Final draft Big paper

THE INCONVENIENT ARGUMENT

Introduction: Going digital is on everybody’s minds. It affects everyone, and change is happening faster and faster. Many viewers question if this new age is hurting underdeveloped youth. For example myself, always had a computer, and when a new one came out the old one would be replaced. If the world had ended survival for most youth and teen would be impossible because the time that youth spend awake they watch fake shows on TV, spend hours on the Internet on social networks, and on their mobile devices. Interviews that I had recorded from people on the street said that they spent up to twelve hours on the Internet, watching TV, or on the cell phone. The average person sleeps about six hours; subtract six and twelve from a day, leaves six hours of regular life.4 The new digital age should not be frowned upon. The advancement is crazy. The sizes of these new devices are amazing. It has opened a whole new field of studies, and has made a demand for employment. What is not to love about it? One of the best aspects of it is that it is convenient, information on the spot. The digital advancement is actually doing more damage than improvement. It is keeping people from being natural.

Argument 1: Of recent to access new information people go on the Internet to find out the latest information about people and how to look. Many things are going on in this portion of people’s lives. One of the first things that once people are on the Internet they seem not to be connected with real life. A video project that was about recording ourselves use the technology that we use often and the videos a subtle and disturbing. A majority of the videos that were made for the class with or without music no one was speaking, and no one looked at anything else. Our minds become trapped on the computer and we neglect the outside world. The book “feed” by MJ Anderson is an allegory that purely represents the current lifestyles of Americans. Unfortunately the book is also a tragedy. All the characters are connected to the feed that is connected to everything else in the world, and every person who has it installed in their head. The feed constantly sends each person new information and once style changes the feed can update their entire image.5 Throughout the book the characters only have one “real” experience, where there feed is hacked and shutdown. In this experience they actually notice what is going on, there are no plants, everything that should be natural is fake. The characters explain that they thought that it was “boring,” it is something that they have not experienced for while and it is sad they are unable to handle natural life. The Feed prevents them from being natural and the result is a loss of everything that is real.

Argument 2: Convenience is the key idea of new technology; maybe it has become too convenient. It is nice to be able to calculate problems on your cell phone that and average person would not be able to solve. What is the result of constant use of this though? In class we viewed the movie WALL-E. It takes place further in time, and the opening scene it is earth and it is covered in trash and there is not a single green patch of plants. Humans left the planet to trash compacting robots, where there is only one left. Further in the movie WALL-E is on a space Cruise ship were he runs into the first people. Everyone is fat and they have a small screen in front of them. They are carried around in robotic chair. In one of the scenes two people are having a conversation were they are sitting right next to each other although they remain in their seats and talk to the screen that connects them.3 It is very similar to “feed” although this is not an allegory it is a prediction of what to come for people. When humans first appeared on the planet life was in manual. If they had a conversation they would walk over to each other. In the movie people communicate via chair phone, even so cell phones are very unnatural too, we are replacing people with plastic pieces and isolating ourselves, sick but too true.

Argument 3: In the beginning of the digital unit, the first assignment that required students to think about the digital age I felt was a very significant to our whole unit. It was when everyone’s minds were fresh on the idea. Chloe’s post included an image of a kid who I would assumed was assigned to mop and his quote says, “ Where’s the ‘on’ button to this thing” 2This may be slightly stretched but youth have been impacted heavily by the digital army. Are people becoming “dumb?” Manual labor the work of the strong-minded is coming to a screeching halt. People are starting to refuse to do simple tasks. Some cannot read analog clocks, not saying that they are a natural occurrence. It came much prior to the digital era and was a major step in evolution and it has become forgotten. Just the use of digital items is unnatural because it only took a few minds to figure out an ultimate convenience device.

Connections: I let technology clean up my messes, spelling and grammar check does the work. Andy Snyder had once said that even though we know we do change; not word for word; the point is made. I know myself and as much as I would like to break free from my lifestyle I cannot. It is very difficult when something is trying to help you and you say know. I cannot stop using my cellular phone. If I need to speak with my mother I am not going to go to her office where she may or may not be. It is a situation where you know that this is an unhealthy life but you have to do what you have to do to survive.1

Opposing Views: Maybe this whole digital thing is natural? People keep evolving, and some say that this is what is next. It could be a total possibility because we will never stop learning. The book Learning in the Digital Age by John Seely Brown had written down that young people are continuing human evolution via growing up with all this technology. It is an entirely new way of thinking about it because there was the light bulb, the camera; this might be where people should be at with technology as of now. An assignment was made where we had to interview people on the street, and ask about their digital use. Indirectly people said that it was natural. Much of mainstream propaganda displays this whole up rise of technology as “unhealthy.” People have thought otherwise because on the interview people said that they would not be able to live without technology.

Conclusion: Digital life is unnatural, if people were running around in the buff while talking on the cell phone maybe not. What work is left for the next generation, technology has been able to do work for the unintelligent. It creates a barrier blocking everyone from reality, and we can’t escape it. I wish it were more difficult to explain, the explanation is just simple. Looking from both sides of the story you can say that they both have point, but a good medicine should not come with side effects. The side effects are unsafe, to have a product that will damage you for slight convenience should not even be considered.
Sources
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest
2.http://dudeitscloe29.blogspot.com/
3.WALL-E
4. Personal experience
5. FEED