UK Now Spends More Time Playing With Smartphones Than Watching TV

We still love telly, but we just can't put our phones and tablets down.

It's no surprise that people are obsessed with their digital devices, but in the UK we will soon be spending more time with iPhones and tablets than we do watching TV.

MagMos / Thinkstock.com

Analysts at media research firm Emarketer say that:

-- In 2014 people in the UK will spend a total of 8.5 hours a day consuming media, of which...

-- 3 hours and 41 minutes will be on mobile digital devices,

-- Compared to 3 hours 15 minutes watching telly.

It's not that we're watching less TV, we're just fiddling with our phones a lot more.

emarketer.com

Meanwhile, the time spent online by people using laptops and desktop is flat - all the growth is coming from smartphones and tablets.

EMarketer also says 38% of people in the UK will have a tablet by the end of the year - a huge increase since Apple first brought out the iPad in 2010.

Doxieone Photography/Doxieone Photography

And these data relate to people aged over 18. We can only imagine how digitally minded people are who have never known a time without Google and Facebook.

Of course, loads of people manage to watch TV and play with their phone or tablet AT THE SAME TIME - 53% of us multi-task like this every week according to Ofcom.

IPGGutenbergUKLtd/IPGGutenbergUKLtd

Live TV still accounts for around 90% of all TV viewing - but, it's getting harder and harder for TV producers and advertisers to capture and keep the attention of an audience that's tweeting, snapchatting and texting during all the programmes.