By CLICK Staff
NEW YORK—More than half of adult U.S. cell phone users, 52 percent, are multi-tasking while watching television.
As more people multi-task, the implications for all content and marketing messages is being transformed, points out a new study by
Pew Internet & American Life Project which just issued new research this summer.
Television's solitary screen is being supplemented by multi-screen interactivity. Half of all adult cell owners (52 percent) have used their phones recently for engagement, diversion, or interaction with other people while watching TV. Pew measured the prevalence of these multi-screen viewing experiences by asking the 88 percent of American adults who are cell owners whether they had used their phone to engage in several different activities while watching television in the 30 days preceding an April 2012 survey. We learned that:
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38 percent of cell owners used their phone to keep themselves occupied during commercials or breaks in something they were watching.
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22 percent of cell owners used their phone to check whether something they heard on television was true or not.
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6 percent of cell owners used their phone to vote for a reality show contestant.
Three more questions were asked of the 57 percent of cell owners who download apps, use the internet, or use email on their phones:
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35 percent of cell owners who use the internet, email or apps on their phone used their phone to visit a website that was mentioned on television (that works out to 20 percent of all cell owners).
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20 percent of cell owners who use the internet, email or apps on their phone used their phone to see what other people were saying online about a program they were watching (that works out to 11 percent of all cell owners).
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19 percent of cell owners who use the internet, email or apps on their phone used their phone to post their own comments online about a program they were watching (that works out to 11 percent of all cell owners).
In addition, 29 percent of cell owners who use text messaging have used their phone recently to exchange text messages with someone else who was watching the same program in a different location (since 79 percent of cell owners use text messaging, that means that 23 percent of all mobile users have done this).
Taken together, that works out to 52 percent of all adult cell owners who are "connected viewers"—meaning they took part in at least one of these activities in the 30 days preceding the survey. Young adults in particular stand out for their embrace of multi-screen viewing experiences, as some 81 percent of mobile owners ages 18-24 reported using their cell phones during televised programming in the preceding 30 days.
There are also significant multi-cultural differences among the phenomenon, the Pew survey writers point out. Non-white cell phone owners stand out when it comes to using their phones to engage more deeply with information they have seen on television. African-American cell owners are especially likely to say that they have used their phone recently to see what others are saying online about a program they are watching (28 percent of African-American cell owners have done this recently, compared with 8 percent of whites and 12 percent of Latinos). And both black and Latino cell owners are more likely than whites to have recently used their phone to fact-check something they heard on-air. Some 33 percent of African American cell owners and 30 percent of Latinos have done this in the preceding 30 days, compared to 19 percent of whites.
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