Let’s find out “How the Internet Has Changed Home Entertainment” The internet has made the world a radically different place. Gone are the days when an international phone call would cost you a small fortune. Gone too is the need to wait days for messages from friends to arrive in the post. There’s also no need to wait for the bank to open on Monday morning since you can now process transactions at any time of the day or night.
Of course, work, communication, banking, shopping, and other areas of our lives have all been transformed by the information superhighway and the World Wide Web.
In more recent years, it’s perhaps the home entertainment space that has been affected the most. Just about every element of how we have fun at home has been radically altered by the internet.
Since we have been at the eye of this whirlwind revolution, it can be hard to fully appreciate how far we have actually come, so let’s put it into some perspective.
Movies and TV Shows
For many people, Friday nights started with clocking off work, heading to Blockbuster, and spending ages browsing the vast library of up to 10,000 movies that were available in the store.
Then, when you’d finally picked one, you’d take the VHS or DVD to the counter, and pay what was close to one hour’s work at minimum wage for the time. You’d then carry it home, order a takeaway or cook something and enjoy whichever film you’d picked.
The whole ritual was part of the experience. Though it’s something we may romanticise a little too much today.
Of course, the anticipation of choosing one film while you’re surrounded by options was fun, it was a severe disappointment to get home to discover you didn’t like it since you had no way of getting another one until the shop opened again.
That’s all ancient history today, thankfully, as streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and the plethora of other options all give us more than we could conceivably watch in a lifetime.
Now, all you have to do is turn on your TV, scroll through the options (or pick one that’s recommended to you), and press one button to start it playing.
Of course, the only downside to this is that there’s so much choice you can spend more time choosing than you do watch.
Gaming
The gaming experience of the past wasn’t much different to the movie-watching one. You either bought games on disc or you borrowed them for a short period of time from places like Blockbuster.
Again, that has been radically changed by the internet, though not in the same ways. Of course, there is the same digital distribution that we see with streaming services, but this is only scratching the surface.
In the online casino space, the internet has helped to make online slots more accessible by removing the need to travel to a land-based venue. It’s also provided iGaming companies with the opportunity to make new and exclusive online slots like Dog Day Fiesta, Royal Cashgot, and Big Blue Bounty.
By doing so, they’re able to expand their offering to appeal to a much wider audience since they can cover every taste and preference.
Online connectivity has also been included in video games. Modern titles often focus primarily or exclusively on multiplayer modes. You can see this with Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Mobile which does away entirely with the single-player campaign modes and includes only multiplayer functionality.
Music
Before video streaming and multiplayer gaming had taken over, music was one of the first forms of entertainment to be disrupted.
In previous decades, the only way to buy some of your favourite songs would be to purchase an entire album, even if you only wanted one track. Many music fans felt this was unfair so they began to use services like Napster.
Of course, Napster and its copycats were all shut down, but they were quickly replaced with platforms like iTunes which turned the entire music industry on its head.
To be listed in Apple’s digital music store, labels and artists had to agree to allow their tracks to be sold individually.
In the years since, streaming services have taken hold, replacing the model of purchasing songs altogether. This has, of course, changed the way we consume music again. But it’s also forced artists to put a greater focus on performing live and creating other ways to interact with fans, helping to build closer relationships between them.
