This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkins.

The rise in technology, particularly for information and communication, is radically transforming lifestyles.

For example, many people can now work from home and still be in almost constant contact

with the office.

Or maybe you prefer your own couch for watching a recently released movie rather than trekking to the local theater.

This technology-induced lifestyle changes affect how people consume energy and ultimately affect the energy demand of the nation.

Ashok Saikkar, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Austin.

To assess how our changing use of technology might alter our energy consumption,

say Carr and his colleagues first set out to determine

how much more we're in our homes than we were in the past.

For more than a decade, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics has surveyed how Americans spend their time each day.

More than 11,000 citizens respond to the survey each year.

Crunching the numbers from this survey, the researchers found that Americans are definitely logging more hours in their living rooms.

When compared to 2003, the year 2012, Americans spent eight days more at home.

That's 7 fewer days spent in non-residential spaces and one less day spent traveling per year.

And that's on average.

The younger generation exhibited even stronger home body tendencies.

The population aged 18 to 24 spent two weeks more at home in 2012 compared to 2003, which is 70% higher change than the average population.

And that shift in location translates into surprisingly large energy savings.

The researchers calculate that Americans are reducing large energy

use. The researchers calculate that Americans are reducing energy use by 1,200 trillion

BTUs by not hopping in our cars,

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