I think that's just one of the issues with watching stuff at home. We have those other distractions and there's no penalty to looking at your phone or talking with someone else. In a movie theater, that's not acceptable (or at least it shouldn't be, I see way too many people pulling out their phones and distracting me with the brightness while the movie's playing). James Cameron made a point about that recently; when you see a movie in the theater, you're consciously choosing to give yourself entirely to a piece of art. All of your attention is on the sight and sound of the movie (or again, it should be) for however long it lasts. The home viewing environment is just entirely different.

I actually got a time-lock safe on Amazon, specifically to hold my phone during TV/movies, so I wouldn’t be able to dick around on my phone. I set it for the length of the runtime, and then there’s nothing to do but watch TV. The result is that I watch fewer things overall, but enjoy the things I do watch more.

One thing I did learn is that the phone and especially the infinite-scrolling apps are the really addictive part. If you can disrupt that dopamine loop, the rest isn’t as hard to resist as you’d think. There was nothing stopping me from browsing Reddit’s desktop site on my laptop, but I didn’t bother. It’s specifically the hand-held information geyser that destroys my focus, not the mere existence of distractions.

I hate how it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. You might not find something particularly engaging and you slip out your phone, but then you aren't paying attention enough that it will ever be engaging to you. So even if you try to put the phone away and pay attention, you'll lose interest because you missed out on becoming invested in the character and stories since you were looking at your phone.

I am disappointed how little "second screening" has been utilized as a tool for television rather than a distraction for viewers.

10 years ago, there was talk of phones and tablets being used as complementary gadgets for watching TV, both as extra information and interaction, but nobody has really mainstreamed this idea yet.

There was a big survey and something like 80% of people play on their phones rather than paying attention to show.

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Shows can't have subtly anymore because they know the audience will miss it and complain.

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Imagine a scene where a couple is having an argument. Instead of the wife replying with a look that the director knows will be missed by 80%, she now has to ham fistedly declare that's she's upset.

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Look at how lambasted the witcher was because no one could bother to pay attention and instead blamed the showrunners.

> Look at how lambasted the witcher was because no one could bother to pay attention and instead blamed the showrunners

There’s absolutely no good reason not to tell me when the timeline switches, though. It doesn’t have to be huge, I don’t need text on the screen or anything, but at least a woosh like on Lost or something. It’s frustrating to have to be like “oh okay which set of people are we following now?” after every cut.

SKAM sort of tried a multi-platform thing, but they didn't take it to it's logical conclusion.

Yeah, especially first getting into a show. All my favourite shows that I'm super nerdy about started off with me making myself pay attention to it when I was inclined to passively scroll through reddit

Greta Gerwig's Little Women had a non-linear timeline indicated by the color grade and while a lot of us found it easy to follow, a lot of people were complaining about it. Sometimes the audience is at fault, it's not unreasonable to expect an audience to pay attention and think. Likewise, it's perfectly fine for the audience to say "nope, not for me, you're not being clear enough." But a line should not be drawn saying it must be done a certain way.

I didn't like the first episode of The Wire, but it's one of the best shows ever. Fortunately I watched it at a time when there wasn't all that much worthwhile to do on a phone.

There is no reason to tell you either.

No the reason to tell me is so that I’m not frustrated by trying to figure out if a time jump happens every time there’s a cut. I explained why there’s a reason to do it.

This is why I tend to watch things with headphones on and the lights off. Helps me become immersed and avoid distractions.

WWE had this nailed down really good for a year or two, you'd see live interviews happen during commercials on your phone, polls, voting for things to happen on the show in the app, and then one day it just fucking disappeared

It's literally how Netflix engineers their content, down to the writing and direction. The inclusion of "second screen consideration" in it's content development is why sooo much of their stuff is just middling waste of bandwidth.

That's the primary way on which it's affected content.