Photoshop Assignment #1

The medium I have chosen for this assignment is Netflix. While seemingly a great idea it may not be such a positive influence on our well being after all. The mediums' content is made up of things such as images, audio, text, software, paper, dvd's, ink, labels, glue, speech, and even as abstract as light. McLuhan would not be very happy with this invention since he was not the biggest fan of mediums that can ruin employment opportunities. He states, "the new patterns of human association tend to eliminate jobs, it is true (McLuhan, 7)." With Netflix this is yet another reason for persons to never leave their house. Its another commodatie that takes away the experience of leaving the house and going to the movie theater to see a movie, or renting one and supporting local business. While it makes life somewhat "easier" for people to never have to leave the house to rent a movie again, yet isn't that part of the fun in the first place? Movies are for your entertainment yet with Netflix part of the magic is lost through your assurance that you will recieve the movie in the mail and you know that you can watch it as many times as you like before you send it back. While rentals you are unsure if they will have it and it makes the experience that much more rewarding and entertaining. This is my perspective on the matter, McLuhan I feel would see a message of laziness being sent to the public. The message that Netflix is telling it's customers is something along the lines of "Let us take all of the hardwork out of renting a movie for you." Yet I have to wonder, is that making the movie experience any better? Or worse? Once again the overall message being sent here is to make our lives "easier", even though most of the technology around us is already trying to do this as well. And so with the introduction of newer technology which is just making our lives easier and easier than they were previously, taking care of the "annoying" or "hard" things we are confronted with in everyday life I just have to wonder, why do we want life to be so easy for us? Will it make it any better? Any who, I just went on a tangent there sorry. The message being conveyed from the content and the medium is an attempt to make our lives even easier and fill that void with "entertainment" through movie watching at such an easy access through Netflix online and dvd through mail.