With the Web, anything that can be digitized will be digitized and downloaded
onto PCs, mobile devices, 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?
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 multi-medium.
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