In the past several weeks, I got two notices posted on the door of my home. One was from a local phone company that had cut off the landline and informed me where to find them if I wanted to continue. The other came from a cable TV provider, saying it would terminate its service because I'd not renewed my subscription.

It occurred to me that my family had abandoned the traditional landline for more than half a year, with the old phone gathering dust in a corner in the living room. Meanwhile, we've stopped watching news and entertainment on the big, flat-screen TV on the wall, once a nightly family ritual.

But weaning ourselves off a landline or TV doesn't make us any less media-savvy than others in the Chinese capital. In my family of five, including two young children and an ayi or domestic helper, there are three smartphones, two laptops and two tablets that are all connected to the home Wi-Fi network.