Interactivity is what everyone before me said. It is a communication process between two or more audiences. As mentioned in the previous posts, interactivity can be categorized into three levels: high, medium and low. To put it simply, the levels of interactivity indicate how involved an individual is to what they are interacting with. As technology begins to evolve, it is evident that we are moving towards a higher level of interactivity. With the examples given from previous posts such as the effectiveness of websites/blogs, 3-d movies, etc, the higher levels of interactivity are dominating the other levels.
In an article by Luis O. Arata, he suggests that we, the society, are moving towards a culture of simulation. In essence, we are becoming more comfortable with substitutions of reality rather than reality itself. This phrase is clearly happening to us without us even noticing it. More and more people are interested in games such as Grand Theft Auto. This game lets the player to be in control of a serial killer. The objective is to kill and steal from the citizens of a company-created utopia. Also, more 3-D movies are appearing in our theaters. People are simply bored of watching films projected on to the big screen with deafening loud sound effects nowadays. Instantly, 3-D movies have became much more popular in theaters. People are more interested with the experience being in a 3-D movie rather than an ordinary movie experience because the audience will have immediate reactions to something unexpected that may give a rush of adrenaline. The public desires the examples mentioned above simply because they are advertised in ads, our friends and families are doing it. Or in other words, these exhilarating vehicles of interactivity will help us escape from the dreadful reality.
Personally, I believe that the high levels of interactivity will remain dominant, leaving the lower levels in the dust. It is clear that humans are coming up with more advanced ways to use technology for our entertainment. Like Linda mentioned, something simple like video games will surely evolve into something much more hi-tech in the future.
-Kelvin
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It seems you are conflating immersion with interaction. In what way is a 3-D movie interactive? The interesting thing about interactivity is that it offers us the possibility to transform reality, rather than escape it, like in the piano example Curtis posted. What would be an example of a truly interactive movie?