Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Yeah, In the palm of my hand.
Every year, millions of people participate in some sort of sporting activity and even more so, people actively watch or attend a sporting event. Throughout history and the increased development in technology, the way in which we are able to communicate and receive information has greatly changed. There were many forms of communication that came before texting, Twitter and Facebook. If you can imagine a world transforming from letters delivered by a pigeon, a man riding a horse, all the way to today’s forms of communication, it is pretty amazing what the human mind has accomplished.
To me there is nothing like attending a sporting event, rooting for your home team in your home stadium, hearing the roar of the crowd and witnessing all the action that takes place. In most cases, in order to see a sporting event, you had to have some money because the tickets are not cheap. Every year ticket prices are rising, while in the other hand, my pay rate is staying the same. So if you couldn’t make it to the game, (before our advancements in technology) you had to rely on picking up a newspaper “hot off the press” in order to get the in depth details of the game. Where you would then be able to see the score of the game or who was leading the series. To this day, the newspaper serves as a fairly large component to how we receive worldly news. And for the most part, in today’s standards, the newspaper is still easy on the wallet and easy to obtain. But as we know, technology keeps growing
To me there is nothing like attending a sporting event, rooting for your home team in your home stadium, hearing the roar of the crowd and witnessing all the action that takes place. In most cases, in order to see a sporting event, you had to have some money because the tickets are not cheap. Every year ticket prices are rising, while in the other hand, my pay rate is staying the same. So if you couldn’t make it to the game, (before our advancements in technology) you had to rely on picking up a newspaper “hot off the press” in order to get the in depth details of the game. Where you would then be able to see the score of the game or who was leading the series. To this day, the newspaper serves as a fairly large component to how we receive worldly news. And for the most part, in today’s standards, the newspaper is still easy on the wallet and easy to obtain. But as we know, technology keeps growing
Keeping up with the Jones's
As people, when a new piece of technology comes out, we want it! The radio was the next big invention in the realm of sports entertainment. Can you see people and families sitting around the radio, quietly, trying to tune the radio to just the right frequency, in order to hear the big game? I can, and to this day, sporting events are broadcasted on the radio. Listening to sports on the radio allows you to do multiple things. It allows you to multitask to get more things done and also use your imagination to piece the game together visually. During the summer, when you are out and about doing your thing, most likely you will find the Tigers games broadcasted on 97.1 the Ticket. Or many of the other popular home state sport teams such as the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans. The radio, while still very popular in today’s world, it will soon have a fierce competitor/companion the “television”.
Although the first television sets broadcasted in black and white, this is the first time people were able to visually see and hear the game inside their homes as the game was being played. People didn’t have to leave their homes or tune a radio to get the coverage. This was a huge landmark for family life. Which ultimately, the television became a direct enabler for laziness. With the invention of the television, families were moving from the kitchen table, to the living room where they would now be entertained by this luxury. Today, the television is still the highest form in which we watch sports. With HD (High Definition) flat screen televisions that range in sizes from 20” to 90” you almost don’t want to leave the comfort of your couch or lazy-boy because the viewing quality is much better than in the stadium. As a viewer, we have stations such as FOX, NBC, and CBS and for those who have cable or satellite you have stations like TBS, ESPN, BTN that all broadcast sports, so on pretty much any given day I am able to watch some sort of televised sport. Although the television was and still is a main part of our society, there is a new “buzz” streaming around.
Wait for it, wait for it. Hold on, its Dialing!
This new “buzz” would be the internet. At first, the internet was rare to find in most homes, ran at extremely slow speeds and needed a land line phone connection to function, but it now runs at blazing speeds, has wireless connections and is available mostly everywhere. The internet has opened many doors for entertainment, business, and research and has allowed for people to interact with millions of people all over the world. And contrary to popular belief “not all the things you find on the internet is true”. With live streaming of games and a plethora of websites hosting game scores, stats and key plays, people are leaning away from having cable or satellite because all of these capabilities are available to us with a few strokes from our fingers. On the internet, there are blogs about sports, fan pages, online apparel shops and we can now view and purchase tickets to nearly everything. So now, instead of having “smart carts” containing laptops, we now have the new age smartphone.
Smartphones contain all of these inventions and are wrapped into one device. On my phone, I am able to receive news alerts, emails, send text messages, make phone calls, browse the internet, use the GPS to direct me to a sporting event, listen to the radio, watch videos and also do various other things ALL in the palm of my hand! The capabilities that these touchscreen smartphones have are truly amazing. I have an ESPN app that allows me to keep track of current and final scores, any injuries that took place, the stats of individual players, when my favorite team will play next, including the time, the channel and opponent that they will be playing. I can also purchase tickets to an upcoming game all in the palm of my hand. Fantasy football has become huge within the last ten or so years, with money leagues and free leagues. Being involved in fantasy football leagues is just another way to interact with your friends, earn bragging rights, make some money and keep up with player stats and performances. I guess, if you have unlimited time to keep track of what happens in the wide world of sports then being in one of these leagues is for you. But for the average person like myself, I simply enjoy watching the game without all the extra distraction. It blows my mind to think of what these inventors will come up within the next ten, twenty or a hundred years. Either way, as human beings, our thirst and drive for technology will keep growing and will keep feeding this extremely large market.
By: Anthony Swim
Smartphones contain all of these inventions and are wrapped into one device. On my phone, I am able to receive news alerts, emails, send text messages, make phone calls, browse the internet, use the GPS to direct me to a sporting event, listen to the radio, watch videos and also do various other things ALL in the palm of my hand! The capabilities that these touchscreen smartphones have are truly amazing. I have an ESPN app that allows me to keep track of current and final scores, any injuries that took place, the stats of individual players, when my favorite team will play next, including the time, the channel and opponent that they will be playing. I can also purchase tickets to an upcoming game all in the palm of my hand. Fantasy football has become huge within the last ten or so years, with money leagues and free leagues. Being involved in fantasy football leagues is just another way to interact with your friends, earn bragging rights, make some money and keep up with player stats and performances. I guess, if you have unlimited time to keep track of what happens in the wide world of sports then being in one of these leagues is for you. But for the average person like myself, I simply enjoy watching the game without all the extra distraction. It blows my mind to think of what these inventors will come up within the next ten, twenty or a hundred years. Either way, as human beings, our thirst and drive for technology will keep growing and will keep feeding this extremely large market.
By: Anthony Swim