The Bus

What I mean is, how much of your TV watching happens with your computer, laptop, tablet, and phone tucked away?

There are probably shows were most people are doing other things. You might be talking about sports with others or it's a reality show you don't care about so you are on Facebook or email.

On the other hand, I cannot imagine watching, say, Mad Men or Game of Thrones while being preoccupied with something else.

Most times I watch TV, it's the latter.

Spottedfeather

I find it very annoying to only watch tv and nothing else. Right now, I'm watching X-Men 2 while typing this. I'll watch things with my dad sometimes and he gets annoyed because I'll making tapping noises or just fidget. But if I'm watching tv and playing a game, I'm fine. It's weird.

auto

Good question. It's rare I'll watch TV without messing around on my iPad or iPhone. If it's Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc. I'll put them away but even then I'll sometimes pop them on for a minute and jump on the Internet. I annoy myself doing this.

I can't remember the last time my wife watched anything without playing games on her iPhone at the same time. That also annoys me, but it shouldn't because she really doesn't care about any TV shows.

Gunde

I only watch shows I really want to watch so when I watch TV I only watch TV.
I have zero time for casual watching.

aktick

3 months ago? Always messing with my phone or laptop except when something like Game of Thrones was on. Now? I just watch the show distraction free, after ditching about 90% of the shows I used to watch. I figured if I couldn't sit there for 30-60 minutes and watch it without playing on my phone, it wasn't worth watching. I watch about an hour of TV a day now at most, and enjoy it much more than I used to.

mdc3000

scripted shows, I almost NEVER use my phone or ipad while watching - I like them too much to be distracted by other things. If I'm watching a hockey game or something, I may sometimes check the net...but usually I'm always 'single screening' it.

JuryDuty

I try to watch TV distraction-free. I want to experience it as close to what the director envisioned as I can so I can enjoy it the most, and that means without distractions. If I'm using my iPad or doing something else in the room, it's only because it's a show that's a throw away (like a Judge Judy or something) that just doesn't demand attention to plot-points and scripting.

DRG

Whenever I watch tv distracted like that I end up rewinding every scene, sometimes multiple times, because I miss everything. I was watching some hour long show (42 minutes without commercials) last week while playing with my tablet and it ended up taking me two hours.

Groucho

Shows like Glee were made for multi-tasking.

Trevor

Two extremes for me:

a movie (or serious TV show) I've never seen before requires my uninterrupted and full attention

a repeat viewing or almost all TVs show gets multi-tasking, and I can't imagine having the time to focus just on TV

arminius

If I am watching tv I am watching tv. If I don't care for what's on I'll do something else. Multi-tasking is just a different version of jack of all trades master of none.

Trevor

Nothing on TV is worth being a master on.

CharlieK

Yes, most of the TV shows I watch are appointment TV for me, so I do nothing else. With sports, though, especially football, I get a lot of other stuff done.

Goat3001

There are some that require undivided attention or you'll miss something big (Game of Thrones). There are other shows that are easier to follow but are too engaging to even want to multi-task (Breaking Bad, Mad Men).

Then there are plenty of other shows that I can follow while dicking around on the internet. Mostly average sitcoms or easy to follow dramas. I'll multi-task during those.

bunkaroo

I'm like the OP - most of the time I am on my iPad while "watching" TV.

I see it as more a reflection on how good the show is. I give every show a few minutes to interest me, and if it doesn't I usually pull out the iPad.

Current shows exempt from this: Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, sometimes Walking Dead, Curb Your Enthusiasm.

I've been basically listening to Weeds just to get it over with. Shows like Newsroom and True Blood are decent but aren't compelling enough to keep my full attention sometimes. I guess this means I should just stop watching them.

I also do a lot of surfing during baseball games but given the level of inaction between pitches I don't miss much. Can't surf during hockey games though - will definitely miss something.

Thankfully I still don't surf much at all during movies at home unless I want to look something up related to the movie.

Obi-Wanma

If it's something I chose to watch, then I'm not messing with anything else while I watch it, unless it's halftime of a football game or something. Then I may mess around until the game starts again. If it's something that my wife or kids are watching that I couldn't care less about, then I almost always have my laptop in front of me. Actually, I've also found that if my wife puts on a movie that I like, I have difficultly conentrating on my laptop. If that happens, and I'd really rather be messing around on the net, then I have to get up and go in the other room.

wishbone

Most of my television viewing is at my computer desk with a small flatscreen TV so I am usually online while watching television; if I watch TV or a movie in the front room then it is usually distraction-free.

RichC2

Depends on the show, since I've dropped most of the shows I'm only casually interested in, it's mostly single screen.

Tracer Bullet

I've mostly done this as well. Dropped a bunch of shows. Don't miss any of them.

bunkaroo

I need to do that as well. At the very least it will free up time to watch a lot of my TV box sets I haven't watched in the past several years. Shows I actually do like!

Good example is I'll be re-watching ST:TNG as it releases on Blu. Those tend to keep my attention.

First on the chopping block - Sons of Anarchy. I know it's starting up soon and usually I'd just watch it out of habit, but it has sucked hard lately so no real point now.

mndtrp

Since I don't have a laptop or smartphone, any cell phone at all actually, I don't have much of a choice. Everything I watch is "single screen". I rarely even read a magazine at the same time.

islandclaws

Serious shows: phones are put away, especially my gf's since she can't seem to get off the fucking thing.

Everything else: I play WWF and casually pay attention.

Raul3

I hate that my wife is always on her iPad when watching TV. I specially hate it when we are watching Breaking Bad. She's missing like 50% of the enjoyment of the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yoshimi

When I watch anything on TV I only watch the TV. Same goes for music. If I put a CD or LP on I sit there and listen to it.

fujishig

Maybe she's not all that interested? What's worse is if she continually asks you to rewind or recap the show for her...