Real_Living: Full results - how devices compete for attention in the living room

The Real_Living study – carried out by award winning research agency, Sparkler – investigates the degree to which the rise of internet-connected devices has impacted the traditional TV watching living room dynamic, and how people really divide a finite amount of attention between different screens.

The study involved a survey of 1,010 online adults, passive monitoring of the online and app usage of 47 people over 7 days, and an ethnographic study of two households with biometric data in one of the households. It reveals what's really happening in the modern living room by exposing 3 key myths:

1. Myth one: The TV screen is the dominant screen in the living room. Connected devices are used as ‘second screens’

2. Myth two: The TV content / advertising schedule determines behaviour in the living room

3. Myth three: People are multi-tasking and multi-screening

As younger generations get older and technology adoption increases, fragmentation of attention will increase and advertisers should consider how best to communicate in this new environment.

View the press release here