This past Thursday, I had to make a class presentation in Press In America. My presentation was my interest in the website, Internet Movie Database (IMDb). I described the sites aspect of incorporating an internet library of every feature film including the actors, director, and/or producers. I said the website turns me into a moviegoer and a fan.
Whenever I’m with my friends they come to me when they need to know something about a movie. I even play a character on the campus show New Paltz Critics called Anthony the-Movie-Man Frederick. Professor Howard Good wondered if my expertise was to acquire a social status. At first I said no, but then subconsciously realized yes. I guess it’s nice for your friends to rely on you for something once in a while. Good then asked me, why I cared about movies or why I enjoyed it so much. When I thought hard, I couldn’t find an answer. My class presentation was now open for discussion. I discovered that such websites as IMDb.com, Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes or other entertainment databases drown us into the media culture. Instead of becoming more self aware for informative issues, I’m spending my time hailing and studying stars which most consider a useless task. Another example of saturated culture was when I went to see the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
Thursday night my friends and I had tickets for a 12:09 a.m. showing and got to the theater by 10 p.m. The line started from the front doors, crossed down the hallway, looped around the next hallway where the theaters were. This line was for people who had already bought the tickets. We all happened to have ten tickets because all 16 theater rooms were sold out. It was a zoo of young teenagers to college students, some dressed up in Hogwarts school uniforms, others as witches, and those with large spectacles and a lightning scar on their forehead.  My friends and I were at a standstill for about two hours. When I leaned towards the wall I starred at the crowd. One girl was reading a textbook, someone was looking at their cell phone and two others were playing a Pong like game on an I-Pad, tapping on a flat computer screen.
After the movie was finished, getting out of the theater was another task. After I went to the bathroom and went outside I lost all my friends. Instead there was a swarming of people moving and pushing ahead. I ran into the parking lot looking around and couldn’t find anyone I knew. I started feeling dizzy and disoriented. I tried calling my friend from my cell phone but it didn’t go through. I then asked a group of people to borrow a cell phone and surprisingly they had none. I was surrounded and overwhelmed by a media culture but when I needed the phone the most no one could provide with one. I decided to get to the stairs and see where my friends were from a distance. Within a minute, I saw my friends beneath the staircase. I got into my friends car and took a deep breath. Harry Potter was everywhere and I managed to escape the depths of media saturation.