The Couch Potato Is An Endangered Species [Infographic]

According to this infographic, the couch potato is extinct. I still know of a few couch potatoes who cling to their remote controls like they are life rafts though, so I’ve chosen to call couch potatoes an endangered species, which may or may not be more accurate. Semantics aside, this is very interesting because it illustrates another shift in our behavior, which is directly related to our gadgets and technology in general.

When was the last time you sat still and watched an entire television show via your TV? I can’t even remember the last time I did that. It was probably the Super Bowl last year, if that counts as a television show. The thing is, we don’t really do that anymore. People in general, especially young people, are attached to their mobile devices, not their televisions. It’s not that people have stopped watching television shows, but it’s the way we are watching them that has changed.

Gone are the days when people used to grab a bag of chips and a beer and veg out on the couch to watch all their shows. Now, instead, we are watching them on our mobile devices. We wouldn’t think of actually watching the commercials, right? Instead, we surf the Internet, tweet, check email and send text messages during that commercial time. It’s all part of our new technology-filled lifestyle that started evolving a few years ago.

This infographic called The Couch Potato Is Extinct was created by a collaboration between visual.ly and realPlayer. This asks a very relevant question at the end. Do you think the TV will become extinct just like the couch potato? I hear about more and more people who don’t even turn the TV on in their homes anymore. I think as our technology-focused lifestyle continues to evolve; this could absolutely happen. Do you agree?