Most people would see this behavior as a way of "filling" the time i used to occupy with digital entertainment, which is technically true. But I didn't feel all that bored during my experiment, I just knew I had extra time and should clean out my desk. This behavior isn't specific to the exclusion of digital entertainment though, if I excluded a non-digital activity from my day and had time where I wasn't doing anything I'd do something that was productive but not necessarily mandatory.
I learned that, at least for me personally, the digital world isn't that addictive. If you have a non-digital activity to pursue instead. However people get too attached to TV and face book and their video games that they forget what to do when its gone. If there's anything I've learned from this experiment it's that you should never be too dependent on anything, computers can crash and internet can go out, but non-digital activities are much more reliable. While digital entertainment is fun, people shouldn't depend on it, entertainment should be a mix of physical and digital stimulation (for the majority of us that enjoy digital entertainment)
Marco,
ReplyDeleteI think that from looking at your posts for assignments 10-14, I really have the feeling that your are on track to put together a really coherent and interesting essay. From all of the posts, I liked the uniqueness of one of your points in this specific post.
You talk briefly about how digital activity can be attributed to accessibility in that the choice between physical activity and digital activity is a no- brainer. I agree with this, physical activity especially in my life is always the priority over any digital interaction, because I just like being out and "actually" doing something.
Their seemed to be a common unifying theme in your post that incorporates the idea of the actual choice which people make, and the choice which fictional characters (such as those in "Feed" make). The idea that we realistically can chose how long and at what times we tap into the digital world, is drastically different from the all-day, every-day kind of exposure that the kids in Feed were subjected to.
If you use that fiction vs. non-fiction lens to write your essay, I feel like you will end up with a really interesting essay that is quite different than the others that are going to be written for our final project.
I wanted to focus on this concept in your posts specifically because I tried to convey a similar thing on my blog. I found that I couldn't really articulate this, and you did, which is to your credit as it was a really good (and interesting) point.
Good job Marco, I like what you have been doing on your blog, and I hope to read your undoubtedly unique essay once we have completed our digital unit. Your work always gives me new ideas and makes me think deeper, keep it up!
Jake F.