Digital Nation Film Review

Major Assignment #1- Digital Nation Film Review

PART 1:

Modern technology and internet has connected us, to people in far flung areas but at the same time it separates people under the same roof. Rachel Dretzin realized this harsh reality by observing the way her family was spending their time at home. She collaborated with Douglas Rushkoff to present an interesting documentary Digital Nation.

Impact of the digital age:

Technological revolution has effected every aspect of our lives, the way we think, socialize, learn or work. After watching documentary, I realized, that our generation is not only addicted to, but heavily reliant on technology. For Mothers, whether they belong to any culture its quite distressing to see their kids captivated by these gadgets and not engaging in family life (Digital Nation 2010). Students these days are more interested in learning things from online resources rather than books which in fact, stimulate their minds in healthier ways. Mark Bauerlein, a professor at Emory University asserts in his book, “The Dumbest Generation” that kids are doing worse academically due to “digital distractions” and he supports his argument by relevant data (Digital Nation, 2010). Older generation is also hooked to internet, and try to keep up with technological advancements with the help of their family members. They are embracing newer technology but still miss that individualized touch and hearing the voices of their loved ones as we saw in Ms. Cher’s case. (Digital Nation, 2010)

Possible blocks to normal growth and development:

In this documentary, we learned before writing began people had sharper memories. As our dependence on technology is increasing we are slowly rusting faculties of our mind. It will further decrease our capability to remember things and retain knowledge since we are always few clicks away to access the information from the web. Distractions due to multitasking are evident in the writing style of students these days and their paragraphs seem to be less coherent according to Prof Nass (Digital Nation, 2010). Since kids are using computers at an earlier age for their writings and exams the importance of handwriting is diminishing over time. Which means that kids will be at loss in terms of developing sensory and motor skills that involve writing.

Teenagers when using technology, lose track of time and do not enough sleep. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24340291 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) We saw in the documentary when teenagers were being interviewed in PC bangs in Seoul. They are always glued to screen and are getting less time for interacting with their peers and outdoor activities and sports which effects their physical, mental and social growth.

Virtual reality can make children believe about things that didn’t happen. In this documentary, they gave example of kids thinking they swam with whales after they are exposed to a virtual set up in which they were swimming in ocean. It makes children a potential target. This technology can be used negatively to traumatize kids as we saw a veteran undergoing therapy for PTSD involving use of virtual reality (Digital Nation 2010).

Impact when people do not develop along expected patterns

People living in make believe world tend to lose the touch with reality. They build relationships online rather than with people around them not realizing that it’s so easy to lie and fake on internet. Not all the interactions end in lifelong friendships, romances or marriages as shown in the documentary. It effects their careers some even lose their jobs because they are so addicted to this world of fantasy, where everything looks so perfect and glamorous. This time and energy can be used to engage with their loved ones, to get involved in community, to do healthy activities and solve the problems of real world.

PART 2

COHORT EFFECT

Decisions and adaptations of people are dictated by the cohort in which they live and their accomplishments are judged accordingly. (Week 1 Readings, The Cohort Effect)

Since I was born in 1980 I saw a new cohort right developing before my eyes after internet revolution in 90s. Our culture, social interactions and learning style has changed drastically. Multitasking is the new norm (Digital Nation, 2010).

With advent of drones even the dynamics of warfare have changed. (Digital Nation, 2010) Unfortunately a person sitting in U.S can’t determine whether a person in a building on another continent is a civilian