final paper

The effects of Digitization 

Introduction:

Society has found many ways to get common information to everyone. Whether it’s using a phone, using a computer or going to the local starbucks to access the Internet, there are many possible ways to get the information you need. All this technology might seem great until you notice how socially unbalanced you become. Instead of seeing someone in person we text them, we spend more hours on the computer surfing the web and chatting then we do seeing the actual person. We live fake unhealthy and unrealistic lives digital lives. Digital media has given society an excuse to become socially challenged and brainwashed.

Argument 1:

T-Mobil, Verizon, Apple, and Dell. It seems to me that in there own categories (Phone companies and computer brands) they are all in competition with each other. It’s very funny how oblivious people are, because when it gets down to it each device does the same thing as the next. So even if you paid more for the “better” product you are going to receive the same acts as the cheaper product. As a society we are tricked into following trends In order to fit in. Almost every teenager in School Of The Future is connected to Face book or twitter. Face book is an easy way to torment, judge, and make fun of kids with out being judged yourself. There is also the good side of face book which is how it keeps you in contact with so many people and how you make new friends ect… Although Face book seems fun and amusing it is all made of digital representations of things that occurred, so just like a tabloid magazine we as viewers are left to assume and judge things in our own point of view. As people in society get more hooked onto Internet sources such as Face book and Twitter they become socially challenged and lose their ability to make friends in a non-digital way. “The biggest surprise (perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising) was that Facebook’s 35-54 year old demographic segment not only continued to grow the fastest, but it accelerated to a 276.4% growth rate over the past 6 months.” http://www.istrategylabs.com/2009/01/2009-facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-276-growth-in-35-54-year-old-users/ This quote shows just how addictive face book is and how even older people are getting addicted to something so simple as face book.

Argument 2:

From the age of 5 you are able to play them. You get so zoned into them you forget to do normal body functions (such as peeing and blinking) they are known as video games! Many teenagers and adults spend hours upon hours playing video games. “I realized that I am good pressing buttons on a plastic guitar. No matter how many achievements I got for the game, it didn't help me in any way. It's not like I won a car or a thousand dollars. I wasn't aware that I was running up my electric bill and that I was isolated from the rest of my apartment for a whole day. I also noticed that yesterday I felt the laziest.” This is a statement made by Matt S after he spent all day playing video games. He spent hours unlocking levels and killing animated people to realize that he accomplished absolutely nothing. For the video project many of us recorded our self’s playing video games, and to my surprise everyone’s reaction was exactly the same. We were all unaware of our surroundings and were so entranced into the video game that we looked like zombies… completely life less. Living a life where half the time we aren’t aware of our surroundings is unhealthy an effects us mentally. It leaves us with a sense of emptiness that can’t be filled. “Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory.” http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google Nicholas the author of this article is describing how his usage of google has turned his mind into a blob of confusion and how he often wanders off task just to look onto google, instead of focusing on the task in front of him. 

           Argument 3:

 The opening scene of Wall-e was of the town he lived in. But not just any town the town had buildings that were made up of old trash and had oil tanks in the middle of the town towering over all the other buildings.  As the movie goes on Wall-e enters a city that is fully reliable on technology. The people sit in a chair all day and talk into a screen. There is a scene were one of the men get knocked off the chair and he is so fully reliable on technology that he is unable to get up without the help of a robot (Wall-e). If Wall-e is a for shadow of what our society is going to turn into we all need to change our ways immediately. My mom looks exactly like one of the people from Wall-e because she sits in her chair most of the day (until she goes to work at 2) watching television and each day she seam’s to get more lazy and I find myself bringing her more things when she can easily get up and get them herself. As a society we are getting to lazy and realieing on technology too much. Our minds are being mashed into Jell-O and all that keeps us sane is the fact that not everything is turned into digital media yet.

            Opposing view:

Although digital media has bad effects there is also a good side to it. It gives people the opportunity to broadcast important ideas, such as global warning, voting, and other significant things in the world (such as the war in Iraq) it is very easy to get hooked on something that gives you information as quick as a click.  Computers give you information that is regurgitated from real happenings/ facts, it allows us to research anything we like… there are really no boundaries. “The constant improvement of digital technology has helped the economy while simultaneously reducing resources consumption and social communication in our age has lessened loneliness and helped people live happier lives.” With the Internet so easy to access there are many ways for unsocial people to find friends or even love, such as face book and e-harmony. So digital media can be a good thing as long as you don’t abuse it and over use it.

Connection:

This all connects to the book Feed because M.T Anderson relates our society to this fake electronically based society that all ave computers in their minds that shoots regurgitated information out to them. This book is a perfect example of how our society acts based off of electronics we get so isolated we don't pay attention to whats going on around us. This also connects to everything bad is good for you because the author stated that the digital world allows you to open up to things you never thought of but other people believe it is bad because reading came first. I think people aren't used to all the new technology and it confuses them and find it a lot easier to use a book to find out the information they need instead of going on a computer that can freeze and delete your work at any time. 

 Significance:

The study about digitization is significant because it’s good to know how something that is improving and growing so fast affects us. The digital world has evolved so much over the past 20 yrs. For example how the records turned into a cassette, which then turned into a CD, which soon turned into a digital megabyte that is now accessible through the Internet. It is very important for everyone to know how the digital word is evolving because they need to be aware of how there future is changing and being effected.

            Conclusion:

I have explained my opinion on the digital world and how I believe it is bad for us and is slowly corrupting our social and mental skills. Even though there are good aspects of digital media it seems as if our society is going to start and rely on technology too much and soon be fully dependent on it when as a society in earlier years we did fine with out all this technology. It was a lot easier to stay focused on what needed to be done when there was less technology. So as time goes on and technology expands I think we should all watch out how much time we spend using it before we all turn into lazy over weight people who can’t do anything without the help of a robot.