Is TV Getting ‘Dumbed Down’ for People Who Scroll Their Phones While Watching?

Are TV shows being "dumbed down" for people who like to scroll on their phones while watching?

According to Pocket, streaming insiders from Netflix have indicated that this may actually be the case.

It's the age of multi-tasking to the extreme thanks to the plethora of devices available to us at all times.

Gone are the days of simply sitting down to enjoy a movie or TV show alone –– now, most people are accompanied by their phone, tablet or other secondary entertainment device.

It's common for people to scroll social media, play games or color on their devices while "watching" TV at the same time.

According to an essay in n+1 magazine, Netflix now has a burgeoning subgenre of content known as "casual viewing."

Screenwriters for the streaming platform have even allegedly been told to make protagonists "announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along."

Netflix heads have also reportedly told showrunners to make sure their projects are suitable for the "second screen," a.k.a. the secondary screen behind the primary screen, which would be one's cellphone screen.

Basically, this means they want such shows to be simple enough for someone whose attention is divided between devices to follow along.

Actress and producer Justine Bateman elaborated on the phenomenon to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023.

"I’ve heard from showrunners who are given notes from the streamers that 'this isn’t second screen enough,'" she said.

"Meaning the viewer’s primary screen is their phone and the laptop, and they don’t want anything on your show to distract them from their primary screen because if they get distracted, they might look up, be confused, and go turn it off," Bateman explained.

On the other hand, some writers for Netflix have denied being asked to "dumb down" their shows.

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"Hand on heart, nobody puts any pressure on us from Netflix to make anything simplistic or that you can watch while you’re scrolling through your phone or whatever," writer Danny Brocklehurst told Pocket.

However, writer Joe Barton noted that although it hasn't happened to him personally, Netflix is a large company and it could be happening somewhere.

"I don’t think there’s a sort of homogenized Netflix. It’s a huge company with many different departments," he said.

"I think it’s OK to be mindful of how social media has mashed everyone’s attention spans to a pulp. We’d be lying to ourselves if we didn’t admit that most of us find it hard to put our phones down when the TV is on, and we all get distracted very easily. But I’d be very concerned if any exec I was working with was actively trying to give our audience permission to pay less attention," writer James Hamilton explained.

"I think there are and always have been shows that cater to more casual viewing," Barton added.

"We should be asking how to encourage audiences to pay more attention, not less. I think people are always hungry for stories made with nuance, care and attention to detail, whether they realize it or not. Great storytelling knows how to reward both casual and focused attention," Hamilton said.

However, Netflix does have a major competitor in phones.

According to PC Mag, as many as 94 percent of people admitted to scrolling while watching TV in a study commissioned by Facebook in 2019.