One frequently told story is that these shifts are in large part the result of corporate greed and capitalism. The price of spending an evening in the kinds of places where people socialise — bars, pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues — has risen steeply, leading them to stay at home instead and therefore socialise less. Or the decline in reading is partly due to books becoming too expensive.

Extremely frustrating. Prices rising have nothing to do with capitalism---resources are scarce and everything always has a price, whether in money or in time or some other resource. Prices were high under communism too---you just paid by waiting in line... or in the case where you just didn't have certain goods, the price was infinite.

The question is whether knowing that the decline in socialising and reading is more about convenience than affordability is reassuring. If it were just about price, we have plenty of tools for dealing with that. Asking people to perpetually fight temptation and put long-term gains above short-term pleasure has a much weaker record

I think their chart basically shows how it's both. Increasing quality of digital entertainment and decreasing relative prices both make people stay home more and go out less.

As to the quality point, I'd argue that it's more about horizontal match quality than vertical match quality. A lot of people think movies and games are shittier than before. But there's just so many of them, and much easier to find a niche that satisfies your particular tastes.

Another aspect of increased "quality" is the scientization of addiction that the companies use to keep you hooked on the screen