Digital Nation

SUMMARY:

In The PBS documentary, Digital Nation, producer Rachel Dretzin and co-narrator

Douglas Rushkoff explore the many different aspects to living in the present day “Digital

Nation”. The two, look at themes and ideas of Multitasking, the use of technology in schools and

in the workplace, the virtual gaming world, the growing market for research exploring how we

behave, as well as how our virtual experiences change us, and lastly how Virtual technology is

even being used as a recruitment strategy. The film shows many different viewpoints and allows

the audience to keep an open mind, while also showing the pros and cons to living in a

technologically savvy society.

Dretzin and Rushkoff start their adventures at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT) speaking with students and professors about the phenomenon of multitasking. Most of the

students in the film admit that they do multitask very frequently, but also believe they are

exceptionally good at it. While the professors and experimenters explain the students are not as

good as they think. “Virtually all multitaskers think they are brilliant at multitasking”.

Explains Stanford Professor Clifford Nass, he adds “You know what? You're really lousy

at it! It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They get distracted

constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we've done suggests they're worse

at analytic reasoning. We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and

clearly”. ("Transcript."). While almost all of the college professors seemed to have the same

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 belief that multitasking was making our generation inherently dumber, Dretzin and Rushkoff

visited a middle school in the South Bronx, New York, where the principal Mr. Levy argued that

technology and the use of computers undoubtedly enhanced the performance and attendance of

his students. He addressed the fact that distractions from access to internet are inevitable, but

posed the question that “Kids are going to need to be fluent in technology. They're going to need

to be excellent at communication. They're going to need to be problem solvers. That's just the

way the world is now.”("Transcript.")

Another theme featured in Digital Nation was the sensation of online gaming and virtual

worlds. Dretzin and Rushkoff focus on a 15-year-old year old boy, named Chung Young-il from a

city south of Seoul. He was addicted to playing online video games. In an effort to help kids like

Young-il, the Korean government has opened free "Internet rescue camps" throughout the

country. Young-il’s mom sent him to one of these two-week treatment camps. In the film you get

to see how they try and deter young kids from excessive internet use and show them how to

interact in the real word. The documentary also shows the many ways the korean government is

taking action to help fix the social problems being created by the internet. Their government is

not taking away the use of technology, but instead teaching kids from a very young age the

proper use and edicates of using the internet by teaching them in classes, at school.

Online gaming and virtual realities are not just a phenom in Korea, Dretzin and Rushkoff

explore the very popular virtual game known as World of Warcraft. Which is a huge multiplayer

online game that brings millions of people from all around the world into the same virtual

universe. Rushkoff and Dretzin followed Alen and his wife, Liza, out to California, where every

year, Blizzard Entertainment throws a giant party for its fans. The film gave off a sense that this

virtual game was not making people as anti-social in real life as one may suspect, but actually

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 more social because of how strong the connections they make really are. Many of these

relationships made in this virtual universe led to them meeting in the real universe and for many

of the gamers in the documentary, to even marriage.

Douglas Rushkoff caught up with Philip Rosedale, creator of Second Life; which is an

immersive 3D online universe where you can make a character called an avatar, and then you

live in that world as that avatar. Rosedale has implemented his software in his own company, so

that his employees can communicate through this virtual world instead of in a boring office

setting. This product is especially helpful in companies where you are required to work with

people all around the world, for instance IBM.

IBM is featured in the film for its use of this virtual work setting. Douglas Rushkoff

visited IBM'S office park in Westchester, New York, but he described the place as a “Ghost

Town”. Everyone is more than happy with meeting in the virtual universe from the comfort of

their own homes wherever that may be.

there's a growing market for research exploring how we behave inside these virtual

spaces, as well as how our virtual experiences change us. Rushkoff visited Jeremy Bailenson,

who runs the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford. Bailenson’s research shows how the

distinctions between real and virtual are becoming unrecognizable. Bailenson is showed

conducting experiments on children, showing them swimming with whales in a virtual reality

and them not being able to distinguish if it actually happened or not. These experiments have

lead to them now using computer simulations to treat troops suffering from post-traumatic stress

disorder. Being able to show post war vets a virtual reality similar to one they would see at war

and being able to monitor their stress levels is a new, but effective treatment for PTSD.

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 Lastly, Dretzin and Rushkoff explore how virtual technology is being used as a

recruitment strategy. The Military has always been a driver for technology. In 2008, the Army

closed five recruiting centers in the Philadelphia area and replaced them with "Army Experience

Centers." where kids over the age of 13 can come and play virtual simulators. Technically they

are not aloud to recruit kids under 17, but the recruiters are still there walking around answering

questions which has stirred up a lot of controversy leading to many protests. Parents are upset

and think that these centers are unfairly and inaccurately exposing children to what war is like,

but throughout the film the kids demanded they knew the difference between virtual reality and

actual reality.

The documentary ends with Dretzin and Rushkoff and many of the other professors,

students, scientists and professionals from earlier in the film, all pondering what the future might

hold for us and technology. Whether or not it is bright or disastrous, No One seems to have an

answer, but everyone gives the same advice.

ANALYTICAL LINKS:

Gesellschaft, Mass Society and Mass Media:

Throughout the Documentary Digital Nation, which you could argue could also be named

Gesellschaft Nation, I found many Linkages between things said in the film and things said in

class as well as on recorded lectures.

Gesellschaft is the type of society we live in today, which is also the one being explored

in the film. An Industrial society that is dependent on technology, In the documentary many

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 professional scientists and professors discredit the concept of multitasking, but in this society

(Mass Society) would you be able to functionally live and operate without multitasking? The

quality and standards people are held to now a days are ones that require multitasking and

multitasking well to prosper. If I am taking 4 classes and I have an exam in three of the classes as

well as work and dance practice all in the same day, i'm going to have no choice, but to study

while at work, because it just would not be an acceptable excuse to say I did not have time to

study as well as it would not be okay for me to say I didn't have time for work.

Another concept I grasped from the film and from a Gesselschaft was the idea of

Alienation and how it was a common theme in a Gesellschaft, because in the film many of the

people that were playing the online virtual games like World of Warcraft felt alienated from

either their families or society so they were able to create a person or an avatar that people in the

game would accept and treat well it also relates to the theme we discussed when we watch the

documentary American Juggalo.

Is google making me stupid:

In Nicholas Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”, He effectively argues the point

that the internet is inhibiting our ability to focus and think like we use to. He describes the

feeling of his brain changing, not to be confused with actually going, but he explains how he

most feels this way when he's reading. Carr recounts feeling fidgety or unfocused after just two

or three pages of reading when he use to be able to read right through an article or a book. Carr

does not only cite himself, but many others as feeling the way he does about reading. Throughout

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 the article Carr and his researchers explain it's not that we don't read as much as we use to, we

might even read more, but the things we read and how we read them are affecting our brains.

Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University explains “When we

read online, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to

make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction,

remains largely disengaged.” (“The Atlantic”)

This idea was also brought up in the documentary Digital Nation. In the film Douglas
Rushkoff, actually gets to talk to the only neuroscientist who's actually examined the impact

of the Internet on our brains, Dr. Gary Small at UCLA. He took MRI scans of people's brain

activity reading a book, and then another doing an Internet search. The evidence isn't

conclusive, but it does show a difference between reading a book and reading online.

Rushkoff questions why more studies are not being done on this matter comparing it to the

studies on cigarettes and texting and driving.

Another point brought up in the film was by Professor Mark Bauerlein, Author of “The

Dumbest Generation” he states that “"I can't assign a novel more than 200 pages. I used to.

I can't anymore." () this is a fact many other teachers and professors in the documentary

agree with. Whether it's dangerous for our brains or not people are noticing a change in our

generations reading and writing abilities and it's something both Mark Bauerlein and

Nicholas Carr think is serious!

RESPONSE:

I really liked the documentary Digital Nation, I thought that it did a really good job at

showing both sides to each issue showcased. Although It kept me engaged throughout the entire

film, I do feel like it had a lot of people making claims without much proven facts, but more

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 personal opinions, so I am very interested in knowing what research or developments have been

made since the documentary was released in 2010. I can obviously relate a lot to the film because

I am part of the generation the film makers are talking about. I found Principal Levy, very

insightful. He said some things that made me think a lot, for example when he said “I think that
the world has sped up in a lot of ways, and I think education hasn't.” That comment was

really interesting to me because without technology changing frequently I don't see how we

would learn anything knew.

Another thing I want to address is the Korean government’s "Internet rescue camps". I

think they have the right Idea, but it was also very weird to me how some people would call them

“rehabs”, It almost made me uncomfortable. I understand it's a different culture so that might be

like a cultural gap, but it seemed like just a regular camp to me.

I think this is a really valuable assignment, I would even go as far as saying my favorite
assignment we've had in the class so far. I think that yes, technology is changing all the time
what's in and what's out, but I also think it's always been this way. Society is meant to change
and I don't think we'll ever see a world where we're going to have our technology taken away.

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