"Limited to the microword of their own dreams, the characters are lost in a narcissistic stupor. And yet their total absorption is compelling. Visual representations of the unconscious--no doubt Wenders has film itself in mind--are irresistible compared to everyday reality, a kind of hyperreality." --Mark Poster
This quote describes a phenomenon that is extremely prevalent in our society today. Technology has opened up a new realm of experience in this world that was completely unheard of prior to its creation. In this quote, Poster describes characters in a film that experience the ability to watch their own dreams on video tape; they become so consumed with it that they forget to eat and sleep. Being so immersed in some form of media that one goes several hours without eating, sleeping, socializing in person or bathing is not an uncommon phenomenon in the 21st century. A prime example of this exists within the video gaming community. When new, highly anticipated games are scheduled to come out, avid gamers engage in this type of behavior before the game is even released. They will camp outside of stores a day in advance just to be first in line to buy this game before it sells out. Then they will take this game home and play it for days--they completely and totally immerse themselves in the game, planning ahead so that they can spend these days free of any "real life" responsibilities that they may have had. They typically do not eat (or do not eat well) during these few days and they certainly do not get an adequate amount of sleep. For some reason, this digitized experience is much more compelling to avid video gamers than real life is. "Irresistible" is an extremely well-fitting term to describe the way that many of us experience the media and technology; I believe that there are times we all have face the internal conflict of wanting to spend hours upon hours reading, watching shows or movies, playing video games, using social media etc. although we realize how much it limits our experience with reality.
This quote describes a phenomenon that is extremely prevalent in our society today. Technology has opened up a new realm of experience in this world that was completely unheard of prior to its creation. In this quote, Poster describes characters in a film that experience the ability to watch their own dreams on video tape; they become so consumed with it that they forget to eat and sleep. Being so immersed in some form of media that one goes several hours without eating, sleeping, socializing in person or bathing is not an uncommon phenomenon in the 21st century. A prime example of this exists within the video gaming community. When new, highly anticipated games are scheduled to come out, avid gamers engage in this type of behavior before the game is even released. They will camp outside of stores a day in advance just to be first in line to buy this game before it sells out. Then they will take this game home and play it for days--they completely and totally immerse themselves in the game, planning ahead so that they can spend these days free of any "real life" responsibilities that they may have had. They typically do not eat (or do not eat well) during these few days and they certainly do not get an adequate amount of sleep. For some reason, this digitized experience is much more compelling to avid video gamers than real life is. "Irresistible" is an extremely well-fitting term to describe the way that many of us experience the media and technology; I believe that there are times we all have face the internal conflict of wanting to spend hours upon hours reading, watching shows or movies, playing video games, using social media etc. although we realize how much it limits our experience with reality.
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