The good news is that we’re all getting together round the TV as a family the less good news is that we’re all doing our own thing.
So while we’re ostensibly all gathered round the TV, what are we actually doing? Research from Ofcom this week shows that while we’re still coming together to watch TV we’re fiddling with an ever-increasing array of gadgets.
We’re streaming videos, firing off instant messages and updating our social media status all while watching more live TV than before. We are recording fewer programmes in the past because we like to tweet or instant message our friends about the show we’re all sitting watching.
James Thickett, Ofcom’s director of research, says: “We’re all familiar with black and white images of families gathered around a flickering TV back in the 1950s to watch something special like the launch of ITV or the Coronation. Our research shows that increasingly, families are gathering in the living room to watch TV just as they were in the 1950s but now delivered on bigger, wider and more sophisticated sets.
Unlike the 1950s family, however, they are also doing their own thing.
They are bringing a whole range of devices half of all adults now own a smartphone and a quarter have a tablet, and these gadgets are all vying with each other. People are tweeting about a TV show, surfing the net or watching different content altogether on a tablet.
“Just a few years ago, we would be talking about last night’s TV at work or at school.
“Now, we’re having those conversations live while watching TV using social media, text and instant messaging. So the 1950s living room has been reinvented for modern times.”
The average household now owns at least three types of internet-enabled device and while the TV set in the living room retains its importance, people are increasingly reverting to having just one TV in their household 41% of households in 2012 compared with 35% in 2002. Interestingly, whereas seven in 10 children had TVs in their bedroom in 2007, that figure has dropped to just 50%.
Our use of tablet computers has more than doubled over the past year with two-thirds of us using one on a daily basis. Many parents agree that their tablet is a useful tool for entertaining and educating their children.
The survey also reveals that web-based forms of communication, such as email, instant messaging or social networking is now the most popular method of communication among younger people. More than eight in ten 16-24 year olds use at least one of these methods on a weekly basis higher than texting on a mobile phone.
This multi-tasking takes many forms, as Ofcom’s Jane Rumble reveals: “Whilst watching TV people are shopping online, emailing, chatting to friends and family or just browsing the internet, and we call this media meshing.
“More interestingly many are posting an update about the programme they’re watching. A great example of this recently was during the Andy Murray Wimbledon final more than two million tweets were sent by over a million people.”
However, researchers in the US have found that using multiple forms of media at the same time could be linked to depression and anxiety but it wasn’t yet clear if multitasking is causing symptoms of anxiety, or whether people who are depressed and anxious turn to multitasking as a form of distraction. While multi-tasking is generally considered to be a good thing, researchers noted that spending too much time in front of screens can also mean less time spent on social activities, and dealing with people face to face.
The living room isn’t the only place we engage in social media, however. Last year a survey of nearly 1,500 adult users of social media from across the UK was carried out, all of whom had active Twitter and Facebook accounts.
It showed that the top five most common situations in which people tweet were: at work 62%, watching TV 44%, in bed 35%, while driving 21% and in the bathroom 18%.
Worryingly, those who claimed to Tweet while driving were asked why they felt the need to tweet while on the road 41% said they did so because they were “stuck in traffic” and 37% said it was because they had something that they wanted to “share urgently”.