Digitalization Final FINAL REAL FINAL...

Intro...
In our present generation digitization is a big part of our daily lives as teenagers as well as adults. Digital technology has been used so excessively that it is no longer just a part of our lives, just a digital device but a lifestyle. It surrounds a lot of our lifestyles and the way we live, interact, spend our time, etc. Technology never leaves our side, I know for myself it never leaves my side as I always have my cell phone with me, others may always have their ipods with them, laptops, whatever is portable. Many people have come to think that digitization is like something that releases endorphins, relaxes us, bring us happiness but looking beyond the screens of our televisions sets and computers and looking at the bigger picture I realized that our use of technology for happiness is false and the affects of this can be extremely harmful to our society as well as ourselves. Digitization is the cause of our ignorance and makes us oblivious to what is really going on such as brainwash, destruction of the environment, our health, our emotions. Addiction to digitization is leading us deeper into the direction of ignorance and a lot of this can be caused by our need to conform to society.

Addiction/Socializing
It has been made pretty clear that we are addicted to technology; many of us do not know the extent that we are addicted. Before this digitization unit I knew I was addicted to digitization, but didn't know to what extent or what kind of negative affects it was having on myself and others. Thus causing myself not to care. From what I know all teenagers are as addicted as I am. I cannot say that I am only addicted to one digital device because if I use all the technological devices at least once a day I am addicted to digitization. I do know for a fact that I become more zoned out on certain digital devices then others, the cause of this can be our lack or realization of ourselves and other people. For example is the television. As a young child I was not able to watch an excessive amount of television as true "American" children. It was not until a later age in my childhood I started to discover the fake pleasure of watching television. From reading other people's blogs it was noticed that although we are all addicted to digitization, everyone is addicted to different device a certain amount more. For example I spent way more time being distracted by the television then Yazmin P is since all her attention goes to her cell phone. Both of which effects our ability to socialize with people in person. She made it clear in her blog that she spends a lot of time out of her day being distracted by her texting. In her video she ignores a lot of what her mother is telling her because she is so distracted which has to be a big part of families falling apart. Even though we are different in which ever technology we are sucked into more with both experiences we have the same effect. One of which is disembodiment (when you are not in sink or realize what you think your body is really doing). Being distracted from reality and spending so much time on digitization takes away from our ability to want to interact and improve charisma or social skill. It distracts us from certain daily routines. This could be a really good reason why I am so socially awkward and I have trouble holding a good conversation with someone I am not super comfortable with.

Another example is my brother, although a smart and funny guy he never expresses this fact as he is so addicted to his digital pleasure of his computer/ video games (Warcrafts). He would literally spend his WHOLE day sitting in front of the computer and would not get up from staring at the screen unless it was to use the bathroom or to get something to eat. This made the rest of my family and I never really get to know his inner emotions or what kind of personality he really has. I never was able to have a brother/sister sibling relationship as his relationship with his computer was more pleasurable it seems. If only he would realize and step away from what was causing his loved ones to miss him he could have been able to notice the people around him and his environment as well. These are examples of how little parts of our society fall apart; it starts with one person crumbling family social interactions. If only we would work on making friends instead of being friends with our digital device we can realize one real happiness of life which is the love of friends and families. And yet people are so dependent on technology that we are unable to stay even a few hours without digital stimulation. Even a littlest time without digital stimulation it then causes most people to become anxious, uncomfortable, feeling naked as if there was some article of clothing they are missing from our bodies. A good way to think of this is with people's cell phones. Most teenagers and even adults in our generation would not leave the house without their cell phones.

(Nomophobia- fear of being without cell phones *please wait for the commercial crap to finish*)


Brainwash/Marketing
Digitalization does not only take away from our social skills but are all just brainwashing devices. I watch a lot of television, and when thinking of television it is filled with a bunch of commercials every minute. It makes it seem as if television devices are just away for companies to brainwash their products to you through your sense of vision. According to the article by Sarah Johnson, Average Person Watches 43 Ads each day it states that "According to Thinkbox, this means 2.45 billion ads are watched daily with a single person watching 43 ads each day." That is even WAY more then the population of people in the United States which is around 308 million. With all these different marketing made by digital media is raises questions about thing like privacy and how we do not realize how we can be effecting our health and rather spend it wasting our day being brainwashed by advertisements. We do not really notice how much advertisements we see, as if since it is there it is now a part of our daily lives along with digitization. Even when we are checking our emails which are supposedly private locked by a password, when sending emails, there are advertisements that pop up from highlighting certain words on an email. This makes me wonder how private our internet and cell phones really are.

A great example that mirrors this is the book Feed by MT Anderson. Feed is about a teenager boy living in the future, although this book may seem to be about the technology of the future it is actually a allegory of the present. In Feed everyone has microscopic digital chips implanted into their brains, these chips basically act as every kind of digital device we have in our present day such as cell phone, aim, shopping online, television, etc. The main character Titus dates a girl name Violet who does not come one with her Feed (digital chip) till she was in a later age, thus causing her downfall for her need to fit in with her friends and their addiction to their feeds. In the book Violet goes shopping with Titus and realized how the Feed is programmed to market anything that seems of interest in your mind. This is like a mirror of our experiences with digital marketing through our internet and televisions as well. Every minute and every second there heads are poured with a bunch of advertisements for mostly useless items; this is like a mirror of a small part of the negative experiences we have with digitization.




Conformity
Along with marketing brainwash strategies, digital technology, especially digital media affects the way many teenagers emotions towards self image. Most teenagers have the need to conform to whatever digital media shows that is the new “in” style, trend, items, etc. And most of the times of which teenagers want to conform they do not really know in detail why they are conforming or even what exactly is the point or the facts of their conformity. This can be seen from any teenager in our society. Just look around and there is always someone conforming to society’s norms one way or another. For example is the updating of digital devices. Every time a new trendy cell phone is invented with different all types of different abilities most teenagers and even adults feel the need to buy the new trendy cell phone or ipod devices. Even if their later dated digital devices are still working perfectly well. What reason is there to keep getting new fancy digital devices when their later version of the digital device (even when it is not super old and is just one year old) is perfectly still able to work? This is most likely because of a person’s need to fit into a popular image with friends and society by conforming with new trends.

As well the need to conform to the newest digital devices, visual image seems to be a significant part of many people’s live as well. This mainly is effected by digital media like the television. Women are portrayed as skinny, tall, the typical “American beauty” girl. Men are portrayed as tall, strong, masculine, and fit. This causing ignorance and superficiality among society. What people wear is a significant affect of digitization as well; most people constantly change their hair styles according to what is updated as trendy from what we see on television and on the internet. We constantly change what we wear as well, one day people are wearing high top sneakers and the next day people are wearing boots with heels, this is caused from trends set from our addiction of digital devices. The fact that people are able to keep updated on the changing trends. Most of which people do not really realize the reason they are wearing these trends or where these clothes are even made from. This is portrayed in another perspective in the book Feed by MT Anderson. A group of kids are informed by their feeds (digital devices equivalent to our digital devices) that riot gear is the new trend. Thus causing all of the main character’s friends to dress up in ripped up clothing which is their portrayal of riot gear. What makes them ignorant is the fact that they do not quite know what riots even are. They have a need to conform so quickly into what is the new trend even if they do not even know the reasons or how ridiculous their image is.



Health/Environment
Digitalization also effects our health and our environment. It affects our health, from my own experiences, the addiction distracts my ability to be one with nature or have a healthy exercise pattern. I do not spend as much time outside as I do inside watching television Instead of going outside and having some fresh air (well not super fresh because of the pollution but its better than staying in the stuffy in doors) sometimes I feel more obligated to play video games or watch my favorite movie/show. I do not go out and exercise, I do not take walks and since technology distracts us from hanging out with friends it takes away being able to hang out and play games or take walks with friends. With the food unit helping the way I eat, it will not do anything without some form of exercise. Thus causing people sometimes to be overweight or unhealthy. Like in the movie Walle (one of my favorites) where all the human beings live on a ship, they do not need to walk, or even make food for themselves, they live in a digitized society on a space ship causing them to be morbid obesity and even unable to even walk. Also besides from computers and television we have other types of technology like cell phones that cause radiation and cars and such that cause pollution which effects the environment we live in. "When a city builds more roads to attract tourists, the result is more traffic, not less. Even things we take for granted such as the automobile have negative effect on us. Because the automobiles cause pollution and that can surely harm us slowly." (Negative Effects Of Modern Day Technology) A mirror of this is another example from the book Feed, in the book Violet speaks with the main characters father about taking a walk in one of the only parks in their society. Upon this conversation it is found out that the park and trees were cut down to build a air factory. This is ironic since trees are one of the main sources for air. We sure have many aspects of digitization that is quite similar to the effects it has on our health, society, and environment.

Alternative/Good of Digitalization?
Although most of us babble about how technology is bad for us, there are those who do not admit that they actually enjoy it. Some just go along with the rant of "television is bad for our brains!" I know I in some cases do the same which would make me a hypocrite since I watch so much television. Some of which such as Johnson who wrote the text Everything Bad is Good For You refers to the "good" and the increase of intelligence rather than the deteriorating of digitization. He states how digital stimulation is actually good for a person's mind. It helps us learn how to notice patterns and helps our problem/puzzle solving skills. As i realize and analyze this concept a little more, bringing back my idea of my brother, he was an extremely great thinking and was really smart. I try to follow in his footsteps but obviously can never match up to his level of thinking but it is good enough for my own perspective. As good thinkers and problem solvers it would be a good point of Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You that our good thinking and patterns solving skills is the cause of our "intelligence" but for myself personally I like video games but I do not obsess over it as much. I do not play every day but when I do plan on playing video games I am pretty damn good. So it could be that Johnson's has got it all backwards, those who are good at pattern solving and thinking are good at video games, and since they are good at video games they become addicted. It makes me think that my brother’s extreme intelligence helps his ability to play video games thus giving him the confidence which caused him to be so addicted to his digital lifestyle. Although Johnson's text makes some really good points, with my own thoughts and experiences I must disagree with the whole idea of how our intelligence grows from digital stimulation.

Simple Conclusion
From all the insights on our addiction to our digital lifestyles and why we are so addicted, the unraveling of the ignorance and obliviousness of our society slowing is revealed. Many people do not realize the destruction of their addictions even if they are showing a mirror such as a book like Feed or even videotaping ourselves in the process of our addictions. Sometimes seeing a reflection of our digitization problem can have some sort of affect but not enough to completely change our patterns of use with digitization. Many people would continue to keep up or even fall deeper into the hole of ignorance and stupidity if we do not realize to heal our addictive uses to digital devices.

Sources
-Personal Experiences
-http://www.articlesbase.com/science-articles/negative-effects-of-modern-day-technology-1106666.html
-Feed/MT Anderson
-Everything Bad is Good For You/Johnson
-Yazmin P's blog
-Sarah Johnson- http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/924735/Average-person-watches-43-ads-day/
-Disney/Walle
-Ideas taken from class: Conformity discussions, addiction discussions, intelligence discussions, etc.
-CBS Evening News-Nomophobia- http://www.sling.com/video/show/56850/88/Why-Mo-Rocca-Is-A-Nomophobe
-Brainwash Picture-http://cartoonstock.com/
-"Fit In Soon"Pic- http://cartoonstock.com/