3 in 10 broadband internet users aged 15-17 say they occasionally post comments to social media sites about the TV shows they watch, a figure which remains relatively high (25%) among 18-34-year-olds, but drops to just 10% of respondents aged 35 and older, according to survey result from Horowitz Associates. (To be fair, the figure for the 35+ crowd could be heavily influenced by low rates among older Americans, many of whom aren’t using social networks.) A good deal of those commenters are engaging on social while watching TV.
Specifically, 26% of the 15-17-year-old respondents said they post comments while watching TV, as do 17% of 18-34-year-olds. This activity is much less common among the 35 and older crowd (6%), though the same caveat applies with respect to the broad age range.
The survey finds that a significant portion of respondents – 37% of the 15-17 group and 36% of the 18-34 crowd – are at least occasionally discovering new shows to watch through social media. About 1 in 5 of the 35+ bracket agree. That’s an interesting result given previous study results suggesting that social’s impact on TV show discovery is quite small.
Also of note: 53% of respondents aged 18 and older said they find it distracting when networks display social media comments on-screen, and 48% find it distracting even when just hashtags are displayed. (The corresponding figures among 15-17-year-olds were 44% and 37%, respectively.)
Data concerning consumer views of the effectiveness of social cues in advertising can be found here.
About the Data: The results are based on an online survey of 1,000 broadband internet users across the US. 800 are aged 18+ and 200 are aged 15-17.
