As the COVID-19 disease has escalated to become an international pandemic, many students are obeying stay-at-home orders and spending their time in quarantine. This effort comes from the academic administration to protect students from the dangers of the virus. Now with an unexpected amount of free time, students are finding new entertainment during their stay at home.
The entertainment industries are working to adapt to the crisis in their own ways. With employees also required to remain in the safety of their homes, television programs have broadly fallen into two methods of approach to deal with the pandemic. Most forms of entertainment have opted to postpone further production on set until the pandemic has been contained.
Large scale film companies such as Disney have announced the indefinite postponement of further production of live action films in an attempt to curb the further spread of the virus. Consequentially, this decision has resulted in the delay of highly anticipated film releases.
In the case of news outlets, employees present in officse are reduced to obey social distancing standards, but news remains in business. Many anchors are giving their reports from home instead of from their regular work environments. With the coronavirus in mind, many news outlets have also taken the pandemic as a primary focus for their news coverage.
Late night shows have taken a similar approach to reopening, such as comedian Conan O’Brien rebranding his late-night show with the help of Zoom. Since then, several other night shows have taken similar approaches to reopening their television broadcasts, with Saturday Night Live resuming their season with a Dr. Fauci cold open starring Brad Pitt.
Zoom’s use in entertainment is not only limited to television. Popular Youtube channels, such as Good Mythical Morning and First We Feast’s Hot Ones, are using Zoom to continue to produce video entertainment for millions of viewers on the internet.
Unsurprisingly, Netflix has also seen a surge in popularity during the time of quarantine, with many using the streaming service to binge its massive collection of tv shows and movies. To simulate watching a series together with friends, Netflix has launched Netflix Party, a virtual Zoom-like extension to their streaming service to allow people to share the experience of watching a show together with friends while maintaining social distancing.
Outside of TV shows, video games have also been a popular choice of entertainment. One prominent title that has been discussed all across the internet is Nintendo’s newest Switch title, Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With more time to stay at home and play, many people have purchased the game to build their own animal communities. This way they can show off their creativity to their friends. Other titles that have seen popularity are Final Fantasy VII: Remake as well as Persona 5 Royal for the PS4.
These are but a few ways COVID-19 has affected entertainment. As time continues, many more aspects of life will be affected as well. In the meantime, it’s good to have some forms of entertainment to keep us occupied.