I’m not a big fan of TV generally – not in a weird way, I just prefer films – but I’ve got myself well and truly hooked to UK X Factor this year. As this weekend saw the first two acts leave, I’ve been very excited about tuning into the live shows.
Now, unless I only follow people on Twitter who are hugely into X Factor I think this weekend has certainly proved that we now consume television – particularly large live events – whilst also being active on social media more than ever before. It looks like my followers and I aren’t the only ones, according to a report from NMA back in September, nearly half of UK TV viewers discuss programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor whilst they’re online.
So, why have we suddenly become so interested in sharing our viewing experiences with our Twitter followers?
Back in August, The Guardian featured a report from Ofcom which suggests that we’re all becoming experts in multi-tasking, yes, even the men. We consume vast amounts of media everyday, we watch TV while we talk to friends online, we call our family whilst we update our Facebook statuses, it just goes on and on. The story in The Guardian gave many reasons for this increase in juggling different kinds of media, from increased access to technology to lack of time to concentrate on one particular medium and I think these reasons are partly true.
However, when it comes to watching TV and being active online, I think there’s definitely a social element to it all, hence why we turn to social media. Personally, seeing the reactions of others and talking about the event as it happens adds to the excitement and drama of what I’m watching – particularly when its something quite ‘intense’ like the X Factor.
It reminds me of when I was younger and we only had one TV in the house, so it was a big family event to huddle around it and all watch the same thing. It was a shared experience. But now with so many TVs, the ability to watch shows online, the ability to record things and watch them later has made everything quite fragmented. Large TV events effectively bring people back to ‘the good old days’ when everyone would watch television together because it was a big deal, not just to have it on as background noise which seems to be why so many watch it nowadays.
It’ll be interesting to see how more and more of our favourite shows further enhance our viewing experience by giving us more content or access online at the same time as the TV show – look at the Twitter tracker used at the VMAs earlier this year.
This all certainly seems a far cry from the general misconception that those who watch a lot of TV just sit and vegetate. Instead people are not only watching, but actively engaging with others and sharing their experiences across a number of platforms.
Image via Brizzle Born and Bred’s Flickr stream