Over 50% Of Mobile Owners Use Their Phones While Watching TV

Sites include pewinternet.org . Published on August 5th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

It didn’t seem possible at the time that tech-visionaries dreamed up the idea of the smartphone, but time and processing power (and Apple) has proved them right. Today the smartphone is such a big part of people’s lives in America that it is even starting to encroach on “TV time.”

A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that more than 50% of Americans now use their phones while watching TV. The reason? Most people it seems find their mobile phone a handy distraction from commercial breaks and other interruptions that keep them away from their favorite TV program.

Dubbed the ‘connected viewer’, Pew found that a smaller percentage of people use their phones to check up on something they’ve seen on TV. In this regard, the mobile phone is quite handy. In the past you’d need to turn on your computer in order to see what other people are saying about that “awesome deal the guy on the TV is talking about.”

Advertisers have taken note of this trend of mobile use while TV watching and most report that they see a spike on their websites whenever it is mentioned on a TV program or during an ad.

Needless to say smartphone users are the ones with the most functionality and unsurprisingly they lead the field in terms of those likely to watch and use a mobile phone at the same time. 58% of smartphone users as opposed to 17% of regular cell phone owners reported the tendency to  watch and use their phones at the same time.