The power of the modern entertainment complex, specially its audio/visual component is enormous. It is like a siren song: very hard to resist and equally hard to pull away. The modern entertainment system is both communal and atomic. A movie experience in the cinema is a shared one. However at the same time, since it is also passive, it is atomic: each individual is wrapped in their individual cocoon. Unlike say a theatre experience, there is no engagement with the audience. Similarly, a hit TV series will have millions of people tuning into the show at the appointed time. In that sense, the experience is a shared one. But at the same time, it is atomized since each person in sitting in their home watching the show. Music and sports are partial exceptions. A live concert or a live game is a participative experience. Everyone who attends a concert (or the game) has an individual experience. At the same there is a group dynamic at work which lends an added dimension and greatly enhances the experience. However, the vast majority who watch the "live" show or game on TV miss out on this particular element thereby reducing them to passive spectators.
People are inherently social. Of that there can be no doubt. The culture of each area is built through shared experiences. The very concept of a nation is built on shared experiences. These shared experiences at different levels help to build our individual personalities. We are not solitary creatures leading atomic lives. Why is solitary confinement such an effective punishment in prisons? If we are deprived of some level of social interactions, we wither. Yet the modern entertainment complex is geared towards an atomized individual largely denying the existence of the social component.
Today's entertainment complex is the modern equivalent of the bread and circus of the Roman era. The effect is identical: lull the mass of people into a stupor which prevents them from thinking too hard about the way the modern world is structured and run. Ever noticed how characters in dramas, serials and movies almost never watch TV or go to a movie? Invariably, they lead exciting, fulfilling lives without the need to sit down in front of a box and mindlessly stare at it. In real life of course, the big studios invest heavily into getting people to sit down in front of the TV or go into the cinema or tune into the "live" game. The time that is spent in this fashion, our minds effectively shut down. The soul shrivels a little bit. At the end of the day, there is a feeling of wasted time and wasted opportunity.
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