The couch potato moves closer to the monitor

My first blog post, about 4 years ago, was a reaction to the YouTube craze. I asked the question "do people really need their computers to act like televisions?" My belief was that interactivity, or "active," consumption of multimedia would ultimately win out over "passive" consumption of digital video. I thought the shift from active to passive behavior was strange, especially on an interactive platform. Four years later, people are still all over YouTube, treating their computers like TVs. The "couch potato" has moved even closer to the monitor.

Oddly, a new, hybrid trend in user behavior is emerging that is both active and passive. This trend is enabled by a concept called "TV everywhere." A moderately tech-savvy consumer now has the ability to watch TV on a laptop, iPod, iPhone, iPad, or Android phone. TV "on the go" is available to all three screens (TV, computer, mobile device). It is an active behavior because "on the go" implies the consumer is doing other things, such as travelling for business or visiting friends. It is also a "passive" behavior, however, because the consumer's free time is spent watching video content.

Essentially, TV is far from dead. The maturation of mobile technology with big and bright LCD screens has enabled us to carry our televisions with us, in our pockets. TV is an extension of our own bodies. It travels with us.

And, the reverse trend is coming too. We will soon have internet access on our televisions. It is already a reality on some TVs. How will the introduction of interactivity to an inherently "passive" platform (our TVs) change viewer behavior? Other than calling up photo galleries from Flickr and Picasa on the TV, what else will the couch potato want to do on their TVs?