What comes next for entertainment content and popular media? Several emerging technologies promise to reshape the landscape again.
Generative AI is already being used to write scripts, generate background art for films, and even create deepfake performances of deceased actors. In the near future, you may be able to prompt an AI to generate a personalized episode of a show starring a digital version of yourself. This raises massive copyright and ethical questions, but the technology is advancing rapidly.
Virtual Production—using massive LED walls and real-time game engines (as seen in The Mandalorian)—is replacing green screens, allowing actors to perform in photorealistic digital environments live on set. This reduces post-production time and increases creative flexibility.
Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) have been slow to take off, but headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 are improving. True immersive entertainment—where you walk inside a film or sit courtside at a virtual NBA game—could finally become mainstream within five to ten years. xxxvidoscom free
Finally, interactive storytelling will likely expand beyond video games. Netflix’s experiments with choose-your-own-adventure style shows may evolve into branching narratives where viewer choices affect subsequent episodes, turning passive viewing into active participation.
Popular media is no longer inventing the future; it is remixing the past with better CGI.
To understand the present, we must look at the past. For most of the 20th century, entertainment content was controlled by a handful of gatekeepers. Three major television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) dictated primetime viewing schedules. A few major film studios (MGM, Warner Bros., Paramount) controlled the silver screen. Music was dominated by major labels like Sony and Universal. What comes next for entertainment content and popular media
Popular media was, by necessity, a shared experience. When MASH* aired its finale in 1983, over 100 million people watched the same episode at the same time. When Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video debuted, it was an event. This scarcity of choice created a monolithic "popular culture"—a shared language of references, quotes, and moments.
The first disruption came with cable television in the 1980s and 1990s. Channels like HBO, MTV, and Comedy Central began offering specialized content, fragmenting the audience into niches. Suddenly, you could watch 24-hour news, music videos, or stand-up comedy without waiting for network approval. The dam had cracked.
Remember when going to the movies on Friday night was the peak of the week? That isn't dead, but the throne has moved. Streaming has turned television into the premium art form. In the near future, you may be able
Shows like The Last of Us, Beef, and Shōgun have proven that the "small screen" now carries the emotional weight and budget of blockbusters. We love the long-form format because it gives us something movies often can't: time. Time to live with the characters. Time for slow burns. Time to theorize for seven days until the next episode drops.
But let’s keep it real. There is a sickness in paradise. It’s called The Scroll of Death.
You open Netflix. You scroll past 40 titles. You read descriptions. You put something in "My List." You scroll 20 more. You give up and watch The Office for the 15th time.
We have too much access. The "Peak TV" era is producing so much content that it is statistically impossible to watch everything you want to watch. The fear of missing out (FOMO) turns into the exhaustion of keeping up.