Reading response # 4

Joey Karlson
5/4/10
English 100 f

In the documentary “Digital Nation” Directed by Rachel Dretzin she shows how the media phase has hit us and the affects it has on us. They start off with taking us to MIT’s campus. MIT students are one of the most connect groups around constantly on there note books or connected to their cell phones. They are the biggest multi taskers around. We go to Stanford where they have been doing studies and experiments on these subjects and the results are quite shocking. Even though they think they are the best multi taskers around. The studies show that in truth they really are not the best. Next they bring us to a country completely over run by the internet and new technology. So bad that kids end up getting addiction to online video games. They are on them so much sometimes they do not even sleep. These addictions are so bad that isolation is the cure. After that they show us a school that is all about new technology and how they have put this into there schooling. They think that with this new way of schooling that it will improve the outcome of their kids. Well it showed some truth, after introducing new technology there test scores and even attendance rose. They show us how the relationship and meeting new people have been moved to even the internet. People are meeting each other not in person but yet in chat rooms or even in video games. Even the office place has been affected by this craze. Workers do not even have to go into work these days. Its all done from home. They do there meetings and talk to over people all in a cyber world called Second Life. Buildings that once supported hundreds of people are now ghost towns. Not a soul around. They take us into the world of the army and how they advertise recruiting. The army has a facility that all is in it are computers and simulators. They are trying so hard to hook kids into joining the army that they try everything to get them. Finally they show us a school completely run by computers and the internet. Everything they do is on computers. Homework, assignments, even how the teachers teach is with a computer. Its quite shocking how this has taken over so quickly.
The internet is a tricky thing, you have to use it wisely. When I use the computer and internet to get my homework done, it takes me a good amount of time to complete it. For me I find myself doing homework but only after say fifth teen minutes I am already distracted. I am off doing some else, looking up information that has nothing to do with the project. Which in the long run is not very good for my school work. I see more of my friends doing the same thing and I would assume that the outcome is the same for them as me. So using this new method of doing homework has its disadvantages. Which is getting harder for kids to finish there work. My experience with the internet and multi tasking has shown me that you have to work hard and push through these distractions and hurdles to get your work done. In the long run it will benefit you the most.