We humans always liked stories, and we’ve always gathered around to watch how they play out.
First, there was a campfire. The campfire became the Greek amphitheater, which became the Broadway stage. And now? Now that stage is literally in the palm of your hand with TikTok, Instagram, Netflix, YouTube, and everything else that’s tailored just for you.
Don’t worry, this article won’t be a history lesson, but a look into the fundamental shift that happens each time storytelling gets a new toy, thanks to technology.
From live stage to recorded film to broadcast TV, each leap did a lot more than change the channel.
Theater – the Original Space for Performances
Today, you can make your own avatar and your own stories with a few clicks.
But before we had screens, we had the stage. Theater wasn’t just mere entertainment; it was a ritual. A community was using stories to get better insights about their gods and their world. That spirit carried into the grand amphitheaters of Greece and Rome, where thousands of people would gather under the open sky.
This kind of setup created the rulebook for what an audience should expect. You were part of the crowd, and you could feel the energy of the person sitting next to you. The performance was immediate and you could even say fragile; if the actor messed up a line, you heard it. No filter, just 100% raw human presence.
It was entertainment, yes. But it was also very much about the city grappling with a moral lesson. And even back then, people were innovators. They played with masks and special effects to bring their stories to life.
They were bending reality in all the ways they could, which is something we’re still pursuing today.
Film and Television as Cultural Transformers
Then came the camera, and everything changed.
The film took all that magic theater performances had and bottled it. It lets you see the same perfect show as someone on the other side of the world. And with this, we also got our first actual celebrities (or at least the type of celebrities we know today) – movie stars. Actors went from players on the stage to this spectacle that mass entertainment made possible.
But movies didn’t just come and stay the way they were. They evolved, with sounds and colors, all the way to the mind-bending visual effects. And every new innovation pulled us deeper into its world.
But the real revolution didn’t happen until the screen shrank down and moved into everybody’s living rooms. It wasn’t just something that showed stories anymore; they became part of daily life. The evening news, favorite sitcoms, late-night talk shows, and cartoons all became familiar. This is how we got a new kind of shared experience.
Before, you’d enjoy a show and share it with the person sitting next to you in the theater, but now, you were able to share it with the entire nation that watched the same show you did. This is how we came to expect a constant flow of entertainment and information, which is now something completely normal.
Is it ideal? Well… That’s a discussion for some other article.
Simulation and the Era of the Digital Persona
So what’s next? What’s happening right now?
Right now, things are… Radical and strange. In a good way, though, but it’s still strange. We’re in the era of simulation, and the very idea of a performer is being rewritten. What’s so weird about it is that it’s not a human rewriting the game, but code. There are hyper-realistic digital avatars and AI characters that can deliver the news, become a virtual fashion influencer with millions of followers and brand deals, a tutor in an interactive classroom, a therapist…
You name it, the sky’s the limit.
Some would say this is the ultimate democratization of performance; others would say it’s the ultimate disruption.
In any case, anyone with a laptop can create a digital persona and find a global audience: no talent agent, no auditions. As far as the audience goes, what they expect is being rewritten on the fly. Passive watching doesn’t cut it anymore. Stories need to be personalized and available 24/7.
But what’s real anymore? This is the question we’re forced to ask because digital personas raise both ethical and cultural questions.
Who owns your face and voice once AI can replicate it? Can we truly connect to a performer that doesn’t have a heart, let alone a heartbeat? Won’t that uncanny valley feeling always keep us at a distance, since it already makes us uncomfortable? What was once a stage has now melted into a simulation, and the rules of the show?
We’re still figuring those out.
Conclusion
History has taught us over and over again that we as a people don’t stay satisfied for too long. We always seem to strive towards better.
As we achieve something we deem ‘perfect’, another format starts creeping around the corner. While this may sound a bit dystopian in terms of innovation/progress, the truth is much simpler. People are always trying to look for new, better ways to connect. So the olden methods we know as theater, or early TV, may seem as if they’re fading, but they really aren’t; they’re evolving and adapting.
Who knows. Perhaps the next movie star or pop star people start worshiping might not even be human (and we aren’t talking about aliens).
