Remember when the internet was reserved for men with beards and other types of people who thought ‘fun’ meant waiting six hours to read an 8 page website? Such frolics are still available, because luckily non-geeks have made them a thing of the past. Millions of people, freed from slow downloads by increased broadband speeds, are taking to the internet for high-jinks and entertainment of many stripes.
You might remember that not so long ago video technology for the internet was the preserve of the digital elite, but today websites that host video are household names and have launched a raft of stars and crazes. Whether seeking a how-to instructional video to show you how to mend a 1977 Austin Allegro, or just want to catch family movies, video streaming has a unique source of content.
But it’s not just amateurs who are in on the act. If you want to catch ’proper’ TV entertainment even the likes of the BBC pulling in viewers through their own custom format. Lucky viewers in the UK can catch up with BBC shows any time through their computer monitor. Meanwhile, other sites offer more specific kinds of content: joost.com broadcast out-of-syndication films and rare Bollywood films alongside mainstream content which is licensed to them.
Increasingly popular and lucrative online gambling sites are all the vogue. Poker is perfectly suited to web technology and was one of the first games to take off. It continues to be the most popular kind of online gambling. Because games of chance are illegal in some countries, the operators host their servers overseas. This is legal because the actual transactions themselves are outside the jurisdiction of local laws. Lots of online gaming systems havefollowed suit – online bingo being an increasingly popular choice, particularly among women who seem less inclined to the likes of poker.
Another wildly popular pastime on the internet is an old-fashioned standby: the argument! If you’ve ever visited a blog you’ll know that you can find a rare old dust-up going on about almost any topic. Whilst a verbal punch-up isn’t everyone’s idea of fun are countless thousands for whom arguing the toss over Britney’s latest exploit is great fun.
Thanks to technology there are avenues of entertainment which have no corollary in the pre-internet era. MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) allow people to create alternative realities in virtual worlds in real time. More popular still are sites such as Facebook which have a raft of inline games which can can easily soak up a slow afternoon in the office. Other sites allow users to vote on the ‘hotness’ of strangers
It isn’t so long ago that this kind of thing was the preserve of films, but now it’s part of the warp and weft of day to day lives.
