John Horn is reporting that an L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll about movie-viewing habits says youths “are willing to watch brand-new movies at home rather than in theaters, are starting to use their [computers] as their entertainment gateway and are slowly turning to their iPods and cellphones for video programming.” Fine, but some of the wording in this story feels vague.
47% of 12 to 17 year-olds contacted by Times/Bloomberg pollsters say they “would” watch a movie on a computer, which is higher than the percentage of those amenable to watching films on their cell phones (11%) or video iPods (18%). What does “would” mean in this context? I “would” eat a hotdog made of ground-up gorilla intestines if I was desperately hungry enough, but would I order one if I could just as easily order a nice Greek salad with warm pita bread on the side? Watching a flick on a decent-sized laptop screen is okay, but who in the world would willingly settle for this with an option of seeing a film on a 36″ flat-screen, a 60″ high-def screen or a movie screen?
The Times/Bloomberg poll seems to suggest that picture size, sharpness and richness of texture don’t matter as much to younger teens as they do, say, to older movie buffs in their 30s or 40s. We all know younger teens teens don’t have access to plusher viewing modes, amd yet something tells me they’re not that enthused about micro-screen viewings. There’s a big difference between being okay with something and seriously liking it.