Since the Second World War, the world has gone through a huge technological boom that does not look like it will be stopping any time soon. Mini-super-computers are carried around in people's pockets, more information is being spread and recorded than ever before, and areas like medicine do not stop improving. In this article, we are taking a look at how technology is continuing to improve entertainment and how multi-faceted entertainment is in our day and age.
The internet has made entertainment far more widely available, and the advent of the mobile phone has made this even more true. Almost everyone now owns a smartphone with internet access, either through WiFi or a mobile data connection, and that has made the majority of entertainment readily available, anywhere and anytime.
For example, YouTube, which is free and always will be, is not just a website like it used to be. Now, you can watch anything you want on YouTube on your commute to work, on long car journeys, while walking to your friend's house… You can access it so fast that it is difficult to imagine a time when entertainment like this was not immediately available.
Range of entertainment
Because entertainment is now so widely available, people can consume it faster, and they can also create it faster and more freely, which has led to an incredibly wide range of entertainment being available, from podcasts to ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response) videos to TikToks to sport videos.
Literally anyone can make some piece of entertainment by simply picking up a phone and recording themselves or editing together a video of highlights from a football player, for example. Entertainment is not just easily available to access anywhere, thanks to mobile phones, it is also easily available to create anywhere.
Although it is easy to listen to music and podcasts on the go, thanks to devices like iPod Nanos or a Walkman, these have fallen out of fashion because smartphones can do everything these devices can do, but better. While a fair proportion of people listen to music offline, companies have been incentivised to develop new forms of apps for those online.
This has led to apps such as Spotify becoming the complex app that they are today. As an example, every Monday, it provides 30 songs that its algorithm has found that you are likely to like in the "Discover" playlist. If on the go, you can still listen to it, thanks to the fact that your phone is likely to be connected.
Podcasts have also massively risen in popularity, and because it is not always easy to predict what kind of podcast you will want to enjoy later on, apps have made it extremely easy to find and listen to a wide variety of podcasts while on the go.
Like casino games, sports betting has been made so easy by technology. Any bet is seconds away from being made, and it can be argued that the biggest impact of this has been improving the games themselves—by making them so much more exciting. Betting companies like the ones reviewed by Carl Hughes have put a huge amount of time and money into researching the best ways to design their apps, so that from the moment you decide that you wish to place a bet to the bet being placed is as quick as possible—perfect for live betting. The fact that you can place a bet in seconds if you want something to happen while you are watching a game might not be the best for your bankroll, but it does make the games a lot more interesting to watch.
There has never been such an easy and convenient time to be a gambler. Mobile apps have been developed so that gambling is always just a few clicks away. Someone who has already set up their account with a betting company can access a blackjack table within a minute anywhere, so long as their phone is connected.
Increased internet speeds and smartphone processing power have also led to these games becoming more and more immersive. This is particularly true for slots, and having a phone is now almost an equivalent to a real fruit machine in a bar. The games are very detailed and have clearly been designed by a team of people who have taken care in what they are producing.
With transfer rumors, injury news, player interviews, press conferences, and team updates becoming more and more normal, apps have developed to provide everything that you could need in order to follow your favorite teams or players in an app. They provide statistical data that helps with betting, for example, and it is likely that they will only get better with time.