Frontline Response

Today in my into to media class we watched a Frontline report by Douglas Ruskoff  called Digital_Nation. The whole film was about how technology is effecting us  as a society and what we could possibly do to stop or change this. As a typical  American teenager I can say that I too am addicted to technology. I have a  Blackberry, I have a Facebook, and I love it. I think that it allows me to be  more socially intergrated as opposed to socially isolated like the film  suggested. I agree that I am more than capable of multitasking as well. If I am  sitting in class taking notes, that keeps my attention but then after a while I  become bored. If someone is texting me, and I'm taking notes, now I'm busy and  multitasking, therefore I am not bored. Video games definitely are addicting, I  agree with that. I loved the segment on World of Warcraft because I used to  play, and still play occasional. I am a level 22, undead warrior. I play in a  realm called Skullcrusher. Unfortunately I am still considered a noob, or a  newbie because being level 22 is nothing compared to my friends who are level  80. The game is very addicting, but when I played I used another program, called  Ventrillo, to communicate with my friends on the game. I felt like I was  actually in this world, running, jumping, and fighting! It was fun and exciting  too. There are kids I know that play World of Warcraft anywhere from 7-15 hours  a day. I was lucky enough that my mom wouldn't let me play video games for more  than 2 hours and now I don't play video games at all compared to what I used to  play. Now I feed my technogical needs with my blackberry, and facebook. I really  don't even go on facebook that much either though. I check it when I'm home, but  I'm never really home so its down to my blackberry (and my ipod) that really  controls me. But I couldn't imagine my life without it. The Second Life program  that the film discussed made me annoyed. I don't like that program, the fun in  video games is that it is an alternate reality. Playing a video game that mimics  real life is not as fun. It reminds me of the Sims, which is another computer  game that I hate. I like technology, I like that it is always changing and  growing, and I like that it impacts my life and gives us something to talk  about. I also like that all this technological banter on whether technology is  good or bad is influencing my generation, because in the future I can see how  much things have changed technologically through the next few decades. It has  already changed so much in the two decades that I have been on this earth.