Information Age - Digital Entertainment

The development of IT has had a big impact on entertainment and leisure. Because people download a lot of films online, it may have a dramatic affect on cinemas. People may be less likely to pay the fee of a film when they could wait until it comes out, download it on that day and watch it whenever they like. TV shows are not watched as much because they can be seen online. Chris Soghoian, a reporter for CNET news says "Many viewers have given up on waiting for their favorite shows to appear on the tube, and have instead turned to utorrent. According to a report published in 2006, "Australians are responsible for 15.6 percent of all online TV piracy, bested only by Britain, which accounts for 38.4 percent. The US lags behind in third position at 7.3 percent."

Then again people like to go to the cinema because they get the full experience and it is brand new. Sites such as http://www.youtube.com/ let people watch television programmes and some films online in sections (part 1, part 2 etc). The bbc iplayer lets you watch the latest programmes if you missed them on the television. This is an advantage because you can fit your favourite shows around your schedule.

People are less likely to buy CDs in the highstreet knowing that they could download music legally on they're computer. according to media editor Dan Sabbagh, the average teenager has 800 music tracks on his/her ipod. However people download music using sharing sites like http://www.limewire.com/. According to Sean Adams, 95% of downloads in 2008 were illegal. It states 40 Billion songs were illegally downloaded in 2008.

Gaming has also improved. The first games were simple such as "pong" and "pac-man". As technology has developed games have become more in depth. There are more lives, levels and better graphics.

Social networking sites have boomed recently. Sites such as facebook and bebo have dominated the internet. It allows people to communicate with each other and view each other's pictures and posts. It is a great form of communication but it can encourage people to stay indoors all day communicating without getting outside.

There is a chance of you getting prosecuted for downloading content illegally from websites. Limewire apparently has minimal risk of prosecution but it isnt worth taking the risk.

There are some social issues with digital entertainment. Games are becoming realistic and so violent games can have a bad impact on people, especially young people. According to a study by Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman, "playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior". Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, in Colerado, murdered 13 people and injured 23. Apparently they enjoyed playing the violent video game Doom. Their violent behavior could well be down to playing the video games. However there are hundreds of other people who play these games who haven't had any problem and just enjoy playing them. For example, Patrick Kierkegaard who is a researcher at Essex university believes that "there is no obvious link between real-world violence statistics and the advent of video games. If anything, the effect seems to be the exact opposite and one might argue that video game usage has reduced real violence." Video games may also lead to social isolation. This is where people have no contact with the outside world as they spend all of their time in their rooms playing games. In some rare cases, people can die from playing too many games. They do not have any social interaction with people and can get hungry. A girl called Snowly from china died after playing World of Warcraft for several days straight during a national holiday. According to Jane Pinckard an online funeral service was held to commemorate her passing a week after her death.

Another problem with digital entertainment is that cyber bullying can occur. This is simply when people get bullied by people on the internet. The most common places where this happens are on Facebook and Bebo. People may disguise themselves as other people and then request to be their friend. Later on they can bully them by using the chat feature or by "writing on their wall". The daily mail reports that Keeley Houghton has been the first person to be jailed for cyber bullying on a social networking sites, "she said she would kill Emily Moore, whom she had bullied for four years since they were at school together."

To conclude, digital entertainment is very good, it can be a good form of escapism and is often a lot of fun. Music and Social Networking sites have boomed recently. People can now buy Ipods to transfer music from their computer and then listen to it on the go whenever they want. People can also buy basic software which allows them to create their own music in their bedroom and then upload it to youtube to see how popular it is. Social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo and Twitter allow people to communicate easily and share photographs. With all these benefits come drawbacks. Problems such as cyber bullying, illegal downloads and violent behaviour are all concerns.