We had already seen that there is a struggle for the user’s attention between the television and the small screen of the smartphone, and we are now learning a little more about the consequences of this tug-of-war.
19 hours a year catching up on lost time
Indeed, according to the US internet comparison site Uswitch, 18-34-year-olds spend 19 hours a year catching up on TV programmes that they had only watched with a distracted eye, absorbed as they were by their smartphone. In total, 87% of viewers admit that they scroll on their phone while the television is on, and 79% have even fallen asleep in front of the television before finishing what they were watching.
Rewind, a guilt-relieving reflex
On average, the distraction caused by the phone leads to a “rewind” (or going back) in 23% of the occasions when someone settles in to watch TV. This figure rises to 35% for 18-34-year-olds. The “rewind” function itself seems to be part of the problem: 50% of viewers say it has changed the way they watch television, and 29% admit that they allow themselves not to concentrate too much since they know they can catch up on the story.
Max Beckett from Uswitch speaks
“We have all done it before: you glance at your phone for a second, you look up, and the ball is already in the back of the net,” comments Max Beckett, broadband expert at Uswitch. “Then you spend the rest of the evening nodding along as if you saw everything. The rewind button is the best thing that has happened to TV since the remote control. But this ‘rewind effect’ means that we no longer really watch things attentively the first time, because we know we can always go back. Half of us say that the pause and rewind functions have changed the way we watch, and that is a bigger change than most of us have noticed.”
