I was thinking about our discussion about video games and movies we had Tuesday, and I thought of another possible component to the whole gaming/entertainment phenomena. In class we discussed gaming as a sort of addiction as well as means of gratification and accomplishment or connection with the characters. In thinking about why we like to play video/computer games or watch a movie, I think it's necessary to incorporate time and especially in the particular way time is perceived in our worlds. A long time a go in class we discussed the largely US mentality that time is a commodity or the nagging feeling that we're always running out of time, there's never enough time, or the sense that time is moving faster than it should. Perhaps movies are a way to "stop" time, at least as you know it, and enter into the time as another form knows it. Movie time isn't real time; it's the time of the characters, the setting, future or present. It doesn't matter, because it's as though it's not your time. You are in another realm of time that isn't controlled by you. You can't control how quickly the plot plays out or the development of a character or the ending of the story or the time it takes for all this to occur. Nothing you do (besides fast forwarding) can accomplish what is to take place in the movie any faster or more efficient than what is set in place. In our everyday lives we cannot control time, but we can control our movement through time and when and how long we do something. Still, we tend to feel a sense of need to control time and not lose it. We don't like growing old, because it feels like it happened too fast. The way in which we live makes us feel like time is flying by with nothing to show sometimes. But through watching a movie, we can turn off time and focus in on the movie as reality. We can leave our world and join somebody elses. We can't control the flow of a movie so we don't feel so pressured to try to. We can't control time but we can control how we use time. Once the movie is on, how the recording time is used is not in your control; it's already sketched our and rolling on the reele. Nothing you can do can change the order already in place. So, you sit back and let it happen. It is not often we get that feeling in life in terms of time.