The Times They Are A-Changing

By Rick Moran

According to a study by IBM out this week, Americans are spending almost as much time surfing the net as they are clicking the TV remote:

TIME SPENT ON THE INTERNET is set to surpass time spent watching TV in the average American household, according to the results of an IBM survey released Wednesday. Overall, 19% of respondents said they spend six or more hours a day on the Internet, versus 9% for TV. More telling, 60% reported that they spend one to four hours using the Internet, versus 66% who spend the time watching TV. Of course, the time spent on the Internet includes growing consumption of online video, according to the global survey of about 2,000 respondents (including 885 Americans) conducted in April-June of this year. Globally, 67% of consumers say they watch video on the Internet, or would like to do so.

The study also showed that advertising on TV was more effective than ads on the internet which means we probably won't be seeing the end of television as a result of the changing habits of American consumers.

This is absolutely astonishing to those of us who grew up in a 3 network, TV dominant society. It was quite simply unthinkable that anything could ever replace TV as the main means of family entertainment.

But here we are with the internet set to leave TV in the dust. One more sign, if any were needed, that the world is changing faster than many of us can keep up with.