It’s official: watching TV and movies is our favorite national distraction.

More than a quarter of entertainment hours in 2018 were spent watching television shows and movies. That’s as much time as we spent with music and video games combined. Reading books and other offline activities made up the remainder of the list.

Cable and satellite TV providers have been shedding subscribers for years now as millions of cord cutters flock to streaming services, and the trend is only accelerating.

Traditional pay-TV is becoming less affordable and less of a value. On average, cable customers pay around $105 a month for their packages. Since 2000, the average bill has increased 74 percent, even after adjusting for inflation.

So, what gives?

"Ten minutes … "

This is the sound of school resuming at households around Mississippi this week as students return to the classroom — the virtual classroom, that is. Thousands of students across the state are joining their classmates virtually, relying on their home internet connection like never before.

Would you leave your home for vacation with the doors unlocked and a window open? Probably not. But did you know you may be leaving your home network wide open to internet hackers without knowing it?

Today, there are an estimated 30 billion smart-home devices in use. Each of them is connected to a home network, and 70 percent of the most popular IoT devices are not secure.

Parenting in the digital age requires internet savvy and a commitment to keeping up with the rapidly changing online landscape. When your child logs onto a tablet, laptop or mobile phone, the world is at their fingertips. And sometimes that can lead to a world of trouble.

C Spire announced plans today to begin construction on a Gigabit-speed fiber internet network in Alabama, beginning in the luckiest neighborhoods of Trussville and Jasper. If you live in either of those cities, you can visit cspire.com now to check your address for fiber availability and pre-order C Spire Fiber internet services.