The Digital World
“All I need to do is click on you and we'll be joined in the most soul-less way and we'll never ever ruin each other's day cuz when I'm through I just click and you just go away.”
- Bad Religion
Introduction:
Digitalization has slowly become part of our daily lives through out the years, in a way that one would've never dreamed of 10 years ago. It has affected how we actually live our daily lives, at school, home, work and other environments. This change has made us conform even more than back when TV's hadn't been invented or any other digital device was discovered. But even back then there were ways people could conform but due to digitalization it has become worse. It has made it easier for us to conform making no one a real individual. The digital world has taken over our daily lives and has made conformity worse.
Argument # 1:
A typical day in one's life begins with waking with an alarm, turning on TV to see the weather or news, then checking one's cell phone for calls, voicemail, texts or facebook updates. Then walk out house and turn on one's ipod and then begin texting friends until reach car or train or bike. Once you get to work or school and print out papers for class or meeting and so on. You might not do all of this but if you notice, some way or another digitalization affects our daily lives. I surveyed people to see how the digital world interfered in their lives and one person said “ I spend 2 hours on Internet or facebook but it added stress whether aware of it or not. Having to juggle it.” (Guzman – Hw# 7) Every single person I surveyed said some way the digital media affected them. No matter if it was in a good way or bad way, it still affected their lives.
I also did an experiment where I tried not to use phone for 3 weeks, which worked because technically it was broken so I couldn’t use it even if I wanted to. “ Carrying a cell phone means that a tiny part of your brain knows that anybody can tap you on the shoulder at any moment, disrupting you - no matter what you’re doing. The mere knowledge that this is possible prevents me from reaching a certain level of calm, or detachment, or self- absorption, or something-or-other.” (Brooks) Without it I felt like “ I was “missing out on things” (Bryanna) and would get frustrated at times but that didn’t stop me from watching TV or going on Internet. But I realized during our discussions in class that many of my classmates and I are so used to going about our lives with digital that we can’t even really go about our day without it, which shows how the digital world has taken over our lives.
Sometimes it affects our lives so much we don’t even have to go outside to exercise or go shopping, “Wii Fit Plus combines fun and fitness into one product. It can change how you exercise, how you balance, and even how you move. Expanding upon the original Wii Fit software, Wii Fit Plus is packed with every feature from Wii Fit—plus new exercises and tools to personalize your exercise routine.” (“Wii Fit”) Like for example the Wii allows us to stay home and exercise without ever really having the need to go outside. It is taking over how we go about our day and our daily routines now require the digital world. It is also making us forget what is happening around us, forgetting what is truly important like reading or taking a walk in the park. Because of this we are letting it taking over our lives making us conform to this new way of life and the way we live it.
Argument # 2:
Conformity is when we change to fit in with the people around us, conformity has been happening ever since humans existed even before digitalization. Before one couldn't watch TV or Internet to see latest trends because that did not exist yet. But yet we could still watch others and fit in with what everyone else was wearing. But do to the start of digitalization, conformity has become worse. Today we can watch TV or magazines to keep up with latest trends making it so much easier to conform to what celebrities, actors, idols, and others are doing, wearing, and thinking (their ideas, views, and thoughts).
This sense of conformity makes people want the latest electronic because it’s what “everyone” else has. There is a website that focuses on polls that ask questions about people’s views on digital media. A question they ask is “Would you buy an Apple computer in order to avoid adware and spyware problems? ” (“Inside Digital Media – Polls”) You could probably guess that the percentage that said yes was larger than those who said no. The real reason so many people said yes was not because they would avoid problems but because Mac is viewed as the best, the “coolest”. Why can't a PC provide all this versus a Mac? There are even ads that make fun of the windows 7 and shows Mac as the best. ("Apple Get a Mac Ad: Time Machine”) It shows how conformity is getting worse with the digital world because it brings the competition of who has the newest, “coolest”, and advanced technology, just another thing we can conform to.
A great example of how conformity has worsened due to the start of digitalization is the book Feed by M.T. Anderson. In this book the author uses allegory, where the characters seem to be from the future but are actually the representation of the modern day teenagers. The characters in this book have computer implants called feed making them completely dependent on digital. This book focuses on how digital is affecting us in a bad way; one of his examples is how teenagers conform to those around them. “ Once, she went to the bathroom, casual – like, and came back with her hair parted a different place. Calista and Quendy watched her. Later without saying anything, they went and did theirs different like that.” (Anderson, 52) These girls throughout the book go to the bathroom and change their hairstyle like three times a day because the Feed would notify them what the newest and cool hairstyle was. We might not change our hairstyle every day but we do change it maybe every year to what hair cut or hair color is “in.” I know I do, one time the trend was having short hair and it was all over Internet and magazines that celebrities and actors were cutting their hair short like Rihanna or Katie Holmes. So it was easy for me to see what this trend was and what it looked like so I cut it and I liked it. But after a while I felt like it was what a lot of people’s hair looked like, so I grew it out. Sometimes we conform to what every one else doing or saying because we want to fit in and due to the digital world it is so much easier for us to do this, making it worse.
Another way Feed shows how conformity has worsened because of the start of digitalization is how their feed sends them ads according to what clothing, “lesions”, music, etc. is hip and trendy at the time. Most of the teenagers in the book listened to these ads and would buy things the ads tell them about. “ The feed spoke to me real quiet about new trends, about pants that should be shorter or longer, and bands I should know, and games with new levels and stalactites and fields of diamonds, and friends of many colors were all drinking coke, and beer was washing through mountain passes, and the stars of the Oh? Wow! Thing! Had got lesions, so lesions were hip, and mine looked like a million dollars…” (Anderson, 47) This is how Feed would tell them through ads in their head and even jingles that would attract them more on what to buy, and wear. We might not get ads in our heads but every time we go on Internet and web surf, everything we search on the computer sends us ads according to what we are looking at. When I went to the Wii Fit website, I received an ad about losing weight because it thought I wanted to exercise and lose weight. These ads try to make us conform to what they are telling us, and the start of digitalization has brought this. But not only does the Feed tell them what to wear and buy but advertise about lesions, lesions are parts of their skin that is peeling off but instead of finding a way to stop, they make it seem trendy and hip. In a class discussion we said that this could be like us getting tattoos and piercings because they are seen as cool by our society. These advertisements have kept or started many of these trends, making conformity worse.
Connections:
Many of things we do now are so much easier than in my parent’s or their parent’s generation, now we easily call or text someone rather than sending a letter or telegraph. My parent’s would have to send each other letters when he would go away and my mom was a telegrapher in Mexico so she also knew how to send telegrams to him. A father talks of how he gave his oldest daughter a film camera and that she took pictures with it but his younger daughter asked her to show her the pictures. The younger daughter comes running to him accusing her older sister of being mean because she would not show her the pictures. The father explains to her that it is not a digital camera so she couldn’t see them until they were developed. “ I can tell she doesn't believe me. And why should she? She has grown up surrounded by digital devices that make everything instant and convenient. Why would anyone want to go back to the old analog ways, stuffing around with something as old-fashioned as, say, film? ” (“Can we live without technology.”) If you notice how different it is now, especially for my generation it’s taken over our lives because the way we achieve things now is with digital, that pretty soon we will forget about things like film cameras, turntables, VHS, etc.
I remember watching a movie with my little brother that I found interesting, although the whole time afterwards my little brother and me kept saying Wall – eeeeeee or Evaaaaa. (If you’ve watched it, that’s pretty much the entire dialogue of the movie) This movie is called Wall – E and the reason I found it interesting was because the story is that the Earth has become a dump and the humans can no longer live there. So they invent this cruise – like ship where they will orbit in outer space until the Earth can be lived on again. On this ship the technology provides everything for them, they don’t even have to get off their chairs to get a haircut or to get somewhere. This movie shows how the digital world can take over our lives in an extreme way because they never disconnect from this world. The people seem to be in another reality because of the digital devices that they don’t even see what is surrounding them. Can this be our future? It’s a possibility especially at the rate of advances we have in technology; imagine ten years from now, what about 20?
Opposing Viewpoints:
But some say that this new technology can actually be good for us, the author of Everything Bad is Good For You Steven Johnson believes that digital devices like TV or video games are not harming us as many say. He says that they are actually making us think more, because of how TV has increased the work the viewer must do to watch it and understand, than it used to. “ The nature of the medium is such that television will never improve its viewers’ skills at translating letters into meaning, and it may not activate the imagination in the same way textual form does. But for all the other modes of mental exercise associated with reading, television is growing increasingly rigorous.” He explains that the reason why it is making our minds develop is because TV is making us think more than two decades ago. The way we have to fill in more and have very subtle hints of what is going to happen. But even he agrees that it’s still hasn’t reached the potential of reading a book and the level of imagination a book brings. But if we continue to let the digital world take over lives, someday we won’t even be reading books anymore.
If conformity is getting worse because of the way digital world is taking over our daily routines, why should we care? Some might say that conformity can’t be stopped because everything we do or say, someone has said before or done. So why should we worry if we continue to conform, with or without the digital world we’d still be conforming to fit in with those around us. Well because then wouldn’t life be boring? If everything we say or do is what everyone else is saying or doing, no one would be different. But we do want and try to be different but somehow we still “ Want to stand out while fitting in” (Conor). And people did not conform as much as we do now because everything is easier with digitalization even conforming.
Conclusion:
The change digitalization has brought to our society has taken over our daily lives and routines, making conformity worse. And there is evidence of this in the movies we watch, the books we read, on the Internet and even in our very lives. I am not saying that we must cut off digital world completely because even if we wanted to, it wouldn’t be humanly possible. But we must not forget the important things outside of the digital world like nature, books or even just face-to-face socializing and the many other things we can do without digitalization. We must not let it make us conform more than we choose to because we can’t completely go against everything our society and the digital world tell us. Because we always want to fit in somehow but maybe having a balance of our lives inside and outside the digital world can help. Right now we can’t really do much about the digital world but watch how our lives change and grow because of it.
Work Cited Page
Anderson, M.T.Anderson. Feed. U.S.A.: Candlewick Press, 2002. 52 & 47. Print.
"Apple Get a Mac Ad: Time Machine." Youtube. Web. 7 Nov 2009. .
Bad Religion. “I Love my Computer.” Bad Religion – I Love my Computer. Dragnet Records, Sony Music Entertainment (Germany), 2000
Brooks, David. "Life without a cellphone? Priceless." GraniteGeek. 23 OCT 2009. Web. 6 Nov 2009. .
"Can we live without technology." The Age. May 21 2007. Web. 8 Nov 2009. .
Guzman, Michelle. "Personal/Political views – HW # 7." Blogger. SEPT 22 2009. Blogger, Web. 6 Nov 2009. .
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You. U.S.A.: Penguin Group, 2005. 64 - 65. Print.
"Poll Results." Inside Digital Media - Polls. Web. 7 Nov 2009. .
"Wii Fit Plus." Wii Fit. Web. 6 Nov 2009. .
