Mobile Media Consumption Tops Computer Use

Smaller screens and mobile devices have made a big mark on the viewing habits of a majority of Americans. New research has found that people now spend the same amount of time consuming media on their smartphones and tablets as they do on their laptops and personal computers.

That's the finding of a new eMarketer report, which estimates 40 percent of the media consumption by adults in the United States will be done digitally this year with an almost identical split between smartphone and tablet users and laptop and personal computer users. The researchers found that adults will spend 19.8 percent of their time consuming media online using laptops and other computers and 19.5 percent of their mobile consumption time on mobile devices.

Television remains a popular means of media consumption, trailing only digital at 38 percent of total media viewing. Radio and print accounted for just 17 percent of media consumption. Overall, users spent nearly 12 hours per day across all those mediums.

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"The shift from desktop to mobile, whether smartphone or tablet, is happening across a variety of activities, including social networking and digital video viewing and tablets are key to the trend," the eMarketer report said.

Social media and video have been the biggest drivers of consumption for mobile users. Online users will spend more than two hours a day watching video or using social media on laptops and computers. Smartphone and tablet users will spend nearly the same amount of time doing those tasks, the researchers found.

Smartphone users will spend the same percentage of their time on social media as laptops and personal computer users, the researchers found. Additionally, tablet users will spend a greater percentage of their time watching videos than users on computers.

Follow David Mielach on Twitter @D_M89. Follow us @bndarticles, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on BusinessNewsDaily.