How technology is changing our behaviour

Nielson Online issued research last week showing that Youtube was now the most visited social media website in the UK with 10.4m visitors in Jan. This compares with Wikipedia (9.6m) and Facebook (8.5m) See FT 6th Mar 08 Online video watching surges. I have to admit that I often sit down to watch Youtube on my 50inch plasma driven by my iMac. Last night I played most of Amy MacDonald’s album that way. Of course, this change in behaviour is having a pretty major effect on conventional TV – and the advertising revenue on which it relies. One only has to look at the appalling results from ITV last week for evidence.

But one of the more interesting effects of this was revealed by the Sleep Council which found 16% of all couples now sleep in separate beds. The main reason (apparently) is that our bedrooms are where all the technology resides. So when one partner wants to watch Youtube or check into Facebook on the bedroom PC, the other wants to sleep – so goes into a separate room. I must admit my own wife has banned my Blackberry from our bedroom. One of my friends tried to circumvent this problem by checking his Blackberry in the bathroom each morning. Until his wife made a doctor’s appointment for him suspecting he might have a rather more serious ailment.