There was a story online today that pointed out a rise in simultaneous television viewing and internet usage in the US. I must admit this didn’t surprise me as I often witness both of my younger siblings stretched out on the couches at home with their netbooks and the remote control. They’re passively consuming two forms of media at once – clearly neither is interesting enough to encompass their full interest, but TV has always been considered a passive form of media and multitasking on a computer isn’t a new phenomena. However, I do wonder if this increasing trend has anything to do with the lowering quality of TV shows, reality TV doesn’t really require concentration to follow a plot line, if there is one.
My own relationship with TV has dramatically changed these last few years. Thanks to technology I now have the ability to set aside one evening a week to sit down and watch a few hours of selected TV shows (mostly American imports). I would very rarely sit down in front of the TV and just flick through the channels searching for something to watch, invariably there isn’t anything on that interests me. Instead I choose to sit at my computer, engaging fully with online media, creating content and absorbing information.
The downside of this setup is that I miss out on those opportunistic TV nuggets – those wonderful documentaries on completely random topics that are incredibly interesting but contain sets of knowledge that I would never have actively sought out by myself.