Documentary Reflection

Yesterday, while in class, we watched a documentary film called Digital Nation. The documentary discussed research done on various groups of digital natives and the concerns that family members, teachers, and doctors have about these individuals. However, many people still don't believe that there is anything to be concerned about. Because of the academic and medical advances technology/media has helped society achieve, a large number of people think that the "pros" definitely outweigh the "cons", when it comes to technology. Those who made this documentary, though, were quite unsure of how true that really is. 


Researchers have concluded that a common issue among digital natives is multi-tasking. As college students, most of us probably don't view multi-tasking as a bad thing. We, in fact, multi-task pretty much all the time because we're always so busy. However, researchers are now determining that multi-tasking is actually hurting us, rather than helping. They say that, when we multi-task, we cannot focus well on the things we are supposed to be doing because we are so distracted. For example, students who bring their laptops to class often tend to drift away from taking notes and, instead, do different things like checking their emails or signing on to Facebook. Because of these distractions, student's grades often suffer. Family members are becoming concerned with the amount of time their kids are spending online, as well. Kids who multi-task between family time and playing online games aren't getting the quality time that they need with their parents and siblings because they're too distracted. Doctors are concerned because of the amount of brain activity it takes to multi-task, compared to just doing one thing at a time. For instance, it takes much more brain activity to Google something rather than simply looking it up in a book. Most of us would think that more brain activity is a good thing, but apparently we're wrong. 


I think that it's interesting to learn how media can affect us in bad ways because, too often, we only look at the good side of it. While technology and media has affected our lives positively in numerous ways, there are still several down-sides to being constantly "wired". I think that it's important that we acknowledge that there are, indeed, draw-backs to this seemingly perfect lifestyle.