Digital technology plays a significant role in the world of entertainment culture. It curates, collects, creates, and shares bites of culture all the time. If you lack the technology or the know-how to use it properly, you are undeniably going to miss out. It’s not just a matter of bringing the existing culture to online users. The way we consume entertainment has changed dramatically. The digital sphere offers a unique platform for some forms of entertaining arts that could survive without the support of digital technology. The phenomenon is greatly increased by the current pandemic situation, where offline culture tends to be prohibited to avoid health risks. With cinemas, shops, and concert halls shut, there is no other option for us than to turn to the Internet to enjoy our bite of culture.
Yet, when culture becomes available at the click of a button, it poses a new challenge for its survival. In a digital environment, entertainment culture can only survive if people – aka digital users – know where to find it.
Streaming services: A growing variety
Streaming services are becoming a popular platform for movie-lovers. However, it would be unfair to pretend that films are the only thing you could stream. An experienced platform such as Showmax is streaming a variety of content, from news, live sport, music channels, and famous Hollywood blockbusters, ensuring that local stories can be told beyond the geographical borders.
Streaming services value cultural variety, therefore it’s not uncommon to stumble across new and exciting content. It mirrors the interests of the platform users, making new content available to match their expectations. In many ways, streaming gives the entertainment culture the audience it needs to survive.
Torrent sites: Everything and anything
Torrent sites are a unique trading environment where users can post unique content for download. Not all content is safe and not all torrent sites can be trusted, though. It’s helpful to follow best practice safety tips and know your torrents, as explained by Troypoint. Torrent downloads can offer a broad range of genre and culture items. However, you can only find what you already know. What makes it a valuable culture platform is the peer-to-peer exchange, which means that unique individuals can make small and lesser-known culture stories available to a global audience.
It’s fair to say that torrent culture is better suited to tech-savvy users who understand how to use it effectively and safely.
YouTube channels: The price of marketing
YouTube offers a similar approach to culture as torrent sites in the sense that the content you find is user-generated. Unlike torrents, however, there is no need to download new culture content to access it. Therefore, cybersecurity isn’t a huge concern on the video platform. For small artists, influencers, and commentators, a YouTube channel is a unique opportunity to share your stories with others. However, because it’s easy to create a channel, users generate a high volume of content. This can make the platform difficult to navigate. Additionally, more and more creators are choosing to monetize their profile by publishing advertising. The over-marketization of individual channels could silence unique stories for the benefit of money.
Culture will continue to exist online as long as there is a demand for it. Whether you prefer free or paid access to culture, there are pros and cons to both. However, its digital availability can make it tricky for people to recognize valuable stories from marketing plots.