Entertainment and ICT

With the development of ICT, a new era in the entertainment world has started. It has occurred in two ways. First, how people consume entertainment. Second a qualitative change is noticed in the different mediums of entertainment.

Let us see first how individual media consumption habit has transformed in response to the changes in ICT. Once, people had to go outside for entertainment. If they wanted to enjoy a film, they had to go to the cinema hall to enjoy a film; to the playground to watch a football match; to a concert to listen to music. Nowadays, there is no need to go outside for entertainment. Radio was invented first, and then the television. The computer came eventually. Internet is the latest addition to the computer. We have discovered that people can enjoy all kinds of entertainments within four walls of their home. When computer first came into being, it was only used for computation and calculation. Only the big organizations and the government could afford computers. However, with the development of technology, computers have become easily available and people have started using them for their personal purposes. Since computers have become more sophisticated processors, huge storage, and considerable memory, they can be used not only for writing or calculation, but also for entertainment. Perhaps, people use computer most for their entertainment. Composing a song, making a movie, and taking a photograph - all can be done on computers. Because of the development of ICT, changes have come to the mediums and forms of entertainment. Since songs can be digitized and converted into MP3 format, they can be played on computers. Similarly, we can watch videos and movies on computers. A huge volume of data can be stored on CD or DVD. Watching movie on DVD player without going to the cinema hall is a very common practice nowadays. Internet with faster speed has become easily available for 'fibre optic network'. As a result, people do not have to depend on audio CD or DVD either for listening to music or watching films. On top of it, programmes in different radio and television channels can be directly accessed through the Internet. Sometimes recorded programmes are also available on the Internet. Hence, viewers can access these programmes according to their convenience.

New forms of entertainment have appeared with the development of ICT Computer game is one of them. Big industries of computer games are established all over the world and the experts of these industries are innovating computer games of various sorts. The extensive popularity of computer games demonstrates its immense success as a new medium of entertainment. One of the reasons for their success is that computer games entertain people across age with different preferences. These games can be played with others, the computer itself, or even with gamers in a remote place via network. In fact, it should be noted here that excessive and compulsive use of computer or video games may become so strong that it can easily turn into addiction. That is why people around the world are warned about the negative consequences of compulsive computer or video gaming. Development in ICT played a vital role in the emergence of new forms of entertainment. Once, making animation or cartoon films was very difficult. It has become easier for ICT and high-end/ super computers. Not only that, innovations done by creative designers have brought about changes to graphic works. Digital actors and actresses have been created on computers for graphic movies that are no longer dependent on real actors and actresses. Use of high-end/ super computers in creating imaginary dinosaurs and aliens for popular commercially successful films is very common nowadays.

In one word, ICT has not only created new forms of entertainment, but also made them accessible to the mass. Most importantly, ICT has revolutionized the entertainment industry and its ultimate future in the entertainment industry is beyond one's imagination.