The world of entertainment has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades. When once upon a time it was a great compliment to be described as well-read, many now consider it more important to be viewed as ‘well-watched’.
Similarly, in years gone by, spending your days sitting in your bedroom playing video games was something to feel great shame over. Now it is a viable career choice for savvy gamers who know how to use Twitch and edit their own videos.
In this article, we take a look at how technology has and is changing the way we enjoy our favourite forms of entertainment, from simple things like streaming services to more nuanced and science fiction-style innovations like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Robot Media
Traditionally people like the author of this piece would find themselves employed either directly by a company that produces online content or indirectly on a freelance basis to write a wide range of online articles.
Each writer would have their own range of topics and specialties that they covered, meaning companies would have to employ large numbers of reliable, entertaining and knowledgeable writers.
Now, however, many companies are choosing an easier and way more financially advantageous option – AI writers. Instead of having to carefully select writers with curated interests, online media companies can now instruct AI systems to write online articles for them in less than a minute and on a wide range of topics.
Head over to ChatGPT, and you can ask the system to write you a 1,000-word article on the benefits of supplementing magnesium or have it write an opinion piece on where the Toronto Raptors have gone wrong this season.
It’s not just writers who are being replaced by AI either. Cartoonists, artists, musicians and even visual content creators are seeing their jobs and projects outsourced to increasingly realistic AI systems.
YOUTUBE EMBED:
(AI content creation is game-changing for businesses, but it is also game-changing in a completely different way for writers and artists.)
Mobile Gaming
If you played Snake on a Nokia back in the early 2000s, you would know how much gaming on mobile devices has evolved since then.
Back then, the only devices permitting a good gaming experience with decent graphics were desktop computers or Playstation and Xbox consoles. But that quickly changed once the first iPhone, and Android smartphones hit the market.
With their great screens and processors, it became possible to start gaming on mobile devices, and many game developers started transforming their games into apps. Games that were only known on desktop computers, such as The Sims, suddenly became available to play on a smartphone. And because apps quickly became successful, many new games appeared as well, creating a bigger offering for players.
Following this trend, many casino operators started developing their own apps too, moving away from only being available through the internet browser. As with video games, more and more operators are entering the market, offering more new games than ever before. With that in mind, it’s therefore wise to look up online reviews, such as this LeoVegas casino review, to ensure one stays up-to-date with what’s out there.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that technology has greatly changed the gaming landscape – both video games and casino gaming.
Social Media
The average goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds, which doesn’t sound like a long time until you compare it to the average attention span of a human being in 2023. According to research, we can hold our attention for just 8.25 seconds, which is not only less than a goldfish but half of what it was just 15 years ago.
The best explanation for this dramatic decrease in attention spans is the rise of social media. We are now living in a world in which our attention is constantly being fought for by a whole host of competing sources.
Social media, with its instant gratification, shrunken content and slot machine-style dopamine mechanics, have made many of us turn our backs on things like reading and even investing in TV boxsets in favour of YouTube book summaries and 30-second TikTok videos.
Despite a pandemic-induced ‘boom’, book sales have been steadily declining over the past decade, whereas more and more apps and YouTube videos offering summaries and ‘key take home points’ of books have emerged.
Likewise, industry figures have shown that people under age are now spending more time watching videos on TikTok than on broadcast or streaming services.
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(TikTok is simultaneously keeping us entertained for hours on end whilst also reducing our attention spans.)
Streaming Services
At the beginning of this article, we referenced how people are now more likely to refer to someone as well-watched rather than well-read. That is mostly because of the spread of streaming services that have allowed people to instantly watch some of the greatest and most influential television and film ever created.
Strangely though, we are now at a point where the streaming industry is on the brink of cannibalizing itself. Whereas originally, services like Netflix offered a seemingly endless library of great content at a low, low price, viewers are now being confronted with the issue of having to take out several streaming subscriptions to watch their favourite shows.
Five years ago, the average Canadian could probably get by spending $10-$20 a month on subscriptions to get their fill of great TV and film. Now it’s not uncommon to have to part with $100 just to get access to all of your favourite content, which is before you even begin to factor in sports packages.
With the rise of apps like TikTok, the seemingly endless scramble by big companies to offer subscription-based streaming services could prove to be the biggest threat to the future success of streaming.
In Summary
The entertainment industry is changing. New innovations and new trends are changing the way that we spend our leisure time. How they will impact the way that we spend our free time in the medium and long term remains to be seen.
“Unapologetic communicator. Wannabe web lover. Friendly travel scholar. Problem solver. Amateur social mediaholic.”