Mouse Potato

What Does Mouse Potato Mean?

Mouse potato is a term for someone who spends a lot of leisure time or discretionary time sitting in front of a screen connected to the Internet. It is a modern take on the older term “couch potato,” that refers to someone who spends a lot of time in front of a television.

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Techopedia Explains Mouse Potato

Experts point out that the terms “couch potato” and “mouse potato” are related to an overarching struggle between broadcast providers that use network television, and those that use online platforms. One of the biggest differences between the two is that the online model offers much more opportunity for two-way communication, interactivity and audience involvement. By contrast, television, which evolved decades earlier, is simply a passive medium. The industry is now seeing the online and television models converge in new and interesting ways, where the television programming of the future may end up being purchased over the Internet, then watched in a web browser. The evolution of smart TVs is also changing the game on how consumers would be labeled, and how they would choose to spend their time receiving broadcasted programming.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…