digital nation

Digital Nation is a more in-depth look at the wide world of the web. I was intrigued by the number of lives across the world that this technology touches. Some people do see it as a downgrade to our daily life. But for many it's changed their lives, brought them out of their shells, or gotten them "out of the kitchen" for people like Bubbe.
Some still see the effect on children as something preventing kids from developing to their fullest. As one person put it "these kids are doing themselves a disservice....by multi-tasking."
Many of these students think their multi-tasking is successful. But tests proved otherwise, that students were slower, even though these students think they're brilliant at it. They get distracted, their memory is messy. they think people can't think clearly because basic psychology says it's impossible.
On social media sites, it's interesting that as you watch, other links pop up that leads us to other information...isn't this the exact type of problem we are encountering? we can't watch a show without wanting it to lead us somewhere else. Nothing is keeping us entertained long enough.
In South Korea, they consider this over-use of technology as a psychiatric disorder. This, to me, is ridiculous and an excuse for people who can't control their use of the internet. Do we consider over-eaters as having a psychiatric disorder? smokers? extreme shoppers? Yes, many things do have addicting effects, but to tell someone that it is a psychiatric disorder- that makes it ok to spend more time online?
As far as education goes, one parent put it this way:
"if he's going to be using it the rest of his life, he may as well use it in a school setting." It's true that we should integrate technology into education and schools. But allowing students to spend every class minute online is unnecessary. We will eliminate the role of teacher if this is the case. If students are not engaged then we need to find ways to socially interact in a live way with some use of technology, but not 100%. As on principle in Chatham New Jersey put it: "no one would ever have an argument that we should take away the oxygen" (in reference to oxygen as technology) When they incorporated technology their test scores improved. This is a great achievement, but in what way are these test scores being raised? are these students still experiencing "life" in a real way?
IBM saved more than $1 million dollars by not flying to meetings and by using SecondLife as a business tool. I don't agree with the IBM employee that said this is "much more human in a way," but I do think the fact that the business world is able to accomplish their job from home is incredible. One place where jobs are controversial over the virtual vs. reality comes down to the military. I was surprised to learn that we are capable of fighting real war in a somewhat virtual world. I am thankful that our troops can remain at home safely, but the effects and damage that are done to other cultures could be horrendous. It could cause excess and unnecessary damage and risk too many lives. I also have a hard time taking sides with the gaming systems used by the military. It is understandable to want to stir interest for recruitment, and I was surprised to hear most of the boys say they understood the harsher reality of war; however, it still seems risky to put so many boys in line for something as serious as war, yet introduce it with something as intriguing and addicting as video games.
Overall this video made me realize the strong changes technology has brought to every kind of person all over the world. These changes are not always welcomed, but for most people they are used for a greater good. The more that technology is capable of, the less time we seem to need doing "work" or processes that our world has been evolved around for so many years. We may be moving on to a technology age, much out-dating the industrial age.