30% more time to watch TV, Read Books, and Play Games Thanks to Robots

play chess with robot by ~cuson

Robots are about to spark a revolution, but this revolution won't involve Skynet or the destruction of humanity. Instead this revolution will mean that more books, more computer games, and more movies will be sold. 


Quick question, are the number of books and web comics you read, movies and shows you watch based on your income or the amount of free time you have?

The answer is likely both as most people will tend to fill their free time with some form of activity so given the low or no cost of many forms of entertainment I would argue that the biggest barrier to growth in the entertainment industry is often a lack of leisure time.

Robots will increase the free time people have 
which in turn will increase the amount 

of entertainment people consume.

The primary impact robots have is to increase productivity, that is, to allow us to make more things. This is important because the more things that can be made the more money there is...

There are many arguments about what robots will do to jobs in the long run, but historically increases in productivity have created jobs and caused people to move from one industry to another, they have also (along with unions) decreased the number of hours people work. While not always positive this decrease in working hours does increase leisure time. In fact according to the Economic History Association the amount of life time leisure hours a person has will increase from an average of 176,100 in 1995 to 246,000 in 2040. That means that in the next 30 years or so we will be able to consume perhaps as much as 30% more entertainment and robots will be responsible for much of this increase in free time.

Of course whether we fill this demand with entertainment or things like social media is still up in the air, but I would say that there's a good chance that demand will increase in all of these areas.

In the next 30 years the time we have to
read books, play computer games and watch
 movies will increase by nearly 30%

The real question is, however, will this increased consumption, that is this additional free time bring more money into the industry? The challenge that entertainment industries will face is that people can spend more time on a single game (such as World of War Craft) and the same amount of ad dollars are typically spread over more mediums as additional mediums come into being.

Even increased sales, however, don't necessarily mean additional artists can break into the industry. So the questions we have to ask ourselves are; will increased leisure time increase the money earned by the entertainment industry? And even if additional sales are generated will these additional sales create new comic books, or simply allow large companies like Marvel to sell more units?

The answer to these questions depend on how many opportunities authors have to sell and engage the public outside of the internet and traditional retail stores. So for example how  much comic book conventions, meetups and events increase. Book stores only have so much space and people don't browse very far on the internet so the most popular things are the only things people typically find in retail outlets whether on or offline. However at comic book conventions people browse a bit more and meet a few more people. Further these events and other meetups allow some people to build a local reputation which will let them sell locally. So if comic book conventions and local meetups continue to expand than it's quite possible that this increase demand could come with an increasing number of jobs in industries like comic books where local niche people, supported not by the internet but by conventions, events, and most of all extra leisure time provided by robots are able to find fans and a market.

More than just increasing or decreasing sales of comics, changes in work habits will change peoples perceptions and the art in general. In Japan for example the fact that so many people have been pushed into dead end part-time jobs sparked an interest in activities like "Maid Cafes" as people search not only for something to occupy their time but to give them a few moments of emotional gratification, something which has greatly impacted the story lines in manga. This search for emotional gratification has also increased consumption of computer games and manga which can fulfill this need as well.

Part of the problem we see is that many of the jobs which are created by gains in productivity require people to be socially skilled, such as in sales, management, events planning, independent contracting, etc. So those who are socially awkward are often the ones left with the most free time and most unfulfilled feelings. That means that specific personality types will consume the greatest amount of entertainment, altering artists perception of what will be successful.

So how do you think more leisure time will change the industry? And will this have an impact on the art which sells.