Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Ali.
1.Bodyguard and the social media spoiler
With its superb script and un-bel-ievable plot twists, the BBC’s new gripping thriller, Bodyguard, starring Keeley Hawes and Richard Madden has gripped the nation: 10.4 million people watched the first episode, apparently making it the most successful drama of the decade.
As well as being superbly executed, the other aspect of the drama that’s got everyone taking is that it’s on terrestrial TV. In our binge watching era, where we expect the next episode to be instantly available on Netflix or Amazon Prime, we’ve got to wait a whole seven days for the next installment.
Whilst our nerves might not be able to take more than one episode per week anyway, this return to ‘old fashioned’ viewing has cooked up a bit of a storm on social media. Spoilers are nothing new in the digital age, but due to the sheer volume of people watching the programme, it has exacerbated the problem for fans.
Various journalists and publications have got in to hot water by over-sharing, and even if the spoiler isn’t spelled out in detail, is just knowing there’s a spoiler, a spoiler in itself? Even one of the drama’s stars got in on the act by tweeting but no-one is sure if that’s a double bluff – perhaps a spoiler about a spoiler?
Watching terrestrial television just got complicated. Perhaps stay off social media if you haven’t caught up on your favourite watch yet, and probably avoid the water cooler at work too. This one’s just too gripping not to talk about, on or offline.
2.Is Facebook losing its grip on engagement?
The amount of time people are spending on Facebook is dropping according to new data from Nielsen, although users are turning more towards Instagram which is owned by the same company. At this point in time it is only a small, but not insignificant drop: a 7% reduction in time spent on the platform to date. However, Instagram users spent 38% more time over the past year.
Facebook is rebuffing critics by saying it’s quality not quantity of time that matters and to some extent this is true but when that is combined with only a 3.5% increase in users vs. Insta’s 15%, it must be worrying times at Facebook HQ.
Even more concerning for the platform, is that it is no longer the ‘must have’ social media service of choice for the next generation. A study by Common Sense Media cited that only 15% of those aged 13 to 17 said their ‘go-to social site’ was Facebook, down from 68% in 2012.
Experts are citing a number of factors such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal but some of this decline has simply got to be a generational shift. It’s not cool to wear the same clothes as your par