“Doc, I need bi-focal lenses... one to focus on the main portion of the TV screen and the other to focus on the streaming messages at the bottom of it!”

The Bottom Line

The space at the bottom of your TV screen?

Now that’s very valuable ‘real estate’.

Hoardings that crowd skylines may have been banned, but TV-land’s power zones rule, rushing you from one flashing message to another, splitting your eyes into two halves. You watch what might be called the ‘main feature’... but you are also ‘registering’ updates and other nuggets that stream across the bottom of the screen.

BREAKING NEWS... Humankind has pulled off one more act of mayhem and terror; leaders are busy trotting out their well-practised ‘condemnations’, as though that ’s going to make the bad guys shudder in shame and reform instantly, but there at the bottom runs a thick band reassuring you that the latest box-office offering is running well to packed theatres. Your conscience feels its nose tickling.

Now some screens opt for two or three layers of runners, with little boxes at both ends advertising treats in store, blithely ignoring the resultant strain.

No wonder there was confusion when a channel ran stories of a riot, an arrest, an award-ceremony, and the ‘rare recipes from the Amazon’ show all at once.

Your mind soon learns to leap in a restless, ambidextrous way from topic to topic.

Caution! Relentless multi-tasking isn’t always easy. Not everyone can chew gum and walk.