By If you’ve been watching the news over the last year, it’s clear the topics of loneliness and isolation have permeated the zeitgeist, especially with the burgeoning of social media and our collective slog through the COVID-19 pandemic.
This isn’t new for the U.S. Social disconnection was increasing before our dependence on online interactions and a disease that forced us all to cocoon for our lives. And it continues to be a serious concern, as captured in “The Role of Entertainment Technology in Creating Better Experience,” a new report commissioned by entertainment technology company Xperi.
Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General reported that about one in every two American adults reported experiencing loneliness — a staggering statistic with far-reaching implications for media and beyond.
Compound that with the fact that aloneness is associated with a greater risk of health issues including cardiovascular disease, depression and anxiety, and alarm bells should be ringing. Some also see our move to a more tech-centric society as exacerbating this problem.
With the solitary pull of streaming and the ironically named social media, Americans are simply becoming more isolated. There’s even growing discourse around how people are keener to consume entertainment — from moviegoing to watching popular television shows to mindlessly scrolling through Instagram — by themselves, with two in five Americans reporting watching TV and movies alone daily, as noted in Xperi’s report.
But as someone who has worked in the media industry for decades, I’ve started to wonder, has entertainment truly become a solo activity, or is it a place that should build connection?
While many would like to point to entertainment as a source of the problem, TV and movies were originally conceived as bonding agents of sorts. And with the slightest effort, they still can, given the power of a connected ecosystem able to unite us.
Curing the Loneliness Epidemic
Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot of co-viewing in entertainment, it just may look different than it did 10 or 20 years ago, when families would gather around the TV to watch the number one primetime show on a Wednesday night. Just like the pivot from a cable TV model to the mixed-service model of streaming, broadband and more, the way we’ve come to consume content has changed over the last decade.
Entertainment will always be inherently social. This latest age has prompted society to take a page out of video game culture, which has long relied on building a digital community. We text those we care about after a cliffhanger season finale and jump on social media to opine on the latest movie or show, sharing views on the best scenes or even recording oneself watching an intense scene for posting on social media.
These virtual communities are so important that premium programming is now created with it in mind. During the pandemic, Amazon even offered “Watch Party,” a live video chat displayed onscreen so people can take in a show together.
But beyond an episode doing well or a movie scoring big on opening weekend, it’s about how content creators, actors and streaming platforms are engaging with the fanbase. Streaming studios are supplementing their movie production with more long-form TV storytelling in order to drive further connection with the audience over a greater period of time.
The entertainment landscape gives viewers an outlet for connecting with others to talk not only about the content they love but the issues and topics portrayed within. Fans will debate online for days about the symbolism in a show — usually with people they may never meet and highlighting the powerful convergence of entertainment and technology in today’s world.
Bridging the Gap for the Future
As technology evolves, it has the potential to ensure entertainment is even more social. But while the promise of augmented reality as the cure-all for this is tempting, if only a select few are partaking, it could create even more isolation. For now, we must look to the reality at hand.
One exciting innovation on the horizon is the ability to track people’s sentiment live via social and smart TVs. Through sensors, smarter AI and more, this advancement will be able to monitor how people feel about video content in real time, leading to precise recommendations that improve the viewer experience.
If consumers can easily find and access the shows and movies they‘re interested in, they won’t be missing out on content their friends, family and those with similar interests are watching, thus building out their communities in a more accessible way.
When technology improves the entertainment experience, it can ease the loneliness epidemic. It won’t be a panacea, but it provides a bit of hope and opens our eyes to the myriad ways to foster relationships in our connected world.
Geir Skaaden, chief products and services officer at Xperi, is an entertainment industry veteran. He leads the company’s product and engineering teams while managing its portfolio of pay TV, consumer electronics, automotive and media platform solutions.
