One-screen Guy in a Two-screen World

I came to a realization on Monday morning, after the Oscars: I don't think I have what it takes to be part of the two-screen world. Which, increasingly, is what we seem to be living in.
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I came to a realization on Monday morning, after the Oscars:

I don't think I have what it takes to be part of the two-screen world. Which, increasingly, is what we seem to be living in.

I'm a one-screen guy. And by that I mean that, when I watched the Academy Awards on Sunday night, that's all I watched.

I didn't toggle between the Oscars and something else, including that amazing episode of True Detective. (Isn't that why the DVR was invented?)

I wasn't checking an iPad or a laptop or even a smartphone for everyone else's reaction on Twitter or Facebook to what I had just seen.

Nor was I live-tweeting or live-blogging or live-anything about what I was watching. I did make a few wisecracks to my wife and, when she went upstairs to bed, to my dog. But I had no particular urge to join the worldwide contest to see who could post the edgiest one-liner of the past 10 minutes.

But when I read my Twitter feed from the Oscar show on the morning after, it struck me: The two-screen experience has become the norm. Many, many people had watched the same show I did, while also engaging with the rest of the world (or their little piece of it) through an electronic device.

This commentary continues on my website.

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