Digital Nation Presentations

The past week we have been watching our peers present their tabs from Digital Nation. Everyone had great information to share, and it was very interesting.

First, I would like to talk about Brant and Keith's tab, Living Faster. They provided some interesting facts and points on the way technology and information is affecting the human body. They said that 60% of the brain prunes off when someone grows up, meaning that the brain is most affected during the teen years of adolescence. This is important because it is mostly teens who use technology and the internet and social media. So therefore, they are most affected by it. There was also the discussion of how multitasking could be the opposite of focus, but some people seem to think multitasking is just focusing on many things at once. These are both true, however, while multitasking, the focus is split up into smaller and smaller portions to keep track of each thing being done. That's what I believe. Brant and Keith had a good presentation of interesting facts about their tab, and it sparked good discussions that people might still have questions about.

Second, Justine presented her and Shelby's tab, Relationships. The information and videos that Justine shared with us were interesting, disturbing, and definitely discussion-worthy. She gave us many ideas and opinions about what she saw on her tab, including the question of "Should the internet be censored?" She had one point that actually applied to me, about how people emphasize what is bad with online dating, but about 60-80 years ago people all over the country used to fantasize about their favorite popular celebrity, and what would be the difference between now and then? Having strong feelings for someone whom you've never met isn't new, but some people treat it like it's foreign. Justine also showed us the video about the girl with anorexia. The girl found a website that was about people who love that they are anorexic and they actually refer to anorexia as Ana, the goddess. I felt that this was very disturbing and this is what sparked the discussion of should the internet be censored.

Last of all, the tab Virtual Worlds was presented by Willie, Cody, and Kinsey. They had a bunch of good stuff too. Kinsey mentioned that there is a website called Second Life, where anyone can go and create their own avatar of themselves, and live in a virtual world with jobs, money, relationships, and life problems. There was also a program that takes the digital image of you, and creates a virtual image of it in 3D. Much more technology has been created that can make things more realistic digitally. It's crazy to think where we will be in 10 years from now. There are already virtual programs that they are doing to trigger memory, or for therapy. Cody and Willie also talked about video games, and how they are either good or bad. An expert said that violent video games don't make people violent over the long-run, but maybe shortly after playing the violent game they are hyped-up and violent, but not for good. Violent video games don't make people more violent. They said that video games can be helpful, and can teach many things. Overall, they had a great presentation with a bunch of interesting info.