Sunday, October 24, 2010

What are young man abandoning televisions for?

        This reading talks about the declining number of television audience, while increasing number of internet users. Nielsen provides statistics of increasing number of internet users of 18-34 year old. According to the reading, between 2004 and 2006 there was an 18.5 percent expansion of U.S. households- 38.6 million to 45.7 million- with televisions that also have video game console. This implies that video game is becoming a popular entertainment that is substituting television. This also implies that in contemporary society, we want to choose the type of entertainment we want to be exposed to. Television provides uninteresting and boring advertisements in between shows that we must watch, whereas in video games and internet, we get to select what we want to see. According to the reading, Peter Daboll, president of comScore Media Metrix, state that the fact that more than 75 percent of 18-34 year-old men in the U.S. are using the internet seems to take at least some of the mystery out of the decline in TV viewing among this prizes demographic. In another word, most of young men spend time on internet rather than watching TV. People spend most of time on internet downloading music, watching movies, and reading articles. The reading also talks about those active gamers-persons who spend at least one hour a week playing games-spend a considerable portion of their money and time on game-related activities, which is almost $58 a month. In short, a growing number of young men are turning to interactive entertainment.
        Teenagers in contemporary society prefer playing video games rather than watching TV. This shows that teenagers’ media behaviors change in some striking ways. According to the reading, teenagers watch less television, and while games are their primary outlet for leisure and entertainment. I did not realize the popularity of video games until I read this reading. This clearly shows that video game is becoming a primary outlet for leisure and entertainment for 21st century’s teens and adults. Video game is becoming popular among young adults because they can create an avatar and play with their avatars in the virtual world. People become much attached to their avatars because their think of an avatar as the character, the virtual personal and embodiment of a desired or re-imagined self. In conclusion, for the majority of young people, the computer-mediated world is about being with real people rather than virtual personas, friends rather than strangers. (Watkins)
          This is very unfortunate for television industry because of their number of declining audiences; however, I think we can understand this phenomenon as a media revolution.  I think it is a media revolution because people’s desire changed the type of media (it was television but now internet, video game, and computer). Like I said earlier, people are turning to interactive entertainment, where people select the kind of entertainment that they want.
          Q: I rarely watch television because it doesn’t always play the shows I like, but instead, I download movies and dramas and watch them later.  Therefore, I have no problem living without a TV. Do any of you guys think TV is necessary?  

I think this is an interesting Youtube clip about "The Internet Killed Television (Interactive Game)"

1 comment:

  1. I think TV is necessary, and the necessity of TV depends on whether you like to watch it on live or not. For example, Super bowl game, a finale of Drama, and urgent news are something that we don't want to watch later. even internet has sources to show those, there will be probably buffering, or lagging due to overworked server. so even though there are many things that replace what TV used to do, TV is still valuable.

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