Posted by Gianluigi Cuccureddu in An interesting perspective in this article by the ScienceDaily.
The perspective is derived from:
In the past, watching TV was a social activity that brought people together. The whole family watched the same program on the same TV set, and when people went to work the next day they could be fairly sure that most other people had also seen the same program. This is no longer the case. What once brought us together is now a source of fragmentation. Most families have several TVs, and they sit in different rooms and view different programs — if they watch TV at all. What’s more, the channel offerings have become so large and varied that few programs qualify as shared topics in the lunchroom at work.
From a conservative and traditional point of view, where Family was a true cornerstone of the society, this would absolutely be valid.
In the increasing individualistic society, where global is the new local, where modularity of daily life decides what activities to perform, Family as a starting point is not the most valid one to analyse if the social aspect of TV viewing is dissapearing.
I believe that it’s not dissapearing, but there’s a shift in the type of people with whom is being socialized during watching TV or any other digital activity. I add this explicitely, because digital activities are activities which were not diffused or even available a decade ago. The enabler is technological and the further increase of socializing the television activity will become clear the coming three years.
Not Family, but complete strangers, digital friends are becoming the new Family when it comes to many daily activities. Modularity is also partially causing this, which drives people to tune in with other people with the same need at that point of time, qualitatively increasing the spent time due to the aligned interest.
Social TV is in its infancy, systems do already exist which enable the Social TV experience. The fact that the technology exists, does not mean people will adapt or change their habbits. Perceived risks are too high for older generations, to change from a passive activity to a more interactive digital activity. Generation Z will organically adapt these new activities and socialize with their new digital Families.
In what ways do you think the technology will change the socializing aspect in comparison with the pre-digital era?
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I think that we won’t start seeing Social TV at the family level for several years because of what you mentioned about the adoption of the technology. Right now, the children in the families (and when I say “family” hear I mean the ones that still have children at home) are definitely on or ahead of the curve, and their ability to pick up any mainstream Social TV application that hits the market is high. However, the “parents” of today’s family for the most part don’t have that ability and frankly may never.
To me, one of the main questions would be whether “family time” in fact evolves… whether it’s activity related (watching TV) or space related (occupying the same space)… and which one of those is better? Can families still manage to come together effectively without using the same technologies?