Photo By Serkan Turk
The entertainment industry has changed drastically over the last few decades due to the advent of artificial intelligence. Entertainment comes in many forms such as radio, television, film and print. Subsequently, social media is widely-accessible by the internet through various gadgets the masses have access to such as laptops, gaming consoles and smartphones. And let's not forget the birth to many social media platforms used daily such as Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, to name a few.
The influence of the media as tools of entertainment for the youth in their psychosocial development is profound. They represent limitless sources of information and serve as assets for research, communication and teaching. However, entertainment has also developed into becoming a potential tool for damage to the developing mind. Neuroscientists are only beginning to study some of the effects of the virtual world and how online social networking can affect the human brain. An article on Bustle gives insight into how activity in neural regions involved in reward recognition, reasoning, imitation, and attention is correlated with viewing images with a lot of likes. To some, the effects of entertainment can be pathologically addictive and interfere with mental health, studies or communication skills. There may be some who prefer to maintain online connections as opposed to real-life ones. However, these digital relationships at times are often unrealistic, presenting only the curated side in the person's personality.
According to Bustle, heavy consumption of social media entertainment in a person's life is shown to reduce attention span. This effect may attribute to a person's nervous system being present due to the constant attention towards their desired gadgets. On top of that, if a person overindulges in various forms of entertainment, it can encourage 'herd mentality'. This effect deprives youths the ability to form truthful and personal opinions as they feel to need to follow trends. For example, a group of friends choose to eat at a restaurant that has a tonne of positive reviews instead of a restaurant which serves the same cuisine, just with little attention. Naturally, people choose the place which they are most excited over because they make their decisions based on the findings of others.
Besides that, entertainment often provides misinformation with far-reaching implications. For instance, there is ever-increasing violence that is generated by tv-series and films. Suppose graphic content is all a person consumes. In that case, it affects their behaviours and personal outlooks which could then lead them to mimic the violent acts that are portrayed in the media.
While people use various forms of entertainment to relax and enjoy themselves, there is still a need to tackle negativity entertainment poses in society. It is essential to be aware of the reasons why a person consumes what they do, given that the media has the power to influence personal decisions, interests and beliefs. These implications take a toll on a person's mental and physical health, a family unit and society at large.
By Daniel Cheah