Digital Nation Part 2

Even after watching the beginning, the rest of this film still shocked me. I had no idea that there were detox programs in Korea to help kids recover from video game addiction. It makes me wonder how this problem grew to such an extreme. I have never owned a video game in my life, but when I was growing up I had some friends who did. When I went to their houses, I liked playing them because that was the only time I could. However, when I was given the choice to play Spyro or go run around outside, I would much rather be riding a bike or playing in the pool. Maybe when it comes to choosing between a virtual world and the real world, it comes back to the values that were instilled in us when we were young. My parents were strict about not having any video gaming in the house. The interesting thing is that it never really bothered me.

Virtual war really struck a chord with me. Several people I grew up with went into the military after high school; some even lost their lives fighting in the War Against Terror. Learning about the new idea of remote-control war really upset me. Initially, you think: what could be better than sending a drone into Afghanistan to wipe out a terrorist meeting and then going home to see your family that same day? It sounds like the best of both worlds. But I can't imagine how this is affecting the emotional and mental state of the soldiers who take part in remote-control war. As emotional as it is for someone to go fight in a war overseas, I would think that it's better to be completely immersed in the war. For example, when a soldier is in Iraq, he or she is constantly around the Iraqi people, thinking about the war, talking about the war, preparing for attacks, etc. The brain of someone who experiences this is in a different mode than of someone who is with his or her family and feels love and compassion. These emotions are dangerous if mixed with war. What happens if a soldier has a fight with his wife one morning and then goes to his post and starts sending out drones? Would this affect his performance?

Personally, this apparent addiction to digital technology disgusts me. What happened to experiencing real life that made it so unbearable? So many kids are now incapable of taking part in physical activities because their eyes are glued to a computer screen. Soldiers are experiencing post traumatic stress disorder because their mental state is constantly being switched. 'Video game addiction' became an actual term. And there are recovery centers to detox from it! I find it sad that people who have become obsessed with technology are missing out on the real joys of life. Meeting the love of your life is one thing, but meeting him or her through World of Warcraft is another. What happened to conversation and emotion and real connections? It seems to me that our emotions have become superficial and we are slowly losing right of what real human interaction is. What scares me the most is thinking about where we are headed in the future.

Digital Nation Part 1

Watching the first half of Digital Nation got me thinking. We have so quickly forgotten how much we've lost touch with real life. We are all guilty of taking advantage of the truly amazing technologies we have at our fingertips. One of the first women interviewed in the movie mentioned how on her honeymoon, she and her husband were completely cut off. They didn't know what was going on in the world until they got home. This is unheard of now.

As much as I find it convenient to always be 'connected' and reachable, there's a part of me that wishes this wasn't the norm. We have lost our privacy in a sense. Between Twitter updates, away messages, mass texts and Facebook fan pages, anyone in the world can know where you are, what you're doing, who you're with, even where you go to college and what you're studying. Our obsession with technology is truly frightening.

I think the next topic Digital Nation will focus on is the virtual world. People are spending so much time on computers that they have created virtual lives. Even video games are a way for people to escape real life. With the next generation spending so much time playing war-like games where you get killed and then come back to life, what kind of person is this going to create? Children are growing up having a false sense of reality. What does this mean for our country's future leaders? I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of Digital Nation.

Revised Collage

Web 2.0 Terms

User-generated content is public media that is produced or augmented by users.

Long tail is the retailing concept of selling a large number of unique items to a small population of people, usually accompanied by selling a small number of generic products to a large population.

Network as a platform refers to running many programs or applications on an operating system.

Folksonomy is a means of classification based on a collaborative effort used to manage and organize content.

Web syndication is the part of a website that offers a news feed or updates the user on new content.

Mass collaboration is when a large number of people work on one common project.

Computer-supported collaboration is research that affects a whole community, like connecting a network of people online.

Web hosting service is a website that allows users to create webpages that are available to anyone using the internet.

A web application is a software application used via the internet such as an online word processor

Social software is any type of computer software where users can interact and share information.

Video-sharing sites are website that allow users to upload video clips and share them with all viewers.

A wiki is a website that allows easy creation of content by users, as well as editing.

A blog is a personal website that is made up of reflective entries, like an online journal.

A mashup is digital media with any combination of text, images, audio and video.