'Second screening' might not be a term everyone is familiar with but it is something we all do. Second screening is the practice of using your phone while watching a movie, this could be on your laptop, on TV or god forbid, in a cinema.
Second screening has influenced film to the point of filmmakers having to take into consideration that people will be on their phones during their movies and that the plot must be dumbed down in order for them to follow along. This causes for great shows to have less complex plots as writers must now explain everything in painstaking detail again and again to make sure that you keep watching and know whats happening.
I will admit, I am a perpetrator of this but I am bettering myself. We are losing the joy of being lost in a movie, with TikTok, Instagram or ASOS taking centre stage.
However, there is blame to be put on streaming services and studios that enact these policies as they are still producing complex, innovative movies. The studios that a creating these simple, dumbed down movies are doing it out of convenience, they are choosing to be boring. If studios, especially Netflix focus on making good content then second screening would not be as much of an issue as it is becoming. It is disrespectful to the writers, filmmakers and actors for studios to require them to make simpler projects which due to their simplicity, force people to be on their phones as they can tune back in at any time as if nothing happened.
I advise you to try to use your phone less when watching movies, when I watched Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein on Netflix, my phone was cold and lifeless throughout. Viewers want interesting movies but if you're too deep into doomscrolling you will miss these masterpieces.