How many devices does it take to watch a show?

So I was just recently hanging out with some friends watching the show Gravity Falls when I realized just how many electronic devices were being used between the three of us as we watched the show.  We were using J’s Xbox One to watch the show, M. was playing a game on his Nintendo 3DS and sometimes pulling up twitter on his smartphone to make comments either about the show or his game, J was using his laptop to run a World of Darkness game through a chat based site, and I was using my computer to look up voice actors and other information about Gravity Falls whenever one of us would go, “I totally know that character’s voice from somewhere…”

Levin (2014) talked about an ecosystem of connected devices and how they are “progressively changing the way people perceive, experience, and interact with products and each other” (p. 3).  My recent experience made me realize just how true this is.  J downloaded a digital copy of Gravity Falls using his laptop and transferred the copy to his Xbox One for us all to sit and watch.  The same shows we watch on J’s television through his Xbox One could be watched, just as easily, on another game console, a computer, a tablet, a smartphone, etc.  Such is the growing interconnectablility of modern electronic devices.

*All names were abbreviated to the first initial of first name to keep us all anonymous because we are just that mysterious.

Levin, M. (2014). Designing multi-device experiences:  An ecosystem approach to user experiences across devices. Beijing: O’Reily.

05 Feb This entry was written by kpeden2015 and published on February 5, 2015 at 5:33 pm. It’s filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.