Great To Watch By Maggie Nelson: Film Analysis

Advances in technology has altered the world as we know it, and it can only progress farther. Through the minds of many intelligent and devoted individuals across time technology has developed into a twenty first century deity. A young child one hundred years ago could never envision a world like ours today, ruled by ones and zeros. The media has affected us in ways that we can’t even comprehend and will continue to steadily provide humans with a faster and faster flow of information for years to come. But what is the cost to have all of the information you can imagine at your fingertips? The exponential increase in information that we process in all forms of media is affecting the way that we live by making society more alienated.

The positive effects of accessible technology on modern society are that it cures curiosity, creates connections between people through the internet, and allows people to bond in the real world through what they see or learn from it. The internet is a quick way of getting questions answered and accessing information that someone may be interested in. The negative effect of having information available at all times is that instead of individual thinking, people can look up ideas, answers, opinions, also creating a distraction. Faber recognizes technology’s ability to distract and overtake people as he “took Montag quickly into the bedroom and lifted a picture frame aside, revealing a television screen the size of a postal card. “‘I always wanted something very small, something I could talk to, something I could blot out with the palm of my hand, if necessary, nothing that could shoot me down, nothing monstrous big.’”

Technology, the advancement of knowledge and productivity through the application of tools, information, and techniques to create an effortless process, has ultimately lead to the declination of our society and our future. In “A Thing Like Me,” Nicholas Carr addresses the development of technology from the day it was created and how it initiated an immediate impact within the lives of humans leading to an unhealthy dependency. Carr establishes how technology, what was intended to be a tool, has become the “pacifier” of our generation. This “pacifier” causes a loss of freedom, not through the laws of the government, but rather with the values of freedom one holds within themselves. This freedom is the individuality that distinguishes each person from the next, and forms a desire for the development of oneself through the experiences of life and the wisdom that is acquired along the way. Technology has blinded man from this pursuit of self-enhancement and with the advancement of technology occurring daily, there is no resolution. Each day people are confined within themselves and the pieces of technology that will continually limit them in their lives. Freedom is more than just a concept of laws instilled by the government, it is the thought process found within each individual person and their “hunger” to become more. With technology, social media was created and immediately immersed within our lives. The society of today has

Carr’s factual diction demonstrates his conviction that the internet is causing people to become shallow individuals by saying that it causes a “slow erosion of our humanness and our humanity” and that it “poses a threat to our integrity as human beings.” The first half of his book covers topics about biology and technology, and how those two relates to each other. Then in the second half, he transitions into a detailed explanation about how the internet is actually harmful to us. After reading his thoughts about it, it is clear that the internet is in fact damaging to people.

Technology is fast becoming our generation’s source of information. Not only does it provide us with the ability to communicate personally, but with forms such as the internet and the media, it allows ideas to be broadcasted to a large audience. Though the ideas expressed through the media can be straightforward, it is often the subtleties that create the greatest impacts amongst audiences.

Now that I have written a letter to one of my peers from high school, I’m going to write this letter to you, to explain and demonstrate on how and why I’m against the internet. While reading the short essays, one caught my attention, created by Sherry Turkle, she demonstrates to us about how the internet takes away our private space and our freedom to experience the outdoors. I agree with this because many people just sit around and in front of a screen instead of going outside to see the real world, instead they depend on the internet to see what’s going on out there. I think the internet has changed me as well as it did to others, I didn’t anticipate to have experience only sitting around and in front of a screen

The film “ Digital Nation” is an exploration of diverse people's views on digital media, in today's world. Some of the most important topics were on the virtual world, and the pros and cons of technology within different groups like gamers, students, families, teachers, administrators, children, military and businesses, as well as the experience of general people. In the movie, Prof. Sherry Turkle said, “Technology challenges us to assert our human values. Technology is not good or bad, is powerful, and it is complicated which means first we have to figure out what they are”. Currently, technology has taken over, wherever one, goes one will find it. Over the past years, social media in particular have spread worldwide; from Facebook to Instagram. There is constantly something new, extra advanced and creative. Overall, the technology has evolved the way humans interact with each other. In particular, technology influences by motivating students towards learning, saving time, building literacy and communication skills.

“We believe that life happens outwardly, a series of events that happen, but our life actually happened inwardly through our thoughts, feelings and emotions (10). When we are using digital media all our thoughts are moving outwards and we don’t internalize our thoughts or think deeply. The idea of how we do not stop and truly understand thoughts, feelings, emotions, and ourselves is presented in this novel. Powers also states that “The more connect the more our thoughts lead outward,” (50). Therefor disconnecting is beneficial to our emotional and spiritual well- being. I also believe that this topic can be related to discussions where we spoke about the importance of our society reflecting on how new technologies impact society and ourselves.

Although it seems obvious, an interesting fact about art that is frequently glanced over is that art is meant to be shared. An artist such as Damian Hirst didn’t put his great his artwork of the shark with its mouth open and suspended in a tank of formaldehyde in a dark room to let it collect dust. Rather he shares his piece and hopes “anyone will buy it.” Hirst’s eagerness to display his work stems from wanting to display the bond he had with his art. However, if a viewer were to have a different bond from examining the art, creating the art might seam fruitless because the artist will go through the trouble to share their connection when the viewer would see something different. It would be as if a child excitedly runs towards their parent to present their drawing of a cat and the parent says “Oh look at this great tree.”

The present society of today embodies a distinct shape, organization, role, and feel from the societies of a millennium ago, a century ago, or even a decade ago. These metamorphoses are, in part, caused by the multiple technological revolutions that our society has experienced throughout its history. Each time a technological revolution occurs—when a novel technology is introduced to build upon or succeed an older one—the entire society (and the individuals that comprise it) changes. However, as Marshall McLuhan suggested within the printed pages of Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, “the medium is the message” (McLuhan 1964). In other words, these shifts are not as much the direct result of the invention’s content or it’s use, as they are the outcomes of effects that are intrinsic within the technology itself. Although McLuhan published this work in 1964, almost thirty years before the invention of the World Wide Web, this adage still holds true for the Internet today.

In our modern day society, technology evolves and causes us to re-evaluate our understanding of art. This has been brought about by platforms such as Instagram, SoundCloud, VSCO, and YouTube – all of which reduce the barriers to entry for the publication of various art forms and provide a means for anyone to engage in the arts. This illustrates the concept of cultural democratization in which everyone is free to express their creativity, not just those who are especially skilled or trained or have the monetary means to do so. This expansive approach of bringing art to the masses has led to a

When we think of technology, what often comes to mind are televisions, communications devices such as cell phones and satellites, computers, and different modes of transportation. However, there are other ways in which technology is applied, one of those being the Internet and its various components including email, chat rooms, and search engines. The list of uses for the Internet is innumerable and many corporations and universities are forcing people to make use of it. But no matter how much this new technology is forced on us, people are still resistant to it. As George Landow, Professor of English and Art History at Brown University, states, "Technology, in the lexicon of many humanists, generally means 'only that technology of which I

Today, the world is much different than it was fifteen years ago, much less fifty years ago. The progression of technology has been even more significant than ever before in the last several years, but has ultimately lead us astray from our core character. The production of cell phones, social media updates, websites, and technological tools is constant, but these new and improved technologies have left the world with very few longstanding advancements. Though the internet has brought the world innumerable innovative opportunities, life before technology was much more efficient, filled with many more promising benefits: responsibility, socialization skills, and controversy.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been said to have the capacity to heal democracy and bring equality to the world’s societies. However, since the beginning of technology, there have always been discussions on whether “new media” is inherently for good or for evil. This is generally how the debates over technology go. This is because media scholars such as Postman (1992) note that technology is not a neutral entity within our society; it will always have the potential to be used for good and bad. Not only is technology capable of serving these two purposes, media philosophers such as, McLuhan and Postman state that, new technology media is “ecological”, they will completely change the world we are living in, transforming our reality into a new existence.

A 2011 national survey showed that hospital marketers anticipated a “400 percent increase in the use of digital media by 2013” (Primacy News, 2011). That percentage may seem staggering, but if we reflect on the changes that digital media has brought to our everyday lives, it might not seem that strange. Digital media touches us all on a daily basis. It’s constantly shifting and changing our views of what is “normal”. Fifty years ago it was normal to race to your television to catch “The Lucy Show” Monday nights at 8:30pm on CBS. Now we go to Netflix to stream the latest season of “Arrested Development” all at once, anytime we want to. We once raced to the record shops to buy Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” album. Now we can buy Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s “Cheek to Cheek” masterpiece from the comfort of our own home using iTunes.