There’s a quaintness to the memory of the pre-tech era, and it’s certainly not difficult to see the appeal of living without a smartphone or 24/7 connectivity. But on balance, there’s virtually no one who would actually give up their devices, and that’s due to the sheer range of benefits they provide.
Let’s take the personal entertainment possibilities they provide as just one example. Today, consumers have much more control over this aspect of their lives than they did in the past. In this post, we’ll run through the various advantages that modern technology provides for people looking to be entertained.
New Possibilities
It has always been possible to discover new content, but it was more difficult in the past. You’d have to browse a store, buy a magazine, or get a recommendation from a friend. In most cases, you’d only really be exposed to whatever was trending. Today, the internet allows consumers to easily discover new content based on what they already like. Plus, there’s just simply much more content than in the old days. Last year, for instance, there were more than 10,000 games released on Steam, compared with little more than 1,000 10 years ago.
Cost-Savings
There is, of course, a cost attached to getting a smartphone, laptop, internet connection, and so forth. But once a person has those things, they’ll be in a position to get much more bang for their buck, making savings that historically would not have been possible. We see this, especially in the iGaming industry, which tends to offer extensive offers and deals to consumers. The internet has ensured that customers can get a more complete picture of their cost-savings, too. For instance, a new customer can read the t&c and other promo details here to see the type of deals offered by DraftKings, so they know exactly what they’re getting. These promotions are commonplace in the internet world, but they were virtually unheard of in the pre-tech world.
Similar cost-saving advantages exist in other media forms as well. A couple of decades ago, a person would have to spend a fair amount of money to get their hands on a musician’s back catalog of albums. In 2024, they can simply get a subscription to a music streaming service, and they can listen to all of the artist’s work for a much-reduced cost compared with what they’d have paid in the past.
Available on the Move
Enjoying personal entertainment content on the move has been available in some forms for years. We all remember portable CD players, Game Boys, and other innovative products. But in truth, the options were fairly limited. Not so today, when just about every entertainment product can be enjoyed from pretty much wherever you are. Provided you have a device and an internet connection, you can listen to music, play games, or watch your favorite television shows from wherever you happen to be. There’s a level of convenience that would have felt positively futuristic not so long ago.
Making Connections
A more subtle advantage of technology is how easy it is for individuals to make connections with like-minded fans. For instance, talking on forums about their favorite TV show, or using gaming’s communication channels to make friends with people from all over the world.
Content Creators
The rise of technology — the smartphone in particular — has also made it possible for everyday people to not just consume personal entertainment, but to create it. A person with a smartphone or laptop can shoot short movies, create songs, and create other content that they can then share with the world. In fact, this might be the biggest legacy of the technological progress of the past couple of decades. In the olden days, there was a clear divide between creators and consumers. Content creation tended to be gatekeeper by the big businesses, who had all the power. Today, that model has been completely upended. You don’t necessarily need a business to give you the green light to create content — so long as you have technology, you can do it yourself.
