Media Saturation - short rant

I have access to a lot of movies through various means. DVD, itunes, other legal places (cough) mean that we can all find a ton of films and other media to keep us entertained on a night in, or a day in if you’re a student. But don’t you just sometimes look at it all and still think something like “I don’t know what to watch,” or “meh there’s nothing here.” Users of Netflix will understand my point immediately. There you are with a £6 a month subscription to a server that allows you unlimited access to all the goodies it offers. Yet you still find yourself bored on a night, wondering what to watch.

There’s an idea in the field of advertising that suggest that something similar happened some time ago with adverts. We are ‘saturated’ with commercials and imagery telling us to buy commodities we often don’t really need or want, and as a result we have developed a kind of mental immunity to it all. A more practical example of this would that companies often predict a loss on television advertising these days, simply because they know that people ignore a lot of adverts on TV. Another interesting side point on this is that because that recording TV for later idea has pervaded the media through things such as Sky plus, a lot of the time people don’t even see these television adverts. So why do companies do them? Often, because they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t. Besides, there have been some very notable television campaigns recently. For example, everyone knows the “Compare the meercat” adverts from comparethemarket.com. I know there’s that whole argument “Yes people know the meercat but do they actually know where he comes from?” Perhaps not, but they only have to think about it for a few minutes before they realise what he represents, and hey presto the company is a house hold name. Also, if you google Meerkat, guess what comes up. That Meercat advert is not silly (well it is...but that’s what makes it good).

Anyway, the point is that media saturation is now occurring in other ways within the media, and this includes films. Funnily enough, I could watch Star Wars anytime in theory if I wanted to, but when it comes on TV, along with full on commercial breaks and that tedious business that is becoming predated, I suddenly love the idea of it and sit down to watch. There’s more novelty to your favourite movie coming on TV randomly, than to looking it up online and being able to find it whenever you want. The whole Star Wars franchise is something I consider in my top most loved films, and in theory I could see it every day. But why would I? I would get sick of it so quickly and then that would be that. I would lose a much loved childhood memory. As to how this applies to not being able to find anything to watch online, the novelty is exactly the point. Maybe on some level I don’t feel like I want to watch something just because I know I can watch anything I want anytime.

I guess there’s also that thing of being in your own little world and just not wanting to explore beyond it. Perhaps that’s my personal problem. I do like my action films and comedies, and I don’t wander out of those genres as much as I would like. Maybe I should scare myself more with horrors, or break my heart with dramas, but there’s so much to choose from. I’m staring at Netflix right now and just thinking where do I even begin. I know, I will just watch some romcoms to slip into drama from good old comedy...aha actually that comedy looks quite good...