This episode examines how technology has impacted our daily lives and its effect on how we perceive it from real life. It starts in MIT to analyze how the brain handles multitasking, from which I formed the acronym MulITasking. From there, it jumps into psychology with interviews from the prestigious Professor Nass. I found their coverage of research that the brain has more activity during an internet search verses reading a book particularly unbiased, never opting for a bandwagon approach. We move to South Korea to learn more about the net cafés and online gaming and how these games have permeated to school and war training. References to past technological changes never become heavy handed as I'm sure we've all heard about the change from papyri to print many times.
2 Reviews
An excellent examination of the cultural impact of computerization
take2docs19 April 2020
Warning: Spoilers
You may have heard of these particular form of netizens, so addicted to their preferred pastime, that they don diapers, so as not to soil their underpants while playing computer games.
A documentary about our disposable culture, this is not. Rather, it is about the computerization of the human species and how this has been effecting society and specifically digital natives, and not always for the better.
Take gaming addiction, which is just one aspect of our computer-centric age that the doc examines. Some of these gamers are so caught up in cyberspace that they have to enter rehab centers for Internet overuse. There they may learn about the vast off-line world that exists beyond their screens.
The highlight of the documentary for me was the appearance of Mark Bauerlein, author of the prodigious "The Dumbest Generation." In the book, Mr. Bauerlein writes of increasingly anti-intellectual and illiterate school students, despite our living in the so-called Information Age.
As one who was raised into an overall pre-digital world, I've noticed for myself how, more and more, people -- including middle-aged adults and seniors -- are becoming more fond of audio-visuals than they are of textual material. Reading, when done right, encourages the use of independent thought, contemplation, and critical thinking skills. Whereas, the audio-visual experience is more about intellectual passivity -- the taking in of info or stimuli without really pausing to reflect upon what is being seen and heard.
Back when digital immigrants went to school, they were educated just fine, without there being the need for even one computer in the classroom. Nowadays, school kids are placed in front of screens and although they may grow up to be tech-savvy, one has to wonder what all this electronic immersion is doing to their minds. Will there be anymore philosophers and poets in the world to come? What is becoming of things like imagination, creativity, and memory?
How can a person truly learn and think for oneself and grow as an individual when, if not immersed in audio-visuals, is constantly connected online as if a part of some hive mind? What becomes of a society when mere information retrieval (i.e. the use of search engines for quick and easy access) replaces the need for patient research and study?
There's a scientific study that's referred to in this film that compared the brains of multitaskers with those of non-multitaskers. Digital natives are not known for their depth and analytical abilities. They are all about having many pages open on their computer screens, jumping from one thing to the next and then back again. Some even pride themselves on their becoming familiar with a piece of literature by going online and "reading" an abridged version of it in a matter of an hour.
DIGITAL NATION is an important documentary, that despite it having been produced about ten years ago, still contains -- and will undoubtedly continue to contain -- relevance.
A documentary about our disposable culture, this is not. Rather, it is about the computerization of the human species and how this has been effecting society and specifically digital natives, and not always for the better.
Take gaming addiction, which is just one aspect of our computer-centric age that the doc examines. Some of these gamers are so caught up in cyberspace that they have to enter rehab centers for Internet overuse. There they may learn about the vast off-line world that exists beyond their screens.
The highlight of the documentary for me was the appearance of Mark Bauerlein, author of the prodigious "The Dumbest Generation." In the book, Mr. Bauerlein writes of increasingly anti-intellectual and illiterate school students, despite our living in the so-called Information Age.
As one who was raised into an overall pre-digital world, I've noticed for myself how, more and more, people -- including middle-aged adults and seniors -- are becoming more fond of audio-visuals than they are of textual material. Reading, when done right, encourages the use of independent thought, contemplation, and critical thinking skills. Whereas, the audio-visual experience is more about intellectual passivity -- the taking in of info or stimuli without really pausing to reflect upon what is being seen and heard.
Back when digital immigrants went to school, they were educated just fine, without there being the need for even one computer in the classroom. Nowadays, school kids are placed in front of screens and although they may grow up to be tech-savvy, one has to wonder what all this electronic immersion is doing to their minds. Will there be anymore philosophers and poets in the world to come? What is becoming of things like imagination, creativity, and memory?
How can a person truly learn and think for oneself and grow as an individual when, if not immersed in audio-visuals, is constantly connected online as if a part of some hive mind? What becomes of a society when mere information retrieval (i.e. the use of search engines for quick and easy access) replaces the need for patient research and study?
There's a scientific study that's referred to in this film that compared the brains of multitaskers with those of non-multitaskers. Digital natives are not known for their depth and analytical abilities. They are all about having many pages open on their computer screens, jumping from one thing to the next and then back again. Some even pride themselves on their becoming familiar with a piece of literature by going online and "reading" an abridged version of it in a matter of an hour.
DIGITAL NATION is an important documentary, that despite it having been produced about ten years ago, still contains -- and will undoubtedly continue to contain -- relevance.
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