Is your living room a 'digital hub'? Do you watch TV as as family? Or do you all sit in the same room watching different stuff?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello hello.

You may have seen/heard in the news today that, according to a new report from Ofcom (the communications regulator), 'living rooms are making a comeback' as families in the UK are now more likely to get together in their living room and watch TV than they have been for over a decade.

But increased use of smartphones and tablets means that many of us are actually either watching a different television show from our other half/our children while sitting in the same room - or using other devices to do related things, such as Tweeting about the show or using tie-in apps or texting/messaging friends.

Does this ring true for you? Does your family sit together in the living room with different groups of you using different devices to watch/browse different stuff? Or do you all watch the same programmes? Or, even, is the centre of your family life a different room in your house altogether?

Do tell. We'd love to know!

[ouryve]

We're watching less and less TV (yay!) Even the kids don't care about it, all that much.

Currently, I'm catching up on stuff, online, on my laptop. DH is watching a video on his tablet (yes he is wearing headphones) and DS1 is sat at the table, drawing. The room is quiet apart from the noises we're making, the stomping of DS2, who has taken all his toys upstairs and the excited chattering of the teenage girl, next door!

[throckenholt]

When we watch tv we are usually in the living room no-one using any other gadget. DS occasionally watches something on the pc in the dining room. More often we are scattered around the house/garden/garage doing stuff.

We don't fit the stereotype (we all sit down to eat together every day as well !).

[CoolStoryBro]

We don't even have a tv in the living room. Our living room is for chatting, playing games and listening to music. We spend a lot of time in there.

We do have a tv in the family room but we rarely all watch something together as we don't all like the same thing. If we do, then yes, it's a safe bet someone (ie DS1 and me!) have our iPhone/iPads out too.

[ReginaPhilangie]

Yeah we usually do. Kids will have the telly on and either be watching something or playing on the Wii. DH will either have his laptop on and be watching something with his headphones in or reading a book, and I'll either be on my laptop on MN or reading my Kindle.

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

Well at the moment, DS2 and DD are playing Pikmin3 on the TV, I'm sitting on the sofa MNing on my laptop and DS1 is on the PC playing League of Legends (with headphones) so yes, I guess we do use the living room like that. We've only got a small flat, so it's do that or hide in bedrooms, and on the whole we seem to prefer staying in the Living Room together even if we're doing different things. DC only do stuff in their rooms when they're banished there in the evenings...

[BackforGood]

Generally we're all scattered around the house (or out).
Surely this is going to be influenced by the age of your dc / make up of your family?
There are not many progs that we all watch (possibly Big Bang Theory being the only exception - but we tend to be available to watch that at different times / on different days, so we'll pick it up on Catch Up or on the laptop on iplayer or similar.
It's clearly very different dynamics now from when I was growing up, when you either watched it when it was on, or missed whatever prog it was you wanted to see (from a choice of 3 channels)

[elQuintoConyo]

Our only tv is upstairs in the den: small bedroom that will eventually be DS's. He is 19mo so we don't watch tv together, maybe stick on some Spongebob while I have a shower.
DH works all kinds of hours so I might watch tv on my own at night while he works downstairs, or he'll watch something while I wash up/go to bed.
We aren't big tv watchers and don't live in UK so haven't got access to iplayer - not sure if we can record stuff/save stuff on Spain's Sky-equivalent. Not that bothered,to be honest.

[MimsyBorogroves]

If the tv is on, I'm usually MNing on the iPad or reading my kindle. I don't watch tv much.

DS1 and 2 get tv time a couple of times a week, watching films with DH. When I'm with them and DH isn't, the TV doesn't go on - it never occurs to me and they don't ask.

No TV anywhere else. The boys will use the iPad from time to time, mainly to watch music videos or play apps.

[onedev]

This pretty much describes us - only 1 TV in the house which is inter living room, so we'll all sit in the living rooms various iPads & iPhones with only 1 or 2 of us watching something on the TV.

I agree with the poster up thread - when we were younger, we'd all he in the living room but my dad would be reading the paper (broadsheet so you wouldn't even see him from behind it, just legs!) & mum would be going crosswords - so don't think it's any different now really

[onedev]

Sorry about all the typos in my post - bloody iPhones

[MrsMaryCooper]

All in the same room - only one TV. Often one or more on laptop or playing games though.

[CoTananat]

We don't have a tv. But we do have a projector and when we put that on we watch it together, a few hours a month, generally on our bedroom wall but sometimes in the sitting room. We watch series, one after the other, not mixed up. We don't watch live tv on a schedule apart from Dr Who and Sherlock, which we do probably liveblog, aye. Or tumblr. You have to watch those straight away or the SuperWholock juggernaut on tumblr will show you the entire ep in a series of amusing captioned gifs. They move fast!

I watch tv on my laptop but only when I'm doing something like cleaning or sketching (for work) that needs my hands. Or for CBeebies, of course. God bless CBeebies. I put that on the laptop and put it up high in a cradle.

[tabulahrasa]

Only one TV here as well, so sometimes me and DP are on phones or the iPad...not watching something else though, sometimes I'm reading a book if it's something I don't want to watch.

One thing that has changed is that now we can work out where we know actors from while we're watching, not important in any way, but very satisfying, lol.

[smilingthroughgrittedteeth]

the kitchen is our meeting place, right this minute dp, dsd, dss and me are sat around the table, I'm mning on my tablet, dp is playing a game on his tablet, dsd is Facebooking on her laptop and dss is watching funny animal clips on YouTube on his iPod touch.

usually early evening we all sit in the living room to watch something together but dsd and I will often be reading at the same time (either book or kindle).

the children aren't allowed gadgets whilst watching tv it's one or the other, once they are in bed dp and I often watch tv whilst doing stuff on our tablets.

[Trills]

I have the TV on and I am MNing right now.

(I'm not working today)

[Trills]

I do all sorts of things that I would consider a "bad example" if there were children watching.

Some shows (the Apprentice springs to mind) were practically designed to be watched while bitching on the internet.

[theonewiththenoisychild]

our livingroom is a digital hub but we are all together and we do talk to each other so not all completly ignoring each other

[swallowedAfly]

i want my friend to come on here and tell the story of how her and her husband interact in the living room of an evening. she made me laugh my head off talking about what it is like to be watching telly while a grown man in the corner is on a headset talking in code to people he's 'raiding' with online.

ooh how antisocial - err yeah but go back 50 years and he'd probably in the pub drinking away the wages whilst she was still cleaning and trying to keep a fire going at home.

21st century quandries and concerns really are quite amusing in context.

[theonewiththenoisychild]

he sounds just like my dp only he suddenly shouts you camping b**rds because apparently someone has been hiding the whole game and shot him
but we do chat and watch telly sometimes and other times i go round my friends and listen to her dp saying the exact same things

[swallowedAfly]

i used to mock so much but really how long do we spend on mn and the like talking to virtual strangers?