Giant TVs in dorm rooms- legitimately useful or extravagant status symbol?

Living in the residence halls for the last three years, two of them as an RA, I have noticed many strange consumer behaviors from students living in our buildings. One of the first of these behaviors that I noticed upon arriving at MSU was that tendency of male students in the residence halls to buy 50, 60, or even 70 inch TVs for their 9'x13' dorm rooms. Living in Langford (the all male building) my freshman year, I saw many of these overly large TVs in the rooms of students who were attempting to impress the other residents of their floor.  Since Langford is essentially a building built on high levels of testosterone, I viewed this behavior as fairly normal for the "manly men" who tend to populate Langford. The next year, upon moving to South Hedges (a co-ed building) I was surprised to witness the same behavior among the male residents of the building, especially those who lived on all-male floors.

As a consumer behavior, buying these enormous TVs for use in tiny dorm rooms makes very little sense.  Not only are these TVs expensive, they are also often so large that they prove to be overwhelming and not as pleasurable to view in the small space of a dorm room as a smaller TV would be.  According to crutchfield.com, the maximum size TV that should be placed in a dorm room, considering the room available for placement of seating and the TV itself, should be 46 inches, but I have seen several TVs in the residence halls as large as 70 inches.

This behavior can only be explained by seeing the large TVs not as a simple device for watching movies or playing video games, but as a status symbol. Owning a very large TV, to a college freshman, is one of the most obvious ways to show that they have money without openly bragging about it. Almost everyone is aware that large TVs are very expensive, and they almost universally impress college freshmen, the majority of whom do not recognize or care about more adult status symbols such as expensive shoes or watches.  By viewing these ridiculously large TVs as status symbols meant to impressive, as opposed to devices used to achieve the most pleasurable possible viewing experience, we can explain this otherwise confusing consumer behavior.

Image Credit:
 http://stagetwo.com/2010/09/ten-essential-tips-for-making-a-great-google-tv-site/