There have been many predictions that TV is soon going to be replaced completely by social media – I’ve made such claims myself. The reality in the UK though does not seem to be backing this prediction up. The latest research from OFCOM suggests that we are actually watching more television than we did five years ago – it is up 3%. Apparently the average person in the UK is watching almost four hours of television a day.
How could this be possible? How could the use of social media be sky-rocketing and our TV usage also be increasing? Do we have a lot more time on our hands? I suspect that many of us just have the TV on in the background and don’t really pay that much attention to it; I know that is the case with me. It has become a habit to switch the TV and it is more background noise than anything else. Even when there is a programme I want to watch I still have half my attention on my Twitter page. So maybe these figures from OFCOM are a bit misleading. Sure we may have the TV on even more than in the past but does that mean that it is going to stay that way.
I still feel that TV is on the way out; it just can’t compete with what is available on the web. I’m sure that the day will come when I forget to turn the box on and that will be that. I don’t really think that I’ll miss it; I’m sure this will be the same for most people. We might not consciously stop using television; maybe we’ll just forget about it. I know that every time I do go and look for something to watch on the TV I’m almost always disappointed and go back to the web.
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