The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
As we get used to saying this is now 2024…think back a full decade ago, to 2014. How many things are the same now as they were then?
We didn’t have this thing called “working remotely” because very few of us had heard of Zoom…nor had the China virus that led us to all need to learn how to “work remotely” been invented—to our knowledge, that is.
Ten years ago, what sort of TV did you have? Or phone? And watching TV meant watching whatever TV channels offered us, not setting them aside in favor of something called a “streaming service”.
But despite all those new options, a seemingly infinite number of things to take our attention away from something we were used to doing…one thing that has not changed is the amount of time we Americans spend consuming audio content.
The first Edison “Share of Ear” survey in 2014 shows that the U.S. population aged 13 and older spent four hours and 17 minutes a day listening to audio…could be radio, could be a podcast, could be music. Four hours and 17 minutes each and every day on average.
That was 10 years ago. The brand new numbers show that same group now spends four hours and 11 minutes per day consuming audio…virtually the same as a decade ago. And in looking at the 10-year trend, it’s been give-or-take about a quarter hour…meaning that of all the things in our world that changed over the last ten years, the one thing that has been remarkably stable is the amount of time we spend listening to audio.
Not watching a cat video on our phones. Not texting. Not binge watching a show on a streaming service. But the time spent listening to audio.
About 75 years ago, when television first came out, experts said it would be the death of radio. Then came cable TV, and again…the end of radio was forecast. Every time something new comes out, it’s the death of audio, including radio.
Or then again…in this case…the more things change, the more they do stay the same.
