Wednesday, February 24, 2010

More on Screens and Prisons

I’d like to address Kyle’s post “blog 3: more on screens and prisons” and say that I completely agree with how the Blackberry, Facebook, and Chat Roulette imprison the user because he/she cannot escape from it. While there is evidence for this imprisonment, I’d like to also consider how liberating these sources of media are. These screens pull us out of the world we are in. Standing anywhere from an airport to a cafeteria line, we can detach ourselves from the world around us and immerse into the world of the screen.
I consider this one of the major appeals of online gaming and how the strive for better visual graphics makes this out-of-world experience better. Essentially, it is a prison because of the appeal it brings and how it “traps” the user, but it can also serve as a mode of relief from reality. What I think is interesting is the idea that the screen is a prison depends on the quality of the screen itself. For example, a compelling commercial such as the Google super bowl ad, can entrance the viewers and essentially “imprison” them to the screen. Yet an Esurance ad sends everyone running away, or more literally, forces the audience to switch channels.
I guess imprisonment is a form of better marketing and a better product. I still agree with how the car and facebook can be dealing with the process of imprisonment, but it seems like sources of media are striving for this.

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