Is this the new norm: the five screen family?

Last week, I looked around the room and noticed an interesting thing. Maybe you’re seeing this at your home as well. We were watching the NBA playoffs on TV. My wife was on her I-pad and so was I. My son was on his laptop. I’m sure if my grandson was there, he’d be staring at a device as well. My wife was checking email. I was tweeting snarky comments about the game. My son was looking at stats from the game.

Let’s face it. We’re all multi-taskers now. Why should TV time be any different?

I wondered if it was just me. So I talked to people where I work and they were doing it, too. But we all work in TV so maybe it’s an occupational hazard. So I broadened my circle and found lots of people are doing it. How many, you ask? LOTS.

This year, 182 million folks in the US will use the internet while watching TV at least once a month, according to an eMarketer survey. That’s 80% of all internet users. So I’m not alone. Or maybe I am because only 25% of those surveyed were using their device to consumer content related to TV. The rest were doing something else, like my wife. Still, 25% were so engaged in the TV programming that they were finding additional information about what they were watching. That’s still a big chunk of engaged folks.

You can see more from the eMarketer study here.

By the way, my wife sent me a Facebook message… while sitting next to me. Because, you know, saying it out loud would have too much work.

I, of course, texted her back.