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Youth Spend More Time on Web Than TV
ChopsMIDI writes "According to a survey of 2,618 people, aged 13 to 24, teenagers and young adults spend more time on the Internet than watching television, indicating a shift in media consumption for a demographic prized by advertisers. On average, young people said they spent nearly 17 hours online each week, not including time used to read and send electronic mail, compared with almost 14 hours spent watching television and 12 hours listening to the radio."
I don't even watch TV these days, with the ocassional exception for the Simpsons and maybe a movie or two. The internet is much better. It doesn't show you 30 minutes of ads per movie, content is just available there and not during a specific day and time, and the content is much more interesting.
Here (Spain) it seems that the producers of some shows are brain damaged. A while ago I turned on the TV to see if there was anything, saw a bit of some "Putin's daughter" crap, and went back to my computer.
Did they count the hours teenagers and young adults spend on the computer, while watching television? If the television and the computer are in the same room, it's not uncommon for them to do both.
That's about 2.5 hours of internet access per day, plus 2 hours of tv and 1.5 hours of listening to the radio. So either these kids are spending 6 hours a day (after school no less) sitting in front of various electronic babysitters or they've learned how to multi-task.
It's an easy choice: (1) easy access to free pr0n or (2) "reality TV".
For (1) substitute whatever interests you. News junkies, humor, multi-player gaming, music swapping, ad infinitum. It's available on demand 24x7. TV forces you to adhere to mostly least-common-denominator programming at the programmer's schedule, unless you fumble with a VCR, or you have a TIVO that your Dad hasn't monopolized. It's not surprising that the kids have gravitated to the Internet as the new entertainment medium, as have many adults.
The Internet is a vaster wasteland.
OK. Yes, it does matter.
I don't watch TV either. At least, very little. Most days I watch none.
I like getting news in real time on the Internet and from various sources. I feel much more informed than my in-laws, who religiously sit in front of Dan Rather every night and think that he some how makes them more informed than I.
I do read local newspapers for more local flavor, though.
For entertainment, let's just say that the Internet offers, um, more provative content...
I even listen to radio over the Internet. I think my lifestyle will eventually demand a Tablet PC or something. But, I'll wait until they beef them up a bit on battery life and applications.
That said, I'm not sure how long all of this free content will last. Given my choice of browser, I don't view any ads. How long can the "system" support this leeching of content?
The final aspect to my online life is the social one. Email and IM makes life much easier as opposed to the unconnected world.
So, from an information, entertainment, and social point of view, the content of the online world has finally reached critical mass for me. It may take another 5 years for this to make some drastic change in TV, newspaper, etc. But, I think we have finally passed the inflection point.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Lets hope they are using interactive forms (like this comment form) and not just wathing flash movies or playing mmorpgs.
How is Slashdot any less interactive then any multiplaying system?
things are changing:
:-)
1. first, the music industry loses its ability to control the marketing of new music to people because the people themselves have control of the distribution technology (i.e. Napster, Kazaa )
2. then, the television industry loses its control of what people think because the internet allows people once again to control what they read, hear, and see.
It sounds to me like the whole media industry is losing its control over people and we can thank technology for doing this for us!
-- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
Well this is the conventional wisdom, and I used to believe it. But having played Everquest off and on for a while, I'd have to say that a decent TV program is at least as stimulating and thought provoking is sitting in place, and occasionally pressing a button or two. And this isn't just true of EQ, many games may be "interactive" but they aren't requiring too many brain cells to fire.
Personally I put both sitting online and sitting in front of the tv in the same class. I'm glad that one displaces the other, but you'd still be better off getting up, getting outside, and moving around once in while.
See naked people (hell even autopron posts on /.)
Centrally communicate (anyone from around the world can join the same chat room).
But let's get into to why when I was a teenager (soo long ago *cough* 3 years ago *cough*)
1.) Private password protected conversations (no more parents overhearing part if not both parts of a conversation over the phone). You have the ability to talk with others without the fear of the parents figuring out what the hell is going on.
2.) Sex. While it may seem a bit innapropriate for the older crowd here, most people from the age of 13+ have sex on the mind, either sex appeal or actually shagging. While of course there may not be a whole lot of knowledge in the area, there's still the curiosity and since mom and dad usually won't take the time to explain sex as it might actually lead to little billy and suzie wanting to try it, they turn to the one source they can find.
3.) Information. Heard something about a war in Iraq, but all you know is mom is indifferent and dad thinks bush is some asshole for it. But you really would like to know what's going on, but can't understand it. Turn to the internet and a search engine, in a few hours you can deem yourself an expert on middle eastern politics.
4.) Pop-Culture. Want to know what's cool and what's not cool and be able to actually survive highschool? Then you need to know what's "hip" and "Cool". So MTV.com and others like it will guide you through the pains of trying to look "normal" and not be a spectacle. There's three types of people in highschool "popular" "normal" and "bad popular". "Bad popular" is basically the kid everyone knows but everyone picks on, if in highschool you want to avoid at all costs this classification. So best way, spend as much dough as you can muster up and stay "normal" with the cool shoes and correct name brands.
5.) Homework. Yes it's true the internet is a vast tool of conquest in knowledge. But even better, no more turning to the index of a book. Hop on to your local libraries website and do a keyword search in a book. AMAZINGLY enough you will know exactly where the boston tea party is mentioned in the first 100 books that are the authroity on the subject. All by never stepping foot in the library, opening the book, or god forbid reading the damned thing. You can find someone elses blog/essay on the subject and get it dumbed down enough to where you can "write it in your own words". "Write it in your own words" is a new form of "writing" where you take the same basic concept and write it in a different manner with different words thus negating any type of plagerism.
All-in-all the TV is there for when someone else is on the computer or there's no emails or active people on your buddy list. Then and only then, you'll hop on the couch and turn on the TV. And what do teenagers watch? Exactly what I said above, but they don't get it in such mass quantities, it's like methadome for a crack addict, keeps ya at bay, but you still don't like it as much.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
As much as I hate MTV and the crap that they force on the viewers they still have, I find that they are approaching this transition in a positive manner. There are several shows that are utilizing the multitasking potential of the internet with television, in order to receive feedback and make shows interactive. MTV2 does a show that requires viewers to log on and vote for the next video in realtime. This is the way to combine your programming with the power of the internet and not lose out. By making your TV programming customizable to some extent by the viewers, I would think they would be less likely to change channels or even turn the TV off altogether.
If surveyed, I'd have to reply that at least 90% of my waking life is spent `online', even though the amount of data sent and received may not be more than 1K every few minutes. Since always-on Internet connections started to become common, the concept of being online part of the time and offline at other times is meaningless, the only time I am really offline is when I am outside, somewhere other than my garden.
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