As a result of the ongoing pandemic that has been taking place for a couple of years now, two huge spheres of everyday activities – work and play – are massively shifted to the online realm.
In fact, the sphere of entertainment has a side effect on how people manage their remote work. While businesses try to master digital tools to survive and thrive when offline work options are complicated or impossible, people start feeling the toll taken by the pandemic on their entertainment habits, and the long-term consequences of this toll.
Interestingly, there are both pros and cons of the work and play migrating online, and for different industries, the pros and cons may be different. For example, land-based entertainment places like entertainment parks, halls, and casino houses feel the negative impact while online streaming services, MuchBetter online casinos, and dating apps feel the positive impact.
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Positive Impact
While it may seem weird, a massive shift of entertainment into the online realm has a bunch of positive side effects for communities, even in aspects no one actually expected.
Education in Digital
As soon as many companies had to work in a remote regime, it turned out many employees lacked basic digital skills for working online.
According to the latest research, around one-third of all working population can’t complete the simplest tasks like working with Google documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.
On the other hand, few companies are able to help their employees with everyday tasks on a daily basis. So, people report being assisted by friends and family, mostly. Employees, especially the middle-aged population, feel frustrated about their inability to complete tasks and have no motivation to learn digital tools.
And yet, the need and want to reach entertainment online became a powerful motivation to master certain digital tools and learn at least the most basic terms and concepts. People faced the necessity to make payments online, register accounts, use VPNs, and more.
Culture and Security on the Web
Remote work usually takes place in a confined digital space, as the companies take care of their data security, and all communication happens in a set circle of coworkers.
Online play, however, if it is something more than watching a series on Netflix, means more interaction with other users. This leads people to being more exposed to the culture of online communication. Being exposed to that culture teaches newbies of online entertainment to be more attentive to their communication habits online.
The same can be said about data protection. As online entertainment becomes more massive for all strata of the population, users become aware of data security and start seeking methods to protect themselves. This, of course, is a very positive change.
Defined Priorities
Interestingly, as people started having fun online more than they can entertain offline, their real priorities started to step out.
The value of communication, always underlined by psychologists as a crucial part of mental well-being, suddenly became clear – and mostly due to the fact that many people, at last, were able to get as much online entertainment as they wanted.
But after hours of staring into the screen, a walk with the dog in the park becomes a blessing.
Negative Impact
Of course, the negative impact of shifting almost all entertainment activities to online is also seen in many communities. It should be addressed by various institutions, but in order to address it from the inside of communities, people should be aware of it.
Loneliness and Lack of Socialization
Firstly, even those people who could afford new, or additional, gadgets, or pay for subscriptions to entertain online, reported feeling bored, lonely, and lacking healthy person-to-person communication during the first lockdown and immediately after it.
Even the best series or games in the world are not able to replace human communication and socialization, let alone meet the necessity of physical presence near your loved ones.
Loss of Productivity At Work
As soon as work started to be done remotely online, many employees discovered they had to struggle against their desire to have fun instead of working.
In the office, accessing social media is possible only from a personal smartphone, and trying to use the office computer to watch a movie is not fun.
But at home, no one watches, especially if you can use more than one gadget at the same time. So, many people have a hard time with their discipline, and for many, their level of productivity has plummeted.
Final Thoughts
All those trends and changes that have taken place since the beginning of the pandemic have a dramatic toll on society, in most countries. It is safe to say that new rules and demands are likely to reshape the niche of online entertainment dramatically in the nearest years. However, the negative impact on communities is unlikely to be managed as quickly.
