The documentary Digital Nation was eye opening to say the least. Having been one of the children growing up in the technological age, I had never realized how dissolved almost everybody was in technology.
The film started off right in Boston at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They claimed that some of the most "plugged in" people attended MIT. Almost every student shown was using one or more pieces of technology throughout their normal day. Next the film moved to Stanford University in California. Researchers there were conducting tests with some serious multi-taskers, and stressed the fact that multi-tasking causes distractions, and that it "dumbs us down".
We find out some pretty interesting but scary facts when we discover that an average kid spends 50 hours a week with digital media, and that if you are texting while driving you have a twenty-three times more risk of crashing. This surprised and frightened me because although I don't make it a habit to text and drive, I occasionally catch myself doing it and never really realized how dangerous it could be.
Next the film moves into a pretty big segment on gaming, starting off with the game capital of the world: South Korea. It goes into how some people in South Korea have actual game addictions and how young people are the most at risk. A fifteen year old boy is shown that plays at least ten hours a day and does next to nothing other than playing video games; he is even unable to communicate with his own mother. Some doctors in South Korea consider this video game addiction as a psychological disorder. It moves on to show something that also surprised me: in South Korea, elementary students are taught to go online at around the same time they are taught to read. Next the film shoes how gaming can create relationships between people, both intimate and friendly.
A smaller segment appears next when the film introduces gaming and business. Companies like IBM use a game called Second Life to have real-time meetings with avatars even if the people behind the computers are spread out across the globe. To make an impact, one of the directors was shot at a company building for IBM. IBM constructed buildings and parking for thousands and thousands of employees, but it appears to be deserted because people are either at home or traveling on business and using their computers to have discussions and work meetings.
The last big segment of the film shows the military's use with technology. It introduces a man in a simulation of a warzone overseas. The military uses this simulation to try and treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Next the topic of drones is introduced. The military uses drones in combat without the risk of a soldiers life. They display the impact of one man traveling home from work after he was in combat with the enemy through a drone, and sitting down with his family and asking them about their day. Next a very controversial tactic was shown. It was shown that in 2008 the military closed down five traditional army centers. In replacement the Army Experience Center was established. The Army Experience Center allows kids thirteen and up to walk in and play combat games on Xbox while a recruiter walks around and monitors and speaks to the kids.
Overall, I was shocked to discover some of the things I did about this day and age and technology.
Two very interesting parts of this documentary to me were both included in gaming technology. The first is something that I am somewhat familiar with: relationships online. The documentary mentions a popular game World of Warcraft (WOW). Millions of people play this online game which allows them to recreate themselves in a fantasy world. In doing this, many people develop relationships, and most of the time these people had never met. Their first time meeting was at a convention held for WOW fans, but they said they felt as though they had found some of their best friends without ever having laid an eye on them. Not only are their friendly relationships, but their are also romantic ones. Almost identical to how friendships are made romantic relationships evolve in this game. One married couple, who met through WOW, considered their first date when the husband virtually broke into a castle to meet her. I, along with a lot of people in society, can relate to this. Although I am not a gamer and do not play WOW, Facebook allows me to connect and develop friendships online without meeting someone face to face. Everyday, relationships are started on websites such as eHarmony. Even in commercials on television state that one in five relationships start online, and to me that is somewhat of a scary thought. I feel as though one day, society will completely move from traditional dating to completely dating online, and an entirely new world could be built on that.
The next topic that was interesting to me that I was not so familiar with was the military and the use of technology. The Army Experience Center was a shocking clip to me. Like many other people obviously shown in the documentary, I thought it was very controversial. It is frightening to think that the army is building centers that entirely focus on the fact of combat games for future recruiting. The recruiters are not allowed to formally recruit anyone under the age of seventeen, but they are allowed to engage them in conversation. Although there were testimonies in the film stating that kids can tell the difference between real life combat and virtual combat, it is nerve-wracking to think that some of the future defenders of our country started off with a video game. I am not sure they would be completely ready for face to face combat. One thing I did like about the use of technology was the part about drones. I think it is interesting that we have come as far as we have as to being able to shoot at our enemy over nine miles in the sky without having the danger of risking a human life. A person could go into work, fight over enemy lines, and be able to go home to their children at the end of the day all without having the fear and the risk of injury or death, and I think that is a huge step in society. I hope that our country will acquire more and more drones so that we have less American lives being lost in oversea combat.
Overall, Digital Nation opened up my eyes to the fact that technology is developing quickly, and that whether or not we like it we need to adjust or get left behind.
