For the first time ever, television is about to be less popular than digital media among U.S. adults.
At least that’s the word from eMarketer, who say that in 2013, Americans will spend an average of 5 hours and 9 minutes per day looking at media on digital devices. We’re talking Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and browsing the web. That’s up from 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2012.
TV watching will fall from 4 hours and 38 minutes in 2012 to 4 hours and 31 minutes in 2013. That means that they predict American adults will spend 38 more minutes per day with digital media as they do watching TV.
According to eMarketer, the big increase comes from mobile:
“The most significant growth area is on mobile. Adults will spend an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on nonvoice mobile activities, including mobile internet usage on phones and tablets – longer than they will spend online on desktop and laptop computers, and nearly an hour more than they spent on mobile last year.”
It’s important to note that eMarketer’s data includes “multitasking” – for instance checking out Facebook while watching TV.
Another interesting find is the rise in tablet use over the past few years. Back in 2010, Americans only spent 1 minutes per day on average browsing the internet with a tablet. In 2013, they predict that number will rise to 1 hour and 3 minutes – only 4 minutes shy of how much time people will spend on smartphones.
TV still wins out in one metric, however – news consumption. A recent Gallup poll indicated that 55& of American adults say that TV is their primary source for news. 21% of adults say that about the internet.