There was a lot of buzz last week about Procter & Gamble’s decision to move spend away from TV soaps and daytime dramas and toward digital channels. And our most recent report (our annual look at consumers' online behaviors), published today, supports this trend. For the first year ever, the average time US consumers report spending online is the same that they report spending watching offline TV. While Gen Yers have been spending more time online than watching TV offline for a few years now, this is the first year for Gen Xers. And Boomers now report spending equal time for both. Of course, Seniors Boomers still report spending most of their media time offline.

The data we present in this most recent Technographics® report is self-reported, so the metrics aren’t the same as those you’d see from a Nielsen or comScore. But, the data tells a very important story that is coming directly from the mouths of consumers: They now see themselves splitting the time they spend with offline and online media at least equally. The other interesting piece to this media use puzzle is that, looking over time, this change hasn’t come as a result of a drastic decrease in the time consumers are spending with their TVs. Rather, the change is due to the explosive growth in the time consumers are spending online.

Where is all this available time coming from? Well, some is being drawn from the decreased use of print media, but increasingly people are finding new ways to incorporate the Internet into their daily lives at times where, before, media wasn’t part of the picture. And of course, there’s the issue of multitasking, something younger consumers are especially becoming adept at.

Internet time is also creeping into mobile time, which is another topic we examine in this report. Interestingly, we’ve found that there are very particular types of mobile Internet users — social, information, and media users. Who are the most attractive to target? Take a guess (before you read the report!), and I’ll let you know if you’re right! (For some hints on mobile behaviors you can read these mobile blogs from my colleague Reineke Reitsma.)

 

**As a note, this report will also be completed for Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America in the new year.