TV is not enough, 88 per cent of people use smartphone or tablet while watching shows

Thanks to the reduced attention span, even television is not enough as roughly 88 per cent of Americans uses a second device, such as a phone or tablet, while watching TV, according to the annual internet trends report by venture capitalist Mary Meeker.

As Fast Company reports, most TV watchers are doing what is called as 'research' on these secondary devices, with 71 per cent of people looking up content related to the program they are watching on TV, and 41 per cent are messaging friends or family related to the show on TV.

The report highlights that Americans spend an average of 3.6 hours on their phones or tablets every day, up from 3.3 hours last year. Owing to the faster internet speeds, users are increasingly watching videos on mobile devices instead of the larger screens.

The amount of time spent on phones has also surpassed the amount of time spent watching TV.