Digital Nation - Cora

While watching the documentary, “Digital Nation” produced by Rachel Dretzin, I could feel my opinions begin to change about video games and the internet. During the video, the issues about increase use of cell phones, internet, video games and computers. Throughout this piece, the question is asked, “Is this good or bad for us in the long run?” It seems like there is never really a complete answer to this question, just an answer that says, only time will tell. The video starts off with students at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) because of their constant multitasking abilities. Most students said they were confident in their ability to successfully complete multiple tasks at once, but a study by Stanford professor, Clifford Nass, said otherwise. He conducted a study on this so called multitasking ability that students have today. In the interview, he says, “Classic psychology says that’s impossible. No one can do that. In general, our brains can’t do two things at once. We want to ask the question, how do they do it? Do they have some secret ingredient, some special ability that psychologists had no idea about, or what’s going on?” I believe that what he is saying is that from what we have known in the past, this seems impossible that someone can drive and talk on the cell phone safely, text while walking or check Facebook from your phone while watching a favorite television show. It might seem like it is impossible, but I feel like this is a whole new generation of people. We have learned to do this stuff successfully without much work for us at all. This study proved that while multitasking, people complete tasks slower than they would if they did the tasks individually. Maybe this is true, but I don’t think that the main reason most of us multitask is to be able to complete these tasks in a quicker manner. We do them all at the same time because we can and it is available for us to do. After this study is introduced to us in this video, they move on to tell us about the issue of video game addiction in, not only the United States, but the world. They show us some internet cafés in South Korea where people can go to access a computer whenever they want to play video games. In each café, there are up to dozens of computers available for use. Seeing this made me wonder how people could be so addicted to these computer games that they end up staying overnight at these places just so they can finish their game. South Korea has tried tackling this problem with internet and gaming addictions from inside the schools. They have camps available for teenagers to go to become more independent from these sorts of addictions. They have also begun teaching healthy computer habits to children at very low grade levels. They haven’t seen too many effects from this campaign, but they seem to have high hopes for it. When talking about the gaming addictions in the video, they bring up games like World of Warcraft and Second Life. Both of these games offer an alternate life in them. You can be whoever you chose to be by creating an avatar, someone to represent yourself. Some people seem to be happier with their lives in the game rather than their actual lives. They have made long lasting friendships and some have developed into marriages. I can somewhat understand why this would be satisfying to people because in your alternate reality, you don’t have to worry about common stresses of everyday life such as bills, caring for a child, work, etc. But I guess what I don’t understand is how people can be so addicted to these alternate lives that they sit at the computer for days after days without leaving the house. You would think that they would lose their ability to act socially correct in their true lives. I’m not sure if this addiction is large enough in the United States to start running a campaign to stop it, but it does deserve some sort of attention. I believe addiction to video games, texting, and social media will someday be just as bad as alcoholism and drug abuse.
I think that people are doing a good job at making point that maybe someday, all this use of technology such as texting, social media and video games, could be a massive problem. As for me, I already see myself developing an addiction to social media and texting. I am very confident in my ability to multitask while being on Facebook and texting, but I wouldn’t be this good without my best friend; my iPhone. A few weeks ago, I dropped my phone in the toilet by accident and it seemed like I had lost a piece of myself. I didn’t have that constant access to Facebook that I was used to and I wasn’t able to text my boyfriend every minute of every day like I had done since I started dating him two years ago. I felt like I was lost without my phone by my side. I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself anymore. Maybe this is the type of addiction that people are talking about. I became so reliant on my cell phone, that I didn’t know how to function normally without it. Now that I think about it, it seems like that is what people with drug addictions and alcoholism deal with. They go to rehab to learn how to function in a life without their substance of choice because they relied on it for so long that they can’t see a life without it. After this video, I am left thinking about my own addiction to social media and cell phone use. Will I someday need help for this just as much as someone with substance abuse problems or just as much as the teenagers in South Korea need with video game addictions?