Digital Application-Based Viewing: Impact of Instructions & Feedback on Viewer Satisfaction & Learning Effectiveness

Entertainment is an activity that keeps one amused, gives pleasure, makes one smile, laugh, or even shudder in horror. It also keeps one engaged and diverted. From time immemorial, man has felt the need for entertainment. Gradually it evolved into an industry providing means of livelihood to millions. It can be said to be tripod: the performer, the receiver, and the medium. If any leg of the tripod is missing or not strong enough, the entertainment cannot happen. For instance, the performer could be a poet, medium the radio, and receiver the listeners. The poet must be good, radio should not splutter or cackle, and listeners must be willing to be engaged and only then, entertainment can happen. Today, with tremendous leaps in technology across all sectors, the very complexion of entertainment has changed from live orchestra bands and singing shows to radio pelting out favorites, gramophones, juke boxes, record players, then tapes, CDs, iPod and now any song anywhere at a tap of the finger. Whether listening to songs or watching movies or reading, a person is spoilt with array of choice of products and mediums. One can watch a movie of any language (sub-titles are there), a documentary, TV show, or uploaded video of an influencer on smartphone or TV or laptop through Netflix or Amazon or through cable connections. Entertainment can have a plethora of impact. It can spread joy and positivity, motivate, impress, and lead to learning. It can also stimulate the barbaric instincts of man, spew hatred, lead to riots, and bring down the economy. Entertainment is indeed a powerful force that can create or destroy. Technology today determines the access, quality, and cost of entertainment. The scalability that is possible with technology has reduced costs. Internet facilities reaching remote far flung places have increased accessibility. A very significant dimension is that it has enabled many talented people to explore their capabilities which were not feasible in pre-technology age. Videos of unknown singers go viral. Upcoming standup comedians get huge audience. Small budget films with new artistes become hits. Another dimension to the modern digital entertainment space is that it is multi-disciplinary; it has touched various other verticals like e-commerce, retail marketing, academics, information technology, and others. Products too are interlinked; a movie release could lead to creation of games related to the movie, stimulating sales in a related sector. It can also create a demand for tangible figures and statues of the movie characters leading to manufacturing activities and retail marketing. This paper endeavors to study the various aspects of digital entertainment, modes, impact, and effectiveness; the history and evolution of digital application-based viewing and its probable future; and the disruption that smartphones, Over the Top (OTT) players and Videos on Demand service applications on networks have caused. For primary data, interview and questionnaire methods are used. The sample comprises of performers, content creation teams, technology people creating applications, and entertainment receivers. The finding is the loopholes that need to be plugged by statute and self-regulation to prevent the down sides of digitization and a generic model so that digitized entertainment can become a tool for hope, joy, and development.