Isn't it amazing? Our entire life experience is mediated. In the
literal sense, through our shared cultural experiences of television
and movies and CDs, and in the McLuhan sense in the way our worlds are
almost entirely constructed.
>There is nothing that they really like that has not been highly
>marketed ... I'm amazed water made it onto the drinks list.
Was that Naya, Evian, or Poland Springs water? Water is a product too.
>It's so media-meta, or meta-media. So meta, anyway.
There has to be a backlash about this someday. I find my few moments
of unmediated existence very precious. I would love to have more "Real
World" if my life permitted it, or at least cut back on the intrusion
and interpretation of the most aggressive media. The two months of
roadtripping I took off two years ago were fantastic, cut off from
electronic media. There's a lot of life out there!
Amy Bruckman had a nice eassy about this in Technology Review,
"Christmas Unplugged" (from January 1995):
http://asb.www.media.mit.edu/people/asb/christmas.html
For a small version of this, watch Hitchcock's "Rope" and Stone's "JFK".
Rope is one giant continuous take with no cuts. JFK averages a cut
every 10 seconds or so with whole minutes that are 3 cuts a second.
Same medium, different mediation.