Is there anything we do these days without our mobile devices?
Of course, people travel with them, work with them, sleep with them. And they don’t put them down even when they’re doing something else — like watching television.
In fact, mobile devices are the friends consumers bring along when they’re hunkered down in front of the tube. Stats show more TV and video viewers are engaging in double-screen digital activities today than they did two years ago.
“Research from Ericsson, a communications technology company specializing in mobility, broadband, and the cloud surveyed more than 30,000 internet users worldwide ages 16 to 69 who have a broadband internet connection at home and watch TV and view video on a weekly basis,” reports eMarketer. “Generally, the study found that more respondents are conducting digital activities via a smartphone or tablet, while at the same time watching TV, than they did in 2014.”
While two years ago fewer than 25 percent of TV and video viewers said they browse the internet related to content they were currently watching, now about a third of respondents said they do so.
“Separate data also finds that Americans’ attention is increasingly divided among an ever-expanding array of internet-connected devices, and the number of people multitasking while watching TV continues to rise,” notes eMarketer.
This digital multi-tasking behavior is bound to grow. About the only place mobile phones don’t go is the shower. If truly waterproof smartphones ever enter the market, however, expect shower caddies of the future to feature a mobile phone pocket.
