Blog Comments

Beatrice's Blog

Beatrice, I thought your video was fairly unique, you used the video itself to express your opinion, however I think the assignment was to show what your body is doing while participating in these actions, not to express opinions in the actual video. However you blog post was well written.

I like how you gave a very strong opinion on this subject, how you'd rather spend time with your friends than spend time on digital devices, I would have liked to see you explain that comment in detail and explain why. What's the appeal in being outside, how does that differ from digital devices? will digital devices ever simulate or copy this appeal? You made a good post but I'd like you to expand on your ideas and try to use the blog for opinions and the video for evidence. Keep up the good work

Jacob's Blog

Jacob, I liked how you compared the experience of making the video editing it and writing about it in the blog, I found that thought to be very insightful. I like how the digital world can let us do millions of different things in our minds in the same exact position, however the downside to that is we don't get exercise for our bodies.

This idea of retaining the same position and doing several different things is the beginning of the answer to the question "why is the internet so addictive" being able to do anything from your home is an amazing ability. The internet grants us power and people naturally want power. Great post, I hope to hear more interesting thoughts from you in the future.

HW 7: Digitalization interviews

I asked my brother what he thought about this questions, "Why is digital interactive reality (things like video games, facebook etc.) so addicting? what separates it from other forms of alternate reality (things such as movies, books etc.)? he said...

"we use it as an escape from our regular lives", to which I asked, "how is that different from the escape that non-digital media offers?" to which he replied...

"digital escape is more available, it's easier". He referenced a documentary called "Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love", which was about an online MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called "Second Life" where the player can assume a "second life" and interact with other players online. He said that in the documentary a woman flirted with another player behind her husbands back. He used this documentary to support his arguments, I'm assuming that the woman wanted release from her husband so she decided to flirt with another man, seemingly without any consequences. The first part of his argument was just regurgitated, he just answered, "we use it as an escape" which most people would say, when I clarified and extended my question he gave a more thoughtful answer. My question sounded conventional at first but after I clarified it to compare digital to non-digital alternate realities he could think outside of what he was told.

I then asked people on the street a similar question, "Why is the internet so addictive?" to which people responded...

"You can get instant gratification out of the internet, you can get whatever you want" and

"Because there's so much information you can find on it", these answers were somewhat regurgitated, admittedly I could have rephrased the question better, I tried to make the question sound simpler but people decided to replace the word "addicting" with "good". I acknowledge that I may have phrased my question to be more common, but I think people who simply "regurgitate" answers will misinterpret questions so they can give easier answers that they've heard, they prefer to answer the easier question so they only hear the easier question.

I then asked a friend of mine who I asked the original question to, since I had more time with this person I could explain the question and get a detailed answer, they said...

"because it's usually interactive, both with like, non player characters and in online communities with real people as well, so it's a very social kind of thing. not to mention the fact that computer graphics are three dimensional and pretty and can do things that you dont really see in movies (not counting animated movies) and books. also it's fun to control the action in the story rather than just watch it unfold"

This answer is well thought out in my opinion, my friend was able to answer an uncommon question with an uncommon answer. The question I'm asking can have several layers of depth, depending on how deep you go your answer will be more or less common. People who actually think about these comments will go much deeper than people who don't. A very deep answer will connect to the persons inner psychology and what makes a person subconsciously addicted to digital virtual reality, an uncommon answer would just list reasons why the person likes digital virtual reality. My friend was able to get to a mid-level of depth and address the interactive and visual aspect that makes people like digital virtual reality.

HW 6: Digitalization Video

In the video I'm mainly just snacking and looking at the screen, I'm actually watching TV which is to my right (your left), so I'm multi-tasking in this video. On my computer I'm reading over the course blog, to make sure I'm doing the video right, and I'm participating in an AIM conversation. My body however is relatively motionless, while I do move my hands every now and then to eat, I'm not thinking about moving, my mind is totally occupied on the TV and making this video.

I don't think this type of immersion is bad, as long as its not done excessively. I feel like we'll be immersed in this way anyways, daydreaming is a perfect example, the internet is just another version of this type immersion. The Wii in my opinion doesn't immerse people that way that other games do, first off you're moving and acknowledging your body, secondly, the Wii is a party system. Most people play Wii when they have friends or family over, this means you recognize your body and the people around you, you become immersed in the social atmosphere rather than the virtual reality. Other games will cause you to ignore your body and focus only on the game and maybe the friends or family you have next to you, however the Wii takes on the role of a board game, you focus on it for the competitive aspect of it, but you mostly pay attention to the other players.

Comments on Triad's Blogs

Beatrice's Comment

Your post made a lot of good points and was very entertaining and funny, I liked the way you were able to use evidence to prove your ideas in very strong ways. I agree with the way that people's conversations have become dumber and nobody really says anything online anymore. Making an observation is the first step to a good post, what's really interesting is the "why" part. Now that you know that online conversations don't convey anything anymore, ask why they don't and try to figure out what it is about IM-ing, texting etc. that causes that to happen. I enjoyed reading this post and it was very insightful, keep up the good work

Jacob's Comment

This is a great first post, I like how you were able to get your point across without over exaggerating the issue, as most people might have done with this topic, you took a very realistic stance with this topic which can be hard to do sometimes. The idea that we would prefer to have online interactions over real ones is a very compelling argument with a lot of evidence to back it up. I like the point you made about people becoming lazier since we have instant access to things, I've seen many examples of this in my own experience (myself included sometimes). To make this post better I'd recommend that you think of solutions to this problem. People like to find problems but spend very little time finding solutions, I think your post would be much more interesting if you could think of ways to get people to be less lazy and favor real interaction over virtual ones. All in all, great post, I could tell you spent time on this and really thought about the topic

Digital/Electronic Media: Initial Thoughts

I spend a lot of time playing video games and going on the internet, in most cases people seem to be less intelligent in these areas. Things like silly videos on youtube, and the conversations that happen in video games can back this up. Particularly in the case of video games, stupid arguments occur when someone's reputation is in jeopardy. In most games this has to do with the amount of kills someone has, their personal achievements etc. This leads me to believe that the online community is purely based on what you want to be seen as and how well you fit that persona. These personas happen mainly in highly competitive games likes FPS games (first person shooter) and fighting games, where the player tries to emulate the character in their mind, most gamers have the "I'm the best" attitude.

Because these interactions happen online most people will just curse each other out because there are no consequences, since those people won't meet in real life there's no chance of physical conflict. This alternate persona leads to people becoming more aggressive and arrogant to protect their identity as a great player. In this respect, online gaming can be bad for people. However online gaming encourages people to "cheat" the game, and find new ways to get past real challenges. When gamers breeze through the single player game they start to play online to challenge themselves, playing with real people forces them to think tactically (or copy the techniques of someone who does) and find creative solutions around problems. In this way online gaming can be both hazardous to one's ego but beneficial to one's mind.

While this may be comparable to sports in terms of the attitude and mind set involved, there are two key differences.  The first difference is that online activity is much more competitive.  Scores and records are posted online, players also don't have to see or physically interact with their opponents so there aren't any consequences, this increases the effect that video games have on a player's ego because they're competitive on a wider scale.  The second difference is that games aren't as realistic as sports, a video game can be manipulated in different ways, the system can be challenged in more ways than a sport can.  Video games also rely on codes that can be manipulated and "cheated" which can push players to think more tactically to manipulate these "glitches" in codes or just hack the game entirely.