The Geek Weekly: Innovate

Living in a Converged World

From the Editors of The Geek Weekly

The showdown has been a long time coming. Experts have long expected that computers, telephony, and entertainment media would, at some point in the future, converge. While some technologies have evolved easily -- cell phones now serve as mini PCs and video game revenue surpasses that of movies -- two of the most revolutionary technologies of the last century, television and computers, have remained separate.
Until now.
According to a 2008 Deloitte State of the Media survey, computers have usurped television as America’s primary source of entertainment. Sixty percent of Americans now favor the computer as their main source of entertainment over their TV, while 58 percent wish that they could connect their TV to the Web. Women are just behind men in their preference for computers (50 percent vs. 62 percent). As for younger generations, they are more imbued with technology than ever before: Instead of spending hours watching television after school or on weekends, children are turning to their desktops, ensuring the next generation is even more “converged” than the last.
The transformation is even more complete if you define computers more broadly to encompass the rapid rise of the smartphone. Thirty-six percent of Americans use their phones to take pictures, post blog mini-updates, record video, send text messages, watch films, play games, listen to music, and surf the Web. More “Millennials” (those born toward the dawn of the 21st century) are using their cell phones as a main form of entertainment, even if their parents are still footing the bill for the extra costs.
Consumer spending on video games has now surpassed the movie industry, as games take strides into the mainstream. A key obstacle in this mainstreaming has always been the adoption by women, but the rise of casual gaming has changed all that. Today, more women take part in the gaming world than ever before. According to the Deloitte study, 50 percent of American women say that video, PC, and Internet games have become an important source of entertainment in their lives, and there is still potential for significant growth.
Children, too, are migrating toward computers and away from television and toys: An estimated 25 million children worldwide spend a few hours a day playing Neopet games, earning virtual currency that they spend on the care of their online animal creations (dragons, pink ponies, and the like). The game has been translated into ten languages and is becoming a staple of childhood worldwide.
“Most of the games out there are still First Person Shooters, with violence that appeals more to men,” says Mira Han, a graphic designer and gamer in San Francisco. “But what I’ve noticed is that women and children have been more inclined to play casual games on the phone, or the Wii games, because they’re more user-friendly -- and the adventure or role playing themes are more female-friendly, too.”
But as technology evolves, the lines between entertainment, technology, and social interaction are blurring. People expect technology to fulfill all of our needs -- always on, always connected, always entertaining. But these demands come at a price.
In the Journal of Mental Disorders (American Journal of Psychiatry), Dr. Jerald Block wrote that excessive computer use is an addiction. South Korea has declared Internet addiction one of its most serious public health issues, with citizens online and gaming more than 23 hours per week, resulting in lost jobs and a rise of school dropouts.
Nonetheless, convergence may soon be a thing of the past, as new technology continues to replace the old and ultimately replaces itself.

Joshua Cole writes frequently about technology and computing.