# Advanced Interactive Media/Interactive Media Versus Other Kinds Of Media

I believe that Interactive Media is the most wide range type of media possible. There is no limit to what you can do in interactive media. All types of avenues such as web design, web development World Wide Web, Internet forums, computer games, online games, interactive television, e-Mail and electronic literature and many other sources of media apply. One of the benefits of interactive media is that the technologies of it are always emerging. It does not stay at a stand still because there is no definite measure of interactive media. Many times, clients have changing views for what they want for their product and being the developer for the product as an interactive developer, this makes it that much more difficult. I assume that in other forms of media it is more clear cut in the sense that you have a need and without little trouble, the product is developed. In conclusion, if you crave to be creative in what you do or want to pursue, then interactive is the way to go!
People will always crave media that will allow them to experience an environment that is more like the world as God made it. In other words, the more media becomes like the "real" world, the more it will be accepted and embraced by human beings. We are made in God's own image and this is why we can look at the beauty of the earth and say "it is good," just as God said in the book of Genesis.
This is also why television overtook radio, color television overtook black and white and why high definition television is overtaking standard definition television. Interactive, immersive, multi-sensorial, multimedia will eventually be widely accepted and even demanded, because it is more like God's real world - never as good as His world, but "like" His real world. When it's not possible to actually stand in a rain forest, virtual experiences will offer the next best thing until you can get there.
Is interactive media something that is completely attainable? I view it as an immersive element of our world that few will actually indulge in when the media becomes available. I am not doubting that the media will be attainable (technology and creativity are at an all-time high), I am merely asking whether or not those ordinary people in everyday life will be excited about the medium that is creating a huge buzz in this field.
Then my second question - is it healthy to have such interactive media in today's lifestyles? According to www.healthgood.com, One in three people in this world are obese. According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity and being overweight, together, are the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, close behind tobacco use. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are due to the obesity epidemic. [1] My question then: is it going to be a problem as more and more interactive types of media are surfacing; is it going to take away from user physical interactivity or will it add to it.
In my personal opinion I believe that it is our job as the initiators and developers of this medium to make it add to the amount of physical activity. I believe Nintendo hit the mark when they released the Wii to the consumer. It is completely interactive and it makes the user become physically involved in the interactive pursuit. If our media, which up until now has been engaged in by sitting back and watching or by clicking a mouse here or there, can physically involve its user in the process, I think that we can help better our future.
So how can media logically be used to improve our future? One answer is social networking, and many websites are created just for that!
Getting the Word Out
How can you create a buzz without a budget? Use what you have - which just might be one of the many free tools now available to you.
Interactive media can address a vast audience with little to no budget simply by creating a buzz about your message.
Post a video on You Tube with links to your Myspace and Facebook accounts and e-mail friends in your address book to view your project. If they like it and mail it on to their friends you just might have some highly contagious, viral media on your hands.
Friends in your Facebook and Myspace accounts view the video and may decide to link it to their pages, adding more exposure. Other free online sources such as Xanga or online blogging can branch to different audiences and multiply your audience exponentially. The only cost to you is your own creativity along with friends who help you get your message linked up to the world.
People are grabbing hold of this concept and bypassing the traditional avenues of marketing. Several people have created a buzz about themselves, bypassing Hollywood and, as a result, it opened the door to a job. If you get a large enough audience, people will listen. Television executives are lost and disarrayed over the power of this medium.