In this video, “Digital Nations," Douglas Rushkoff and Rachael Dretzin had taken us, their audience, deeper into the technology world. It had showed us that Technology today, has overtaken many people around the world, including Korea as well as the U.S. There was a person who had gave an example regarding a persons "choice" to get addicted to online games. In other words, he had said, "If a person is born a peasant, that's what their life comes to be. Therefore, if someone had given them the choice where they could enter a world where they could be a king, who wouldn't take that offer?" On chapter 6 of the video, the main point was that millions of people around the world are inhabiting the Net as if it were an actual realistic place that existed, which also satisfies being able to play and connect with diverse people all over the world. Therefore, people seemed to build relationships with people whom they do not know. In Korea, there is a 2 week camp for kids who had devoted all of their time to online games and were so addicted that they wouldn't do anything but play games. This video had also shown where the game industry throws a huge party for all of it's fans. Many of the people who attend say that they connect with all of the "strangers" at the party whom of which they do not know at all, but play online games with. They had said that they connect a lot more and better with the people from their "fantasy world" than they do in real life. Towards the end of the video, a women had said that maybe through technology the kids are getting something that we today aren't sure on what it is yet. Sure, maybe the internet is weakening our reading and writing skills but what if it carries something much greater?
In my view, I do agree with what the people including what Douglas Rushkoff had said. He loves the fact who people take any type of technology and "use it to express themselves." I truly agree with this and continue to support it.
In my experience, I do see how technology has overpowered many people that I know personally, but I don't see this as exactly a bad thing. One of the people I know is extremely smart in solving problems and mysteries. He can figure anything out no matter how hard it is. Personally, I think this is a very unique skill acquired from all of his gaming experience. I think that in his though, he should put these to greater use. Maybe choose a career as an F.B.I. or anything that has to do with solving something. Personally though, I've realized that my writing has actually improved with technology. For instance, let's say I’m writing an essay and come across a word that I would want to make more "juicer." I can quickly open a thesaurus page online and find a list of great words that I could use. This is just one example. I have come across many problems while writing or reading and with having the internet, I seem to able to solve my problems right away. Therefore, I deplore the tendency to disagree with the people who say that technology is making people "stupid" or getting people very addicted that they have to attend a camp in order to "withdrawal" for the internet. Instead, I recommend people to continue using the Internet in ways that are great for society and themselves. For those people who are extremely addicted, I strongly think that they should lay off a little. It isn't a good thing to be an addict for technology because it doesn't always bring great things. People just have to use it right and in ways that is could rewarding in the long run.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Digital nation
In this video, “Digital Nations," Douglas Rushkoff and Rachael Dretzin had taken us, their audience, deeper into the technology world. It had showed us that Technology today, has overtaken many people around the world, including Korea as well as the U.S. There was a person who had gave an example regarding a persons "choice" to get addicted to online games. In other words, he had said, "If a person is born a peasant, that's what their life comes to be. Therefore, if someone had given them the choice where they could enter a world where they could be a king, who wouldn't take that offer?" On chapter 6 of the video, the main point was that millions of people around the world are inhabiting the Net as if it were an actual realistic place that existed, which also satisfies being able to play and connect with diverse people all over the world. Therefore, people seemed to build relationships with people whom they do not know. In Korea, there is a 2 week camp for kids who had devoted all of their time to online games and were so addicted that they wouldn't do anything but play games. This video had also shown where the game industry throws a huge party for all of it's fans. Many of the people who attend say that they connect with all of the "strangers" at the party whom of which they do not know at all, but play online games with. They had said that they connect a lot more and better with the people from their "fantasy world" than they do in real life. Towards the end of the video, a women had said that maybe through technology the kids are getting something that we today aren't sure on what it is yet. Sure, maybe the internet is weakening our reading and writing skills but what if it carries something much greater?
In my view, I do agree with what the people including what Douglas Rushkoff had said. He loves the fact who people take any type of technology and "use it to express themselves." I truly agree with this and continue to support it.
In my experience, I do see how technology has overpowered many people that I know personally, but I don't see this as exactly a bad thing. One of the people I know is extremely smart in solving problems and mysteries. He can figure anything out no matter how hard it is. Personally, I think this is a very unique skill acquired from all of his gaming experience. I think that in his though, he should put these to greater use. Maybe choose a career as an F.B.I. or anything that has to do with solving something. Personally though, I've realized that my writing has actually improved with technology. For instance, let's say I’m writing an essay and come across a word that I would want to make more "juicer." I can quickly open a thesaurus page online and find a list of great words that I could use. This is just one example. I have come across many problems while writing or reading and with having the internet, I seem to able to solve my problems right away. Therefore, I deplore the tendency to disagree with the people who say that technology is making people "stupid" or getting people very addicted that they have to attend a camp in order to "withdrawal" for the internet. Instead, I recommend people to continue using the Internet in ways that are great for society and themselves. For those people who are extremely addicted, I strongly think that they should lay off a little. It isn't a good thing to be an addict for technology because it doesn't always bring great things. People just have to use it right and in ways that is could rewarding in the long run.
In my view, I do agree with what the people including what Douglas Rushkoff had said. He loves the fact who people take any type of technology and "use it to express themselves." I truly agree with this and continue to support it.
In my experience, I do see how technology has overpowered many people that I know personally, but I don't see this as exactly a bad thing. One of the people I know is extremely smart in solving problems and mysteries. He can figure anything out no matter how hard it is. Personally, I think this is a very unique skill acquired from all of his gaming experience. I think that in his though, he should put these to greater use. Maybe choose a career as an F.B.I. or anything that has to do with solving something. Personally though, I've realized that my writing has actually improved with technology. For instance, let's say I’m writing an essay and come across a word that I would want to make more "juicer." I can quickly open a thesaurus page online and find a list of great words that I could use. This is just one example. I have come across many problems while writing or reading and with having the internet, I seem to able to solve my problems right away. Therefore, I deplore the tendency to disagree with the people who say that technology is making people "stupid" or getting people very addicted that they have to attend a camp in order to "withdrawal" for the internet. Instead, I recommend people to continue using the Internet in ways that are great for society and themselves. For those people who are extremely addicted, I strongly think that they should lay off a little. It isn't a good thing to be an addict for technology because it doesn't always bring great things. People just have to use it right and in ways that is could rewarding in the long run.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Reading Response #3
Reading Response #3
In the video "Digital Nation" by Douglas Rushkoff and Rachel Dretzin say how our addiction to the internet is not only affecting kids, but all of us are emersed in technology all the time. Douglas argues "I kind of want to push the pause button and everything stops and we could look and say, just whats going on here." From multi tasking, to game addictions, military centers, relationships and virtual worlds are topics that get covered in this video. In multi-tasking scientist and researchers ask themselves if multi-tasking could actually be dumbing down the world. The MIT students are the worlds smartest and most wired students. In the MIT their are students who multi-task as 5-6 things at a time. Clifford Nass obtained a group of students from the MIT who multi-task more than 4 things at once, in order to do a variety of tests. Nass was testing on how students can switch from tasks without losing their focus. Nass claims "Students think that they are brilliant in multi-tasking and it turns out that they are terrible." In South korea their are many young kids who are addicted to video games. They believe that internet addiction has become a health crisis. The game addiction has gone way over hand. Th Korean Government had to even establish free Internet Rescue Schools throught the country. These treatment camps are two weeks long and are for kids to mainly recapture a lost childhood from the computers. As, in other places teaching with internet and technology keeps students engaged in school. It is actually showing improvemts in test scores, grades and less fights. But Mark Baverlein argues that our writng today is worst than a decade ago. That its mainly about how distractions are distracting us while we are writing. Millions of other people are inhibiting the net as if it were a real place, satisfying the urge to connect to others in online games, and virtual worlds. Many of these people argue that people who do not play don't get connected in the connections in relationships, and in friendships. How virtual worlds offer humans the chance to go and do something all together new. Philip Rosedale says "its a totally new reality for humans and technology is bringing us back together." IBM talk about how virtual worlds are recaptuaring the human connection lost in a culture of video games and phone calls. Technology is not olny with people and businesses is also in the US Military. They use the internet for troops to be treated with virtual reality therapy. Not only therapy but also in game centers created by the army. Where kids can go in an have an experience of the army duty. It is said that technology opens up new frontiers.
My personal experience have been significally affected by technology. I like to go into facebook and myspace to chat with other people. But sometimes its difficult when you do things at the same time. I like to check messages when I am wtaching t.v. and doing reading. Because I actually get involve with what im actually trying to find. I think that with out internet or technology my life would be missing a part of it. Because you are so use to being involved with so many things and using the internet when ever you need it that it would be hard to leave it behind. I am actually addicted with the internet because when ever i dont get into facebook or myspace I want to look at it so bad. For me its a problem to do many things at the same time because if im talking to someone ealse and im chatting or listening to music I dont pay attention to what they are actually saying, im just nodding my head and agreeing. "We need to have the internet on in order to talk to friends because everyone uses it," said a student in MIT in the video. I agree in part of it and half of it dont because. I use the internet to communicate with my family from california, friends and old teachers. I disagree with the fact of using it to communicate, when everyone is actually doing it that way. Because you are not suppose to use it just beacuse everyone does it.
In the video "Digital Nation" by Douglas Rushkoff and Rachel Dretzin say how our addiction to the internet is not only affecting kids, but all of us are emersed in technology all the time. Douglas argues "I kind of want to push the pause button and everything stops and we could look and say, just whats going on here." From multi tasking, to game addictions, military centers, relationships and virtual worlds are topics that get covered in this video. In multi-tasking scientist and researchers ask themselves if multi-tasking could actually be dumbing down the world. The MIT students are the worlds smartest and most wired students. In the MIT their are students who multi-task as 5-6 things at a time. Clifford Nass obtained a group of students from the MIT who multi-task more than 4 things at once, in order to do a variety of tests. Nass was testing on how students can switch from tasks without losing their focus. Nass claims "Students think that they are brilliant in multi-tasking and it turns out that they are terrible." In South korea their are many young kids who are addicted to video games. They believe that internet addiction has become a health crisis. The game addiction has gone way over hand. Th Korean Government had to even establish free Internet Rescue Schools throught the country. These treatment camps are two weeks long and are for kids to mainly recapture a lost childhood from the computers. As, in other places teaching with internet and technology keeps students engaged in school. It is actually showing improvemts in test scores, grades and less fights. But Mark Baverlein argues that our writng today is worst than a decade ago. That its mainly about how distractions are distracting us while we are writing. Millions of other people are inhibiting the net as if it were a real place, satisfying the urge to connect to others in online games, and virtual worlds. Many of these people argue that people who do not play don't get connected in the connections in relationships, and in friendships. How virtual worlds offer humans the chance to go and do something all together new. Philip Rosedale says "its a totally new reality for humans and technology is bringing us back together." IBM talk about how virtual worlds are recaptuaring the human connection lost in a culture of video games and phone calls. Technology is not olny with people and businesses is also in the US Military. They use the internet for troops to be treated with virtual reality therapy. Not only therapy but also in game centers created by the army. Where kids can go in an have an experience of the army duty. It is said that technology opens up new frontiers.
My personal experience have been significally affected by technology. I like to go into facebook and myspace to chat with other people. But sometimes its difficult when you do things at the same time. I like to check messages when I am wtaching t.v. and doing reading. Because I actually get involve with what im actually trying to find. I think that with out internet or technology my life would be missing a part of it. Because you are so use to being involved with so many things and using the internet when ever you need it that it would be hard to leave it behind. I am actually addicted with the internet because when ever i dont get into facebook or myspace I want to look at it so bad. For me its a problem to do many things at the same time because if im talking to someone ealse and im chatting or listening to music I dont pay attention to what they are actually saying, im just nodding my head and agreeing. "We need to have the internet on in order to talk to friends because everyone uses it," said a student in MIT in the video. I agree in part of it and half of it dont because. I use the internet to communicate with my family from california, friends and old teachers. I disagree with the fact of using it to communicate, when everyone is actually doing it that way. Because you are not suppose to use it just beacuse everyone does it.
Reading Response 3
The video “Digital Nation” produced by Rachel Dretzin analysis the effects of the digital world on us human beings in this current century. Dretzin and her correspondent Douglass Rushkoff dig deep into the mystery of this new digital nation where they find numerous amounts of negative and positive effects.
One idea the team looked into was the idea of multitasking as it has become to be a new trend since we can do so many things on our phones and computers. They come to learn, through Stanford Studies by Prof. Clifford Nass, that multitasking has a negative impact on people. Prof. Nass states “it turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we've done suggests they're worse at analytic reasoning. We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.” With kids spending “more than 50 hours” with digital media this could cause a real shift in the way our brains work. South Korea has been the first to notice it and have been treating internet addiction as a psychiatric disorder. According to Dr. Ahn Dong-Hyun, “about 90 percent of Korean children use the Internet in their daily life. Of those, about 10 to 15 percent are in the high-risk group.” However not everyone notices this same negative impact, there is another story to it.
In South Bronx a principle was able to take a middle school under his wing and with the installment of technology he noticed positive effects all around. Principle Jason Levy insists “Kids are going to need to be fluent in technology. They're going to need to be excellent at communication. They're going to need to be problem solvers. That's just the way the world is now” Dean Prinstien, Dean of Instruction, also confirms by announcing “Kids are going to need to be fluent in technology. They're going to need to be excellent at communication. They're going to need to be problem solvers. That's just the way the world is now.” Not only did this South Bronx Middle school use this modern technology to its advantage but so does the Military. The military has been researching the use of virtual reality to help treat Post traumatic stress disorder. Michael Cramer acknowledges that “Over time, their brain is able to say, “OK, this is uncomfortable, this is unpleasant, but it's not a life-threatening situation. I can tone down the level of anxiety and stress.””
Asking the question if the new digital nation is bad or good is like asking if the glass is half empty or half full. It really depends on the individual and what you believe in. Marc Prenksy puts it best, “You know, there were people who complained when we moved from horses to cars. There were people who complained when we moved from letters to the telephone. And it's not that they're wrong totally because things get lost. So you might have less memory. We don't have as flowery writing. But we gain other things. And life moves on.” Personally I feel that internet has done both good and bad to me. With the internet around I can easily get distracted especially when typing a paper. For example during this paper I managed to look at sports scores, check out my online class, and download some music. It deters me from putting hundred percent of my attention to writing or whatever else the task at hand is. However, I don’t blame internet for being around but my lack of motivation and determination to finish one task at a time. On the other hand I have benefited a lot from this digital nation. I am able to get directions while out driving; this has helped me a couple of times (thanks to my cell phone.) It can keep me connected to people when I can’T always see them or am away. Lastly, it has greatly helped with homework. When I don’t quite understand something I jump on Google and search it to help further my understanding.
As mentioned before with this new digital nation taking over we will lose something’s but we will manage to deal due to our gains. This has been the trend ever since man made fire and I firmly believe it will continue.
One idea the team looked into was the idea of multitasking as it has become to be a new trend since we can do so many things on our phones and computers. They come to learn, through Stanford Studies by Prof. Clifford Nass, that multitasking has a negative impact on people. Prof. Nass states “it turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we've done suggests they're worse at analytic reasoning. We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.” With kids spending “more than 50 hours” with digital media this could cause a real shift in the way our brains work. South Korea has been the first to notice it and have been treating internet addiction as a psychiatric disorder. According to Dr. Ahn Dong-Hyun, “about 90 percent of Korean children use the Internet in their daily life. Of those, about 10 to 15 percent are in the high-risk group.” However not everyone notices this same negative impact, there is another story to it.
In South Bronx a principle was able to take a middle school under his wing and with the installment of technology he noticed positive effects all around. Principle Jason Levy insists “Kids are going to need to be fluent in technology. They're going to need to be excellent at communication. They're going to need to be problem solvers. That's just the way the world is now” Dean Prinstien, Dean of Instruction, also confirms by announcing “Kids are going to need to be fluent in technology. They're going to need to be excellent at communication. They're going to need to be problem solvers. That's just the way the world is now.” Not only did this South Bronx Middle school use this modern technology to its advantage but so does the Military. The military has been researching the use of virtual reality to help treat Post traumatic stress disorder. Michael Cramer acknowledges that “Over time, their brain is able to say, “OK, this is uncomfortable, this is unpleasant, but it's not a life-threatening situation. I can tone down the level of anxiety and stress.””
Asking the question if the new digital nation is bad or good is like asking if the glass is half empty or half full. It really depends on the individual and what you believe in. Marc Prenksy puts it best, “You know, there were people who complained when we moved from horses to cars. There were people who complained when we moved from letters to the telephone. And it's not that they're wrong totally because things get lost. So you might have less memory. We don't have as flowery writing. But we gain other things. And life moves on.” Personally I feel that internet has done both good and bad to me. With the internet around I can easily get distracted especially when typing a paper. For example during this paper I managed to look at sports scores, check out my online class, and download some music. It deters me from putting hundred percent of my attention to writing or whatever else the task at hand is. However, I don’t blame internet for being around but my lack of motivation and determination to finish one task at a time. On the other hand I have benefited a lot from this digital nation. I am able to get directions while out driving; this has helped me a couple of times (thanks to my cell phone.) It can keep me connected to people when I can’T always see them or am away. Lastly, it has greatly helped with homework. When I don’t quite understand something I jump on Google and search it to help further my understanding.
As mentioned before with this new digital nation taking over we will lose something’s but we will manage to deal due to our gains. This has been the trend ever since man made fire and I firmly believe it will continue.
reading response #3
Reading Response #3
Digital Nation
Elena Golovin
In Rachel Dertzin’s Documentary “Digital Nation” her correspondent Douglas Rushkoft and her, try to find how the use of technology impacts our lives. They examine how the use of technology is changing our academic ability to think well and clear. How the use of technology is a cultural change for the air force and whether it can help students with multitasking. Dertzin and Rushkoft also study if the use of Internet can be an addiction or a distraction. They document their research from a variety of professors in universities to principals in the New York Bronx. From places like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge to the Stanford University in Palo Alto California.
Jashon Levy principal of New York’s South Bronx quotes “We have to embrace the fact that our kids today are going to need different skills five years from now than they needed five years ago” Levy claims that the change in technology is going to change our future jobs because almost every job in today’s day uses technology. So as technology continues to develop so will our future jobs.
Douglas Rushoft quotes “ If you turn of your email program it’s not the software that is going to complain it’s the people on the other side, your friends, your boss, and your bills.” He elaborates that technology is a distraction and we can’t fight distraction in isolation, if we are going to face the problems of distraction we have to do it together in order to succeed.
Professor Clifford Nass at the Stanford University studied brain images of multitaskers vs. non-multitaskers. He conducted an experiment to see if students can actually do two or more things at once and how quickly they can change from on subject to another. Nass quotes “It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every form of multitasking and they are worse at analytical reasoning.” Based on his research Nass found that student’s brains are not capable of multitasking even if they claim they can. He quotes “In general, our brain can’t do two things at once.”
I believe that technology isn’t necessarily good or bad. I think that technology can open doors and close windows. The Internet can provide us with a variety of information with an instant click of a button. However with all the opportunities he Internet gives us it can also cause problems. When using the Internet constantly I noticed that my brain begins to function like a computer. When I start reading I often feel like I’m in a hurry so I don’t take the time to sit down and analyze what I am reading. I often find myself skimming through the text with out giving the text to much thought. Technology is a powerful and helpful at the same time. If we take advantage of technology it will takes us to places we’ve never been before. And if we miss this opportunity to discover new things we miss our opportunity to grow in ourselves and as a society.
Reading Response #3
Part 1
In the documentary Digital Nation, produced/directed by Rachel Dretzin, Dretzin examines the effects that modern technology and more exclusively the internet is having on our society and especially today’s youth. Dretzin was prompted to explore this topic after witnessing the separation technology was creating in her own family. She enlisted the help of Douglas Rushkoff who has been writing about the internet for almost two decades and is the author of the book Cyberia. They began their search on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Dretzin states, “These kids are among the smartest, most wired people on the planet right now. They may hardly remember a time when they weren’t able to be online anywhere they went.” They found that today’s youth is dependent on their technology and it’s shaping the way they live.
Dretzin claims that this digital age is creating youth that no longer focuses on one thing at a time, but are constantly multitasking. Though students claim they are efficient in multitasking, according to Professor Clifford Nass who has conducted a study in its effects, “It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.” Nass claims this digital generation is easily distracted, disorganized and “it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.”
Dretzin and Rushkoff take their search to South Korea where the youth flock to Internet cafes known as “PC bangs.” The cafes are open all day and night and people play these games for hours and even days at a time. Rushkoff tells us people have actually died from lack of food and water while playing these games for 50 hours or more. Mrs. Shim Song-Ja, the mother of a 15 year old boy who constantly plays video games tells us, “I may lose my son. This is an addiction. Only an addict could act this way.” South Korea is starting to react to this problem with free Internet rescue camps to help this growing problem of addiction.
Seeking to explore the other side of the argument, Dretzin and Rushkoff find Jason Levy, a middle school principal, in New York’s South Bronx. Levy used technology to turn this school around. It had been wrought with violence and poor grades, but Levy had a vision of all students having laptops so they could do their homework on line. David Prinstein, Dean of Instruction states that now “Incidents of violence are way down… Daily attendance is up over 90 percent. In test scores we went up in reading 30 percent, and in math almost 40 percent.” Dretzin can see that something is working here, but she wonders what we are losing as a culture in this digital world. She tells us, “as we move on, I wonder what we’ll hold onto and what we’ll end up leaving behind.”
Part 2
When it comes to the topic of technology, most of us will readily agree that it has transformed our lives. Where this agreement usually ends however is on the question of: has it transformed our lives for the better or worse? I believe that the internet and cell phones make it easier to keep in touch. If I am thinking of someone I can pick up my cell phone and text them or sit down at the computer and send them and IM or an email.
Not that long ago I did not have access to the internet or a cell phone. At that time friends and family would go long periods of time without hearing from me. It wasn’t abnormal for me to not speak with my mother for months at a time. Now that I have a cell phone and internet access I talk to my mother at least once a week. I also have reconnected with friends I hadn’t talked to in years. I am privy to the day to day aspects of my friends and families lives that I never had access to before. So for me, this new technology has deepened the levels of my personal interactions with friends and family in a positive way.
In the documentary Digital Nation, produced/directed by Rachel Dretzin, Dretzin examines the effects that modern technology and more exclusively the internet is having on our society and especially today’s youth. Dretzin was prompted to explore this topic after witnessing the separation technology was creating in her own family. She enlisted the help of Douglas Rushkoff who has been writing about the internet for almost two decades and is the author of the book Cyberia. They began their search on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Dretzin states, “These kids are among the smartest, most wired people on the planet right now. They may hardly remember a time when they weren’t able to be online anywhere they went.” They found that today’s youth is dependent on their technology and it’s shaping the way they live.
Dretzin claims that this digital age is creating youth that no longer focuses on one thing at a time, but are constantly multitasking. Though students claim they are efficient in multitasking, according to Professor Clifford Nass who has conducted a study in its effects, “It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.” Nass claims this digital generation is easily distracted, disorganized and “it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly.”
Dretzin and Rushkoff take their search to South Korea where the youth flock to Internet cafes known as “PC bangs.” The cafes are open all day and night and people play these games for hours and even days at a time. Rushkoff tells us people have actually died from lack of food and water while playing these games for 50 hours or more. Mrs. Shim Song-Ja, the mother of a 15 year old boy who constantly plays video games tells us, “I may lose my son. This is an addiction. Only an addict could act this way.” South Korea is starting to react to this problem with free Internet rescue camps to help this growing problem of addiction.
Seeking to explore the other side of the argument, Dretzin and Rushkoff find Jason Levy, a middle school principal, in New York’s South Bronx. Levy used technology to turn this school around. It had been wrought with violence and poor grades, but Levy had a vision of all students having laptops so they could do their homework on line. David Prinstein, Dean of Instruction states that now “Incidents of violence are way down… Daily attendance is up over 90 percent. In test scores we went up in reading 30 percent, and in math almost 40 percent.” Dretzin can see that something is working here, but she wonders what we are losing as a culture in this digital world. She tells us, “as we move on, I wonder what we’ll hold onto and what we’ll end up leaving behind.”
Part 2
When it comes to the topic of technology, most of us will readily agree that it has transformed our lives. Where this agreement usually ends however is on the question of: has it transformed our lives for the better or worse? I believe that the internet and cell phones make it easier to keep in touch. If I am thinking of someone I can pick up my cell phone and text them or sit down at the computer and send them and IM or an email.
Not that long ago I did not have access to the internet or a cell phone. At that time friends and family would go long periods of time without hearing from me. It wasn’t abnormal for me to not speak with my mother for months at a time. Now that I have a cell phone and internet access I talk to my mother at least once a week. I also have reconnected with friends I hadn’t talked to in years. I am privy to the day to day aspects of my friends and families lives that I never had access to before. So for me, this new technology has deepened the levels of my personal interactions with friends and family in a positive way.
Reading Response #3 "Digital Nation"
Technology today is changing society; it has developed new ways not only in our academics but in communication and the way we think. Rachel Dretzin has noticed these changes and in the production of her PBS documentary “Digital Nation” she along with co-host Douglas Rushkoff, strive to determine what these changes mean for future generations. In this documentary, Dretzin emphasizes how technology creates a range of opportunities that were never possible for past generations and though they do have positive outputs it is not without negative affects. One example she uses to convey this point is technology in education. One school she investigates was almost shut down; the kids weren’t meeting academic standards and were getting in fights daily. After the principle brought in laptops for every student to use for their work their attendance went up along with their reading and math scores. Other schools have noticed opposite affects with technology. Students in technical school who thought they were excellent at multitasking were examined in a study and what doctors discovered was they were actually some of the worst at multitasking. Dretzin investigates these changes not only in education but also, video games, communication and military advancement and in each category she discovers similar issues. Whether one embraces it or fights it, humanity is changing, the main point is that individuals need to be aware of the consequences of these changes.
This documentary has really helped me understand just how complex the changes are that technology has promoted. I realize now that the changes are not just in the
Digital Nation response
Recently I watched a video documentary online entitled “Digital Nation,” directed and produced by Rachel Dretzin and co-written by her colleague Douglas Rushkoff. In this documentary they covered a vast array of issues encircling the state of our current technologies, namely the internet, and their effects on many aspects of people’s lives. Dretzin became curious of the effects of these technologies after observing her own family being entirely consumed by them for a period. She recalls that they “were all in the same house but were in other worlds,” which is both an interesting and slightly numbing concept. The documentary then follows some MIT students and their ability to multitask, many students believing that they’re completely capable of doing two, three, ten things at once without much of a limitation. One student claims they “can multitask and do it very well, and if they try to restrict us from doing it, it’s unfair,” which I would have to contend with because later on in the documentary they followed Clifford Nass, a professor of Stanford University and his studies have shown a significant drop-off in cognitive abilities in chronic multi-taskers when facing distracions.
Nass states his concern that chronic multi-tasking “may be creating people that are unable to think clearly.” While Nass is making a very valid point, I think it is important not to focus on only what is lost in this situation, but what can potentially be gained. The video then delves into the dark world of addiction focusing on South Korea, a place where video game addiction has been viewed as a “public health crisis.” The focus at this point is on a 15 year old Korean boy named Chum Yung Il. He is the poster-child so to speak of this epidemic. He has shown heavy signs of addiction to computer games, over the course of a year he dropped from being a top student to the bottom half of his class and he even shows signs of inability to communicate on a human level with his mother. He was sent to an internet rescue school for two weeks and afterwards didn’t show much of a sign of change. Il was not the only one, almost every kid in his program had at one time or another fallen prey to medical issues related to computer use. The issue is not only in Korea, later in the documentary Rushkoff interviews a few players of the game “World of Warcraft,” and shockingly one woman confessed playing the game as much as sixteen hours a day and doing nothing but sleeping in the meantime, even quitting her job as a means to get more time on the game. I as an avid computer user and “gamer” find these accounts of video game addiction deeply disturbing. There is no question in my mind that something needs to be done about this situation. The Korean government agrees and is now teaching younger students not only to use computers but to be responsible with them preaching “netiquette,” at about the same time the children are learning to read. The video then adjusts is focus to a lighter side of recent technologies introducing “Second Life,” touted by its creator as an “alternate reality.” Second life is a glorified simulation of real life where you can buy, sell, dress, dance and do pretty much anything you could do in real life but on a more grandiose level. Francoie Legoues, VP of Innovation Initiatives at IBM has begun using the second life program as a Virtual Conference room, saving more than 1 million dollars a year just by not flying people into meetings. She believes that this sim conference is “more human that phone conferences,” some people even use is as a means to meet daily. I’m inclined to think that ten years from now this will be the norm for just about any company that is not centralized, and will encourage more if not every company to work this way. The documentary finishes with an overview of how the U.S. Military is employing digital media. The main focus is of the military’s use of drones (aircraft manned from a virtual booth) and the Army experience center (A center designed to recruit the younger generation through simulations and video games.) I find the use of the Army Experience Center appalling. The Army says that kids know the difference between real combat and video games, but I think the adrenaline rush they’re inducing to them is an unfair variable.
The internet is a powerful tool, and must be used with responsibility, but the benefits of it in my mind outweigh the risks. There may be some Chum Yung Il’s in this world, but I believe with proper parental and scholastic observation our younger generation can thrive in this new technological era. The Internet is bringing people together in a way that was never possible before. My girlfriend’s cousin is an avid “World of Warcraft” player and met his current girlfriend, who is from Australia, through it. I’m inclined to believe chances are he wasn’t going to take a stroll past the billabong and randomly bump into her, so without the internet their relationship would never have been formed. I’ve also witnessed friends meeting and befriending many people met over online games, the social capabilities of the internet are endless and will be a massively important part of our future.
Nass states his concern that chronic multi-tasking “may be creating people that are unable to think clearly.” While Nass is making a very valid point, I think it is important not to focus on only what is lost in this situation, but what can potentially be gained. The video then delves into the dark world of addiction focusing on South Korea, a place where video game addiction has been viewed as a “public health crisis.” The focus at this point is on a 15 year old Korean boy named Chum Yung Il. He is the poster-child so to speak of this epidemic. He has shown heavy signs of addiction to computer games, over the course of a year he dropped from being a top student to the bottom half of his class and he even shows signs of inability to communicate on a human level with his mother. He was sent to an internet rescue school for two weeks and afterwards didn’t show much of a sign of change. Il was not the only one, almost every kid in his program had at one time or another fallen prey to medical issues related to computer use. The issue is not only in Korea, later in the documentary Rushkoff interviews a few players of the game “World of Warcraft,” and shockingly one woman confessed playing the game as much as sixteen hours a day and doing nothing but sleeping in the meantime, even quitting her job as a means to get more time on the game. I as an avid computer user and “gamer” find these accounts of video game addiction deeply disturbing. There is no question in my mind that something needs to be done about this situation. The Korean government agrees and is now teaching younger students not only to use computers but to be responsible with them preaching “netiquette,” at about the same time the children are learning to read. The video then adjusts is focus to a lighter side of recent technologies introducing “Second Life,” touted by its creator as an “alternate reality.” Second life is a glorified simulation of real life where you can buy, sell, dress, dance and do pretty much anything you could do in real life but on a more grandiose level. Francoie Legoues, VP of Innovation Initiatives at IBM has begun using the second life program as a Virtual Conference room, saving more than 1 million dollars a year just by not flying people into meetings. She believes that this sim conference is “more human that phone conferences,” some people even use is as a means to meet daily. I’m inclined to think that ten years from now this will be the norm for just about any company that is not centralized, and will encourage more if not every company to work this way. The documentary finishes with an overview of how the U.S. Military is employing digital media. The main focus is of the military’s use of drones (aircraft manned from a virtual booth) and the Army experience center (A center designed to recruit the younger generation through simulations and video games.) I find the use of the Army Experience Center appalling. The Army says that kids know the difference between real combat and video games, but I think the adrenaline rush they’re inducing to them is an unfair variable.
The internet is a powerful tool, and must be used with responsibility, but the benefits of it in my mind outweigh the risks. There may be some Chum Yung Il’s in this world, but I believe with proper parental and scholastic observation our younger generation can thrive in this new technological era. The Internet is bringing people together in a way that was never possible before. My girlfriend’s cousin is an avid “World of Warcraft” player and met his current girlfriend, who is from Australia, through it. I’m inclined to believe chances are he wasn’t going to take a stroll past the billabong and randomly bump into her, so without the internet their relationship would never have been formed. I’ve also witnessed friends meeting and befriending many people met over online games, the social capabilities of the internet are endless and will be a massively important part of our future.
Digital Nation
In the PBS documentary “Digital Nation”, Producer Rachel Dretzin and her correspondent, Douglas Rushkoff inspect the positive and negative impacts of our rapidly developing digital world. In their investigation, they direct their focus on the different aspects and areas of our modern pandemic world technology. From household to work place to schools and even military. In fact, the inspection revealed that each one of us is somehow impacted by the rapid spread of digital technology. In most schools, students are allowed to have their laptops, thereby are constantly connected to their social networks which distracts them from keeping up with the lecture. In the video, an instructor whose aware of this phenomena decided to test his students in order to measure how well they are paying attention to the lecture and whether they are absorbing the information from the assigned readings. So he gave his class a midterm containing obvious questions in which the whole class should’ve gotten 100%. The result wasn’t as impressive as expected, for the highest score was 70%. This clearly states that students are distracted by their virtual realities. Moreover, they claim that they are capable of multitasking and so keeping up with their virtual realities including Facebook, texting, E-mails, Games and their actual reality. As a consequence of this claim, a professor in California university decided to conduct the first study that has ever been done in consideration of multitasking. The study involved some high chronic multi-taskers on the college campus. The result of the experiment revealed that multi tasking is not as effective as the students claim it is. The professor concluded that they are significantly slower when they are switching from task to task than when they are consistently focusing on one task. In reality, it turned out that they are terrible at every aspect of multitasking because there brain is being constantly distracted which disorganizes the memory. The issue appearing here is that this modern technology is creating people that are unable to think clearly. So we are changing what it means to be a human being. According to the latest data, most of today’s kids spend more than 50hours a week with digital media. Kid’s today are being raised in an internet era and they depend on the digital so much for their sense of connection to other people. Douglas Rushkoff States that we are inhabiting the net as if it was a real place. However he does acknowledge that the virtual world offers a new reality for humans and that technology isn’t good or bad but rather powerful.
I was raised in an internet era myself, I conquer that it has significantly revolutionized my life in a positive way. But how would I know how my life would’ve been without it ? I depend on internet for most of my research whether it’s nature is intellectual or academic. Several of my social interactions with people are online and so in a virtual reality. I like being able to share my thoughts with a wide audience. It doesn’t matter if they are virtual or real since the nature of the information I am sharing is the same. I also appreciate being able to actually see and talk with my family overseas which if one takes the time to reflect on it, it appears to be totally supernatural. I mean it’s incredibly magical what a wired world can offer.
Digital Nation
“A Digital Nation” written and directed by Rachel Dretzin, examines the issue of technology in the modern world, and how it applies to various groups of people. The video begins with students at MIT, one of the most prestigious colleges in the whole world. They first talk to a professor who has been at MIT for over 20 years, and she discusses how she has seen the shift into technology in her students. She mentions that students today need almost constant stimulation, this being in contrast to students of the past who weren’t so tech. dependent. Next several students who are considered “chronic muli-taskers” are interviewed. The students say that their professors don’t give them enough credit, and they are phenomenal mulitaskers. But when put to the test by Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford, the students feeling of being able to multitask without losing efficiency in any area did not stand. Nass mentions “ multi-taskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking” and adds “ they get distracted constantly.”
The video then takes a look at the internet problem in South Korea, and the shocking affect it is having on the youth. They start off with explaining how Asia, in a terrible financial state, had to re-vamp its economy and used a digital revolution to attempt to do so. South Korea is facing a gaming problem with its youth, as video arcades filled with computers are available 24 hours a day, all over the place. This may not sound like a legitimate problem, but kids have actually died and been injured from playing for too long without break for food or sleep, it is now considered a health crisis. A 3 year study commissioned by the South Korean government revealed that 90 % of children used the internet in their daily life 10-15% are in high risk category. To help battle this problem children as young as 3rd grade are being introduced to computers, but also being told how to use them and how not abuse them, this seems like a great step in the right direction. The video then shifts its focus to how technology is being employed into education. A child who goes to a private middle school and uses a laptop in every class is profiled. The mother of the child said “since he is going to be using computers for the rest of his life he might as well learn to use them in a school setting.” This is similar to the view South Korea is begging to take, and one I feel is positive.
“A Digital Nation” made it extremely clear that ours is an age of technology. They showed many positive and negative side-effects that technology can have, and that we both gain and lose certain important things. In my opinion, if we can present technology as a learning tool, as well as something for entertainment then we will see so many benefits. But having a balance between the two is the difference between a revolution and a crisis.
The video then takes a look at the internet problem in South Korea, and the shocking affect it is having on the youth. They start off with explaining how Asia, in a terrible financial state, had to re-vamp its economy and used a digital revolution to attempt to do so. South Korea is facing a gaming problem with its youth, as video arcades filled with computers are available 24 hours a day, all over the place. This may not sound like a legitimate problem, but kids have actually died and been injured from playing for too long without break for food or sleep, it is now considered a health crisis. A 3 year study commissioned by the South Korean government revealed that 90 % of children used the internet in their daily life 10-15% are in high risk category. To help battle this problem children as young as 3rd grade are being introduced to computers, but also being told how to use them and how not abuse them, this seems like a great step in the right direction. The video then shifts its focus to how technology is being employed into education. A child who goes to a private middle school and uses a laptop in every class is profiled. The mother of the child said “since he is going to be using computers for the rest of his life he might as well learn to use them in a school setting.” This is similar to the view South Korea is begging to take, and one I feel is positive.
“A Digital Nation” made it extremely clear that ours is an age of technology. They showed many positive and negative side-effects that technology can have, and that we both gain and lose certain important things. In my opinion, if we can present technology as a learning tool, as well as something for entertainment then we will see so many benefits. But having a balance between the two is the difference between a revolution and a crisis.
Reading Response 3
In the article “Digital Nation,” the producer’s Rachel Dretzin and Dougles Rushkoff say that technology is in everything we do today and a way of life. We use it to multi-task in our work environment, play video games, and use it to train our military. Rushkoff is surprised by the way the virtual world is moving, from the life style of yesterday to the present and how it affects us today. He asks, “What is the price of gain?” IBM Innovation uses a program called “2nd Life” to meet at your work stations. You do not even have to show up anymore. IBM built a multimillion dollar building and they don’t even use it, the employees are either at home or on business trips when they work. Even though they save billions in travel, they believe “Technology will bring us back again.” Dretzin uses some examples of students that don’t read books anymore or that they connect in internet cyberspace through War craft, Bubbe, and to meet people. A student at one of the schools read Romeo and Juliet in 27 minutes on the internet; that they just looked it up. Back east, one school is experimenting with computers to keep school students engaged and focused, where normally attendance is down and the students do not want to go to school. Rushkoff and Dretzin went to Korea where the government had to establish “internet rescue camps” to deal with their addictions to their gaming and show them how to live again. Korea is the first nation to have a “falling out” with the virtual world. In the United States of America we have the Wi and Xbox, but the majority of people use War Craft to meet people and to escape reality. What about our government? They are experimenting with kids and people in the virtual world from interacting with unrealistic things to eating, and trying to make it seem real. Technology is just another stepping stone in life and another way of evolving and improving life.
In my life I play video games, use computers to work on essay’s, email friend in other states, and get recipes for dinner. I use a balance with it all. I do not let it affect my life style negatively. I do not Twitter. I Don’t Facebook. I don’t have internet at my home, but I might get it some day. I like having my privacy. I do not wish to know every single minute of everybody’s life. I like how the internet gives you information quickly and you can look up everything to words, art, even keep track of bills. I like challenges and learning something different. It keeps my mind engaged. The way technology is going these days, is just another way computers are our way of life. I believe it is a positive experience, as long as you balance it all out.
In my life I play video games, use computers to work on essay’s, email friend in other states, and get recipes for dinner. I use a balance with it all. I do not let it affect my life style negatively. I do not Twitter. I Don’t Facebook. I don’t have internet at my home, but I might get it some day. I like having my privacy. I do not wish to know every single minute of everybody’s life. I like how the internet gives you information quickly and you can look up everything to words, art, even keep track of bills. I like challenges and learning something different. It keeps my mind engaged. The way technology is going these days, is just another way computers are our way of life. I believe it is a positive experience, as long as you balance it all out.
reading response 3
Digital Nation, produced and directed by Rachel Dretzin, is a documentary about life in the digital age. It traverses the wide range of influences that technology plays in our current culture, and grapples with whether these influences are positive or negative. These issues include the socially unrecognized phenomenon of technology addiction, how people live increasingly vicariously in virtual reality, and the military and business sectors taking advantage of virtual reality for conducting war and business. The documentary begins at MIT, the cradle of technology, where professors note that students there have changed significantly over the past 25 years. The average MIT student of today’s generation, they say, thinks that a multitasking lifestyle is conducive to the learning environment. These students believe, because of their talent for multitasking, that they are more efficient students than yester-years. However, on a midterm conducted by a professor, designed to test the general level of his students’ attentiveness to the instructor and the course material, students performed poorly. This might suggest that the students were too distracted, and uninterested, or simply unable to focus on in-depth material. Professor Sherry Turkle of MIT exhorts, “There really are important things you cannot think about, unless it’s still, and you’re only thinking about one thing at a time. There are just some things that are not amenable to being thought about in conjunction with 15 other things.” Furthermore, a study conducted at Stanford, showed that students who multitasked a lot were not only impressively worse at multitasking than the normal population, they exhibited attention deficiency and disorganized memory, critical features of analytical thinking. The documentary also covered the other side of the coin of technology’s influence on education, traveling to a public city school that was on the verge of collapse. It was there that they discovered that technology had brought a failing city school back to life, and transformed it into a stunning success, simply by embedding the curriculum through and through with technology. In doing this, they tapped into the natural inclinations of its students, and enabled the teachers to engage the students in the material.
My personal experience with technology has been one that has caused me to be a little skeptical of its influence on education. To quote Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century education reformist and philosopher, “Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.” This might seem quixotic to most students today, but I think it does well to illuminate the situation of our youth who are increasingly attached to machines and detached from the real world. Personally, I didn‘t use technology too much during school, but the few years where I did my connection with the larger web always influenced the way I connected with education, giving me the impression that knowledge is easily accessible, and something that is a commodity instead of a privilege that requires stewardship. During the few years I used the net very frequently in school, I became more indifferent about responsibilities and did significantly less well in school. I became accustomed to habitually preventing the character-molding influence of boredom. If I had instead made my mind more used to the slower pace of life without technology, I maybe could have been paying more attention to developing talents instead of distractions. Regarding the school where technology helped drag it out of academic stagnation, in my own experiences, technology would do little to influence my interest because something is interesting in itself and not because of the medium it’s expressed through. If students today are so ADD they can’t learn except through by being stimulated by technology, using this method to get students to pay attention is doing less for the educational system and more for the underlying problem, I think. Which is that the students’ lifestyle is making them unable to perform academically, and it is ignoring the parents’ responsibility to take initiative on this issue. I cringe to think of changing the education system every time the environment becomes “inconvenient” for the student or the mindset of the day. I don’t think education is intended to be convenient, it’s supposed to be challenging and perplexing, and yes, even boring at times. The goal is to learn how to engage yourself and become interested in it, making it your own. Resorting to mediating these features, and thus depriving the student of responsibility, probably isn’t doing education a service, so we should hesitate to evaluate this mode of education based on test scores that are merely affirming that fast-paced education can pull up students scores to state mandated levels. Instead, we should slow things down more and try and evaluate why the younger generation is so distracted by the virtual world that they’re uninterested in anything about the real world, and what we can do about this.
My personal experience with technology has been one that has caused me to be a little skeptical of its influence on education. To quote Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century education reformist and philosopher, “Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.” This might seem quixotic to most students today, but I think it does well to illuminate the situation of our youth who are increasingly attached to machines and detached from the real world. Personally, I didn‘t use technology too much during school, but the few years where I did my connection with the larger web always influenced the way I connected with education, giving me the impression that knowledge is easily accessible, and something that is a commodity instead of a privilege that requires stewardship. During the few years I used the net very frequently in school, I became more indifferent about responsibilities and did significantly less well in school. I became accustomed to habitually preventing the character-molding influence of boredom. If I had instead made my mind more used to the slower pace of life without technology, I maybe could have been paying more attention to developing talents instead of distractions. Regarding the school where technology helped drag it out of academic stagnation, in my own experiences, technology would do little to influence my interest because something is interesting in itself and not because of the medium it’s expressed through. If students today are so ADD they can’t learn except through by being stimulated by technology, using this method to get students to pay attention is doing less for the educational system and more for the underlying problem, I think. Which is that the students’ lifestyle is making them unable to perform academically, and it is ignoring the parents’ responsibility to take initiative on this issue. I cringe to think of changing the education system every time the environment becomes “inconvenient” for the student or the mindset of the day. I don’t think education is intended to be convenient, it’s supposed to be challenging and perplexing, and yes, even boring at times. The goal is to learn how to engage yourself and become interested in it, making it your own. Resorting to mediating these features, and thus depriving the student of responsibility, probably isn’t doing education a service, so we should hesitate to evaluate this mode of education based on test scores that are merely affirming that fast-paced education can pull up students scores to state mandated levels. Instead, we should slow things down more and try and evaluate why the younger generation is so distracted by the virtual world that they’re uninterested in anything about the real world, and what we can do about this.
Digital Nation
In the movie “Digital Nation” written and directed by Rachel Dretzin she makes the point that we are in the day and age of technology, and how promptly technology is taking over our world. When watching or reading a documentary majority of the time they single out only one point of view. In Dretzin’s “Digital Nation” they show multiple points of view. In Korea they have cafes that are used for internet gaming with 24 hour access. This is only feeding to the children that are already addicted. In this country the internet is becoming a public health crisis because there have been several deaths due to little if any food, drink or sleep. Children of very young ages are learning to use the internet and computers in 1st grade. One woman in the video feels that she is going to lose control of her son because they already do not communicate and he is only 15 years old. Adults are feeling that they are becoming a “minority” in this new age of young children knowing more about the technology around them. With upcoming jobs, students are going to need technology savvy. The principle of a new york Bronx school, thought that if every child in the school had a lap top then there would be less violence in the school. Little did he know that there would be less violence, higher attendance rate, more children paying attention, high grades in math, English, etc. Multi-tasking is a large topic that is covered; teachers think that it is good for the students to learn to multi-task for future jobs and future life experiences. “We need to embrace the fact that our kids are going to need different skills 5 years from now then they needed 5 years ago.” “The world has sped up in a lot of ways and education hasn’t.” articulates the principal. Mainly teenagers now-a-days are not as academically capable as they used to be due to internet and new technology. Basic skills are worse today than they have ever been. In a wrap technology is only going to become more and more improved, and older people are going to feel that students are not as “up-to-date” as their professors or teachers would like, when really it’s the teachers and professors that are not as up to date with the technology.
In my own experiences, my life has been affected significantly by technology; I don’t remember what it was like to not have some sort of phone or computer around. In my short 18 years of life, I have seen a huge amount of change. When I am texting, I am in a completely different world; I don’t hear what is actually going on around me. Instead I answer “yes, sure, fine, yup, whatever.” How is this making people around me feel? Do I care? Do I not care? The actuality is that I am so focused with who and what I am talking to and about, that I don’t even know what Billy Bob is saying to me over here. I have my iPod in turned up, and I’m texting or on my Facebook through my phone. Then my laptop is over here with my 4 e-mail accounts pulled up, Google, and whatever else I need to have, and my math book right in front of me, the TV is turned on but turned all the way down. For school assignments I feel the need to have everything typed nicely. Why not when I have a laptop and a printer? Instead of hand writing, it’s a lot easier to just type it and print it and keep everything neat and organized. In my work environment, it is crucial to know Microsoft Office 2010. I don’t know what I would do today if I didn’t have my droid right by my side. I would be absolutely lost. I have my e-mail coming through, texts, Facebook updates, phone calls, etc. It is my main communication source.
In my own experiences, my life has been affected significantly by technology; I don’t remember what it was like to not have some sort of phone or computer around. In my short 18 years of life, I have seen a huge amount of change. When I am texting, I am in a completely different world; I don’t hear what is actually going on around me. Instead I answer “yes, sure, fine, yup, whatever.” How is this making people around me feel? Do I care? Do I not care? The actuality is that I am so focused with who and what I am talking to and about, that I don’t even know what Billy Bob is saying to me over here. I have my iPod in turned up, and I’m texting or on my Facebook through my phone. Then my laptop is over here with my 4 e-mail accounts pulled up, Google, and whatever else I need to have, and my math book right in front of me, the TV is turned on but turned all the way down. For school assignments I feel the need to have everything typed nicely. Why not when I have a laptop and a printer? Instead of hand writing, it’s a lot easier to just type it and print it and keep everything neat and organized. In my work environment, it is crucial to know Microsoft Office 2010. I don’t know what I would do today if I didn’t have my droid right by my side. I would be absolutely lost. I have my e-mail coming through, texts, Facebook updates, phone calls, etc. It is my main communication source.
Reading Response 3
The PBS documentary, Digital Nation, the producer Rachel Dretzin and her correspondent Doug Rushkoff cover the effects the internet and virtual realities are having of education, culture, and life today. They cover a wide range of topics including multitasking, video gaming addiction, how virtual reality is changing the military and many more. At MIT when interviewing students they found that many students are multitasking like never before and see themselves as good at it. As one student points out, “I feel like the professors here do have to accept that we can multitask very well and that we do at all times.” But according to a study by Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford people are not really as good of multitasks as they think. What he found was the exact opposite of what the students interviewed at MIT thought about their ability to multitask. According to Nass, “multitasks are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted constantly.” The focus of the video then briefly shifts to South Korea and the problems they are having with internet addiction and what they are doing to help it. Korea has started educating young children about the internet and how to use it responsibly. Although this is quite interesting Rushkoff believes this wouldn’t work in America,” I'm skeptical that this top-down approach could ever work in America.” Dretzin and Rushkoff then focus on some schools, such as I.S.339, that are trying new experimental ways of teaching. They have made it so every student uses a laptop for their classes. According to David Pristein, Dean of Instruction at I.S.339, since implementing this policy they have seen an almost 90 percent rise in attendance and 40 percent rise in math scores. They go on to explore many more ways the internet affects us such as companies having entire meetings in virtual reality and Air Force pilots who, from the safety of Nevada, fly missions into war zones everyday with their remote control drones.
I think that my life has been affected by the internet in a good way for many reasons. It allows instant access to news form all over the world; I think this is good because I can stay informed about what is going on in the world around me. Another way the internet has had a positive impact is that it allows me to connect with my family. I have family located all across the county (Alaska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia) and email and more recently Facebook have made it easy for us to stay in touch with each other. I am a naturally curious person; if I find something remotely interesting, it can be really random sometimes. To me I have the need to find out whatever I can about it. The internet allows me access to vast amounts of easily searchable material. When reading about one thing I can also access info about a related subject if I need to. A recent example of this is me satisfying a random curiosity about wolf/dog hybrids, which led to me reading about the domestication of dogs, which led to me looking up all the extinct species of wolves. That why I think the internet has enriched my life, easy communication with distant family and the wealth of knowledge it allows a person to have at their finger tips.
Reading response 2
In Nicholas Carr’s article Is Google Making Us Stupid, he assumes that technology and specifically the internet is changing the way that humans are thinking and reading. One of Carr’s main claims is that, since the invention of the internet we have started losing our ability to read and focus on large works because of so much of what we are reading on the internet are usually short snippets of information. He goes on to say that, “what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation.” Later he tells how he was “once a scuba diver in the sea of words” but now he “zips along the surface like a guy on a jet ski.” One of the studies cited by Carr was done at the University College London focused on online research habits. What they found supports Carr’s claim. They found that while researching online people tended to skim, “hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source already visited.” He provides more evidence to support his claim by referencing Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University, who thinks that the style of reading we get from the net could be weakening our capacity for deep reading and interpreting text.
One of Carr’s subsequent claims is that, “Just as there’s a tendency to glorify technological process, there’s a countertendency to expect the worst of every new tool or machine.” This basically means that whenever there is some large technological breakthrough there are always going to be people that think it is great and people that think it will doom us for various reasons. People can’t just look at the short term picture they need to look at the whole thing to see the benefits.
I find myself agreeing with Carr’s claim that the internet is changing the way we read and think but I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. I like many people tend to skim articles and jump around to different websites on the internet but I also love reading good long thought provoking article or a long novel. When reading different types of material I look over it and try and determine what type of reading style would suit it best. If it is long and has large paragraphs I will read it thoroughly but if it has short paragraphs or lots of bullet points I tend to skim it because it is faster and easier to pick out the main points and ideas. What people need to do is strike a balance of what they read (short snippets, long articles, novellas, and insanely large novels). We need to let the internet change the way we think so we can operate in the modern world but also try to keep our deep reading abilities and utilize both of them when you need to. This change is inevitable so we must embrace it and adapt to it to succeed in the world today.
Reading Response #3
Part One)
The Digital Nation, produced by Rachel Dretzin, is a video that truly expresses how the internet is changing the world in many ways we would have never dreamed over a decade ago. Now, we learn in and out of schools, connect with others, play games, and even multitask differently than we did years ago. In this video, it emphasizes that most children and teens spend over 50 hours a week using digital media, that’s more than some of their parents work in a week.
Some people feel that they need the internet as a way to communicate with friends and family because everyone is online. When I heard this, I thought if we feel this shouldn’t be our main way of communication, what ever happened to talking face to face and even just talking on the phone. There is a big difference in people who grew up with technology and are the natives as the video says and those who did not grow up with technology the immigrants.
For me, it is weird to think that people go to work without going to work. People can go to work from home by using Second Life, a computer program that companies use. At IBM no one was at work, they were all working by using Second Life. I cannot seem to grasp this because they are working together through the computer but can actually be doing something else while working. Also, the military uses computers for missions and recruiting. When I think of military I think of guns, and ammo not sitting behind a computer screen.
The one thing that stood out to me most was that children will believe that they actually swam with dolphins/whales after doing so on the computer. The internet makes it so you can physically be in one place but in your mind, and on the computer, you are in a completely different place.
Part Two)
Before this video and the other videos and readings we have done in class, I never seemed to realize how much time and energy I spend on the computer or another form of digital media. Before, I never thought it was a problem or something I should think about. Now, I feel that I am missing out on so much that my parents didn’t miss out on because they were not effect by technology the way I have been. I could go on to say that I want to change the way I go about my days and not use technology as much as I do now, but both you and I know that in our world today, it is hard to go about the day and not use technology in one way or another.
In the video, it voices that schools have changed over the past 25 years to incorporate technology, with schools now I don’t know how I could cut technology out of my life. Some people barley use the internet, don’t have a cell phone, and don’t watch a lot of television, but in our world, if I got rid of these things then how would I communicate with my friends and family. I like the possibility of being able to chat or email or even see someone that is so far away maybe even half way around the world but by using the internet is right there in the room with me. The way technology has changed in the past decade is beyond what I would have thought, but just think ten years from now, we could be a completely viral world.
Reading Response 3
In the documentary, “Digital Nation” producer Rachel Dretzin and correspondent Douglas Rushkoff observe the positives and negatives of the growing world of technology. They selected numerous areas to study that have had the greatest impact on us. While doing so, they traveled to many locations, from different schools to different countries, to get a better look and understanding inside this increasing world. They found many setbacks, but also many benefits. A huge issue when technology comes to mind is the addictive aspect of it. There are “internet cafes” all throughout Korea for kids and teens to be able to fulfill their desire for internet games. These cafes are so addictive, there have even been deaths in them due to lack of sleep and food. The government in South Korea found this to be a huge crisis, so they established Internet Rescue Schools to try to stray kids away from their computer addiction. In an effort to help these kids, they also try to teach kids safe using of technology at an early age. On the other hand, a middle school in the Bronx, New York found technology has been a savior to the kids’ future and education. Since students started having their own computers in class, it has helped them to really engage in class activities and grasp things they were unable to grasp before. Due to the increase activity of technology in class, the Dean of Instruction, David Prinstein states that incidents of violence are way down at the middle school, daily attendance is up over 90% and test scores in reading went up 30% and in math almost 40%. This video also demonstrated how ineffective multitasking can be and how the game and web have helped the military as well as regular people at home make connections with others. There will never be an end to technology, only more advancements and upgrades. We have to learn how to adapt and practice a healthy use for this creation. We have to make the effort to mold this creation as only a helpful tool in our world and not mold it into our whole world.
I have been in denial of how much of a necessity technology has become for me. There is not a day that’s gone by in my recent years I have not used some sort of technology. My phone is with me at all times and I can use it for all different purposes. I can get on the internet, contact my friends via text message or phone call and play a variety of different songs. It’s a computer, phone and iPod all in one. I feel a constant need to have my fingers moving, whether it is on my keyboard or on my phone. There was one month I had to go two days without my phone because I was late on my phone bill. Though I knew it was off, I still continued to go to my inbox, my call log wanting it to work so badly. I felt lost and totally disconnected from the world. It is shocking to see how in need of technology this world actually is today. It is not just for our own social benefit, but in our workplace and school as well. I am in constant use of Microsoft Office for writing pieces and presentations assigned to me from my classes. I use google.com on a daily basis for things I don’t understand and random curiosities that come to mind. When I am without it, I feel a void that needs to be filled.
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