DOWNLOAD YOUR FUN
Families that surf together – and laugh together – will stay together. By 2010, all but a few families will be online, and much entertainment will occur at home – just as it did pre-radio and pre-TV.
With the Web, anything that can be digitized will be digitized and downloaded onto PCs or into fast-converging PC-TV large-screen “home theaters.” Yes, people will still attend live events and play sports. But the reality of sitting way back in a large crowd at a huge stadium – watching distant, toy-size athletes chase a ball on fake turf, or singers lip-sync into fake mikes – will lose all attraction. And playing sport in a virtual global league, instead of dragging your aging body to a local arena, is inevitable.
This all will occur because the virtual experience at home will be far more vivid and more real than the so-called “real thing.” In turn, as we head into an increasingly home-based leisure society, people will have more time and money to spend on pure family fun.
Anything you do online saves you time for something else. Telecommuting or home-based self-employment will free up lots of time and will change attitudes about leisure and entertainment – and about lifestyles in general. As the rigid, industrial-era, Monday-to-Friday, 9–5 grind breaks down, “work” hours will depend on fluctuating e-workloads and the ability to set your own schedule, leaving more time for leisure. As well, of course, you will save many hours by not going shopping and by avoiding other time-wasters.
The Web Lifestyle obviously is less-hectic and less-busy, even in a fast-paced, booming economy. As a “Webucopia” of games, sports, entertainment, information, and related interactive content funnels into the home, the desire to “go out on the town” will be infrequent.
At first glance, of course, the Web is de-socializing – we hold images of geek zombies glued to keyboards. Content media such as books, magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, music, movies, and videos are indeed de-socializing. You read, listen, or watch alone, regardless of how many people are around you. The only true socializing while watching TV is to argue over which channel to watch. Otherwise, viewers only “socialize” silently, in their minds, with soap operas such as Friends. Why do you think it was called that?
By contrast, PCs are time-saving “golden looms” that let you get things done and be entertained at the same time. Just as TV took movies out of the movie theaters, the Web will literally “de-program” TV. Today, more people interact with PCs than watch TVs.
In contrast to the de-socializing, time-wasting TV, the Web – like the telephone on which it is based – is a social medium that extends human reach globally. The Web is the most far-reaching, educationally-intelligent, interactive content and entertainment framework ever conceived. As such, it envelops all previously disparate media, converging them into a global multimedium. This multimedium extends all of our senses – our entire consciousness – into cyberspace. Simultaneously, it funnels fun into our Web Lifestyle homes. |
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