Entertainment, somewhere along the way it got personal.
There's this often used footage of Singaporeans in the 60s gathered about a black and white television at a community centre. Everyone watched the same one programme (I think it was the only channel available) and then talked, laughed, complained and perhaps cried about it together. Communal TV built a community.
Then things got affordable and more personal. TVs in homes. Smaller groups of people gathered around the set. Same mechanics of entertainment, just less crowd and noise. Similar post-event dynamics too, just that we talked about the shows we watched in school or work the next day.
The groups got even smaller when people started getting more than 1 TV set into their homes. On average there are probably 2.3 TVs in every local household, slightly higher number than the population replacement ratio. (I'm sure there's a correlation between fewer kids being born and more TVs per household).
So the unit that watched together now is split between those who want to be entertained by different content.
Notice the same thing happened with radio and music. From large gramaphones and wireless devices, technology made things smaller and portable and inevitably personal. The Walkman was the clearest expression of this. It simply revolutionised the concept of mass-market personal entertainment. It was left to the imagination and processing chips to catch up with each other from that invention forward. Discmans, MP3 players, iPods, MP4 players, FLV players, portable DVD players, tablets and now phones.
Today, it's one to one. No one really shares their entertainment except for putting stuff up on fileshare sites.
The advancement to personal digital entertainment has also digitised society. I'm plugged in, so don't bother me. You're plugged in so I won't bother you. Every morning on the way to work (like now) I see most of my fellow train commuters attached to some kind of electronic device, usually their phones or an IPad. Some even whip out and start using their laptops. Music, movies, Facebooking, whatever. It's action at the individual level. Ironically with social media it's doing stuff alone that streams out to everyone else usually not in present company, like setting off a remote controlled bomb. Not many chat or even make eye contact. Apart from the train announcements, the whoosh of wind going by, the jang-ge-jang of track movement, and the muffled noise escaping bad earphones, train journeys are quiet, lonely affairs. Crowded but alone. We've traded interaction for personal fun for each one. What's worse is that these people become oblivious to what's around them.
Funny, sometimes sad. I've seen families come in and everyone suddenly gets plugged into their phones, tablets and game consoles. No one says a word. Or maybe their on some chat. I doubt it. Some parents give their kids their iPhones to shut them up with some all-consuming 99 cent game. These kids may grow up constantly looking for entertainment and lack the social skills to engage with people. What kind of future are we training them for?
We need to start putting out tech toys away and start listening, looking, talking and feeling. At least for a little while.
No comments:
Post a Comment