TV?
Awesome! I guess I don’t watch that much TV either, now I get to feel intellectually superior to all those other TV watchers! 
/Kidding
All TVs that are currently on the market have HDMI and VGA inputs that you can connect a laptop to. That is mainly what I use my TV for, is as a nice big screen to watch online streams on.
People don’t gather around the radio when they have access to network tv.
People don’t watch network tv when they have access to cable.
People don’t sit through commercial cable tv breaks when they have DVR.
People don’t bother with the hassle of paying for and setting up a DVR when they have access to high speed internet.
It’s really quite simple. It’s almost as if you could travel back in time to the late 1950’s, early 60’s and hear them say “people don’t gather around listening to the radio anymore like we did in our day, do they?”
Based on the responses I get when this topic comes up in my English classes, young people do watch tv very little, even including watching it on the computer, YouTube etc. Not just in the way that most of us probably watched very little TV when we were young and spent most of our time out socialising - TV just isn’t on their radar.
At 16 no, I wouldn’t consider that hopeless.
On topic, you do watch video, just not something we would call TV. Young people still watch entertainment or informational videos, just not in the same manner and from the same sources. That’s just a result of technological change, not a decrease in interest in visual entertainment.
I grew up with three broadcast networks. If I wanted to watch something, it was from one of those three sources and I had to watch it on a box in the living room at the scheduled time. Now I watch mostly cable shows (with an occasional broadcast network show) and I watch everything when I want, not according to some network execs schedule. So, like young people today, I watch things from different sources and in a different manner. Whether we call it “TV” or “not TV” is a matter of semantics.
Data point: I cancelled my cable about three months ago. I wasn’t watching much TV, and figured I’d just get by with an antenna. Now here we are, three months later, and I still haven’t gotten an antenna. The only time I’ve really missed it is when I wanted to kick back and watch the news; no great loss.
(I do watch some shows online, though.)