1). When the economy is highly developed, we will have more and more time surplus;
in the second episode of "Black Mirror", the protagonists are riding bicycles every day, pedaling does not produce actual benefits, only for themselves Take virtual currency and use it for consumption.
What I'm talking about here is that time surplus is approaching its limit, and the economy has reached the point where most people don't need any productive work.
2). Time surplus is a trouble for most people, so there is such a thing as mass entertainment.
"Cognitive Surplus" mentioned that after the Industrial Revolution in the 1820s, the British who had surplus time for the first time used to drink alcohol collectively, which led to the prohibition of alcohol. (Remember that the old lady in Downton Abbey was very puzzled by the word weekend? The history of this thing on weekends is indeed only 200 years.)
But in the end it saved them from the Gin wine mania, neither legal sanctions nor morals. The sense of return, but a sitcom.
During the Great Depression in 1930, broadcasting, as a new medium, began to become a must-have appliance for every household. The main reason was that everyone needed cheap entertainment.
Later, this cheap entertainment became television, and now it has become the Internet. From a formal point of view, video is always the entertainment with the highest ROI, because there is no barrier to understanding, which is why the Internet will be comprehensively enriched, and video traffic will become the bulk of it.
3) The demand for entertainment is not in the Maslow demand hierarchy model! Why do we need entertainment?
I have been thinking about this question for a long time, why do people need entertainment? ——The answer is probably kill time? But why kill time? I finally have my own time, so why kill it?
My own feelings:
First of all, entertainment is a demand created by humans, and it is also a demand that can be restrained.
The more dependent on society (or the more intolerant of being alone), the more they need entertainment. Regardless of work, shopping, or study, there is always a social role there. There is a set of norms that tells you what is good and what is bad, and how many points you have scored. Emotional rewards and punishments come from this, and they are all well-founded.
Once the work is over, the night falls, and when we are alone, the individual's social role temporarily disappears, and the external factors that can generate emotions disappear, so we feel bored and at a loss. This is manifested in the behavior of worrying about not knowing what to do and worrying about not knowing what movie to watch during the holidays.
Therefore, the Buddhism that requires birth has very clear regulations on entertainment: (The following is from Baidu Encyclopedia: http://baike.baidu.com/view/1938708.htm )
ordination: away from dancing, singing, music, watching drama;
The ten commandments of novices: do not drink alcohol, leave flowers, leave singing and dancing, etc.;
living room rules: do not dress up and enjoy singing and dancing.
4). Media becomes entertainment as soon as everything goes on, because media (especially radio and network media) itself is born for entertainment.
The Liu Lili incident and reality shows such as "If You Are the One" have given us a deep feeling. Once on TV, singing is no longer singing, blind dates are no longer blind dates, and job hunting is no longer job hunting. At the end of the second episode of Black Mirror, the accusations made by the rebels on TV have also become TV shows, which is really ironic.
Maybe we have naive ideas about the media. The media is really a big market of information. People who come here buy laughs, tears, anger, panic, sympathy, superiority... buy all kinds of everyday Unsatisfied emotions in life. They pay their time, just to find the bridge segment that is most worth the fare. No one really cares what kind of boyfriend you want to find, what kind of life you want to live.
Under the current wave of socialization of all media (not only the Internet, but using ordinary people as content materials is already TV's favorite), we accidentally become materials that are consumed by everyone. Once a star, a politician, then Furong, Feng sister, now everyone.
I don't know if this is progress or something. In short, either cultivate a strong heart or be careful.
View more about Black Mirror reviews
