Working to Play in a Digital Age

This is an essay written in my second year of undergraduate studies. The essay explores how the distinction between our notions of work and play have become intertwined within the digital era. Specifically, how do we separate notions of work and play within our leisure time in this new age?

Working to Play in a Digital Age

Introduction
A new era of digital entertainment is upon us and it seems that no longer are we restricted in the ways in which we interact with technology for the purpose of entertainment. In the most basic sense we are no longer are limited to a predetermined scheduling of television programs, if we can afford and choose such a feature. More complexly, no longer are we restricted to the boundaries of our physical reality when seeking out technologically enhanced entertainment. Such is the case with the internet and video games. With statements such as these it would seem that the advancement of technology and media has allowed for us the ability to partake in greater experiences in leisure, that which we seek to obtain apart from the daily grind of work. Yet these statements alone would only represent a technologically determined thinker’s work. A more appropriate consideration of the effects of technology on work and leisure would consist of an assessment of not only technology, but apply a broader range of theory, ranging from an analysis of the reasons in which content is produced, and perhaps to the point of consumption as well. What will ultimately be argued in this essay is that an analysis of commodification of culture in a digital age will find that the line between work and leisure has become perpetually indistinct.