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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

The dystopian future of entertainment

In his The Honest Broker blog, Ted Gioia writes that we are entering the post-entertainment society (and it's not pretty). He gives many examples of the shrinking demand for new entertainment and discusses what is replacing it.

"The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it's not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity.

"The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.

"It's a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok-an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock."

It's addiction fed by dopamine, what Ted calls the Dopamine Culture that is replacing art and entertainment, even mindless entertainment, with the growing compulsive activity that is our dystopian future.

Implications

We strongly recommend you read Ted's entire blog (click here), as the location-based entertainment venue (LBE) or FEC down the street is no longer your most serious competition for people's leisure time. It's the distractions of the Dopamine Culture.

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