Technologies once made for war now drive global entertainment, social media world

​​​​​​​By Abdulkadir Gunyol

ISTANBUL (AA) - Tools and technologies originally developed for war, espionage and academic research have grown to become an indispensable part of the global entertainment industry and daily life.

Innovations like the internet and artificial intelligence (AI) shifted from being used in military operations to entering our living rooms, fundamentally changing how humans consume information and entertain themselves.

The internet, which is now the world’s primary medium for entertainment, can be traced all the way back to a project developed by the US Defense Department’s research arm, DARPA, called ARPANET.

The technology was initially designed for secure military research, but was later expanded to be used by personal computers. The internet, since its widespread adoption, has been transformed into a massive digital ecosystem for commerce, education and daily communication.

The rise of social media networks is the most obvious example of the transformation, especially with what began as a digital yearbook of Harvard University students, Facebook. The now-massive social media app was once a closed network of Ivy League schools like Yale, Columbia and Stanford.

Facebook opened to the general public in 2006 and shifted from a university tool to a sort of digital town square.

Nowadays, platforms like Instagram, X and TikTok turned the infrastructure into an entertainment hub, in which algorithms are used to prioritize content that can grab the highest amount of attention, such as short-form videos like Instagram Reels, to retain usage.

The Digital 2026 report, published by We Are Social and Meltwater, said overall internet usage habits and purposes are going through a massive transformation.

While the usage of the internet to search information still ranks first at a 60.7% share, it was mostly done through traditional search engines like Google in 2024, but AI chatbots and social media search queries like on TikTok and Instagram significantly rose in 2026.

The report found that internet usage for communicating with family and friends was 58.7%, and streaming videos, TV shows and movies was 54.2%. Compared to the 2024 data, services like YouTube and Netflix, as well as short-form content providers like Instagram and TikTok, increased in use by more than 10% in 2026.

As for other technologies, the global positioning system (GPS) also shares a military background despite being in widespread use for social conveniences like food delivery, dating apps and smartwatch tracking.

The technology was born during the Cold War to track intercontinental missiles and military vehicles but it too was later opened to the public via civil aviation safety before becoming an indispensable part of our lives.

As for AI, which is believed to be the most significant invention of modern times, the advent can be traced to military strategies in World War II.

English computer scientist Alan Turing’s “bombe” machine, which was used to decipher Germany’s Enigma code secret messages during the war, continued to evolve throughout the Cold War.

AI entered the mainstream with generative models like ChatGPT in the 2020s, followed by Google Gemini, Grok and DeepSeek. The tools normalized AI for chat, image and video generation.

Meanwhile, drones underwent a similar transformation, growing from military recon and surveillance tools to essential devices for media creation, agriculture and logistics.

Civilian drones became widespread in the early 2000s as GPS technology and lithium-ion batteries became cheaper.

Additionally, the military-to-civilian shift is believed to be historical, with examples like microwave ovens and jet engines being prime examples of wartime technology being adopted for everyday use.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim