70% of us watch and surf!

[#1]

I just read this article over on Techcrunch and I'm surprised.

The research showed that nearly 70 percent of online British adults who watch television go online while doing so, with 21 percent of 16-24 year olds always using the Internet while watching TV. And more adults who surf the web for content related to what they’re watching on TV are at the same time searching for products which appeared in the show (30 percent) than for the products which were advertised between the shows (27 percent). Brits go online while watching TV. Duh. (Techcrunch)

However, I probably really shouldn't be so surprised. I sit there with my laptop while the TV is on in the background. It's 95% of the time music channels, but the few times a movie is watched, I have to admit to looking at imdb.com and wikipedia articles about the film! I've noticed that most of my friends do the same as well. What about you lot out there? Do you surf in time with the TV? Or do you like your early evening entertainment free from distraction?

[#2]

My laptop hardly ever left the living room back when I was a student and was universally known as the Salmon of Knowledge. Nobody else in the house had a laptop so it would get passed around or people would crowd around and 'share'. That was in the days before YouTube. Now it's more of a case of having the TV on while I use my laptop than having my laptop on while I watch TV. Adaptive Path had an interesting article about Current TV:

They strive for a 2-screen experience and they tell us that everything featured on the TV network is available on their site. I imagine that most of their audience watches TV with their computer on their lap, so why not build an experience that caters to this displayed need?

[#3]

Oooh. You know how the Nintendo DS has two screens that form one game... you could do something similar with TV and the online system! That could be quite interesting!

[#4]

p.s. Tam: Did anyone try and suck your laptop to gain all the knowledge in the world?

[#5]

hehe, not to my knowledge though I lost track of the number of times people shut down windows and lost all my work! This is a really interesting project with multi-screen gaming: http://www.viktoria.se/fal/projects/collgames/

[#6]

I go on the PC upstairs to escape the TV - usually while my wife is watching Eastenders, Coronation Street, River City (you're licky you don't get that in England!).... OTOH, she watches the soaps and surfs.