Are We Digital Dummies?-Journal Entry #7

On April 7th, we watched a CBC Doc Zone documentary titled "Are We Digital Dummies?", and we find out that yes, yes we are.

Smart phones are in fact making us a dumb and distracted nation. They are smart for us, so really, why do we have to be? We can just Google an answer to our problem and hold conversations via text where auto correct does most of the work for us. People desensitize, and forget when it's rude to be on their phones. People listening to music are more aware of their surroundings than those using their cellphones, and the people using their cellphones believe that they are aware, and that illusion is dangerous. How do you think some car accidents happen? We perceive the need that we must always be online, and that are brains are perfectly capable of multitasking, but the reality is, they're not.

15 year old Alexa was texting and walking, and although it sounds quite cartoon like, she fell into an open man hole. She blamed the city for leaving it open, but it was her! If she had of been aware of her surroundings instead of texting her friend about something not important, she would have seen the gaping hole in the side walk and walked around it like a normal person who would like to remain clean and dry.

We are not capable of multitasking, what we really are doing is switch tasking at a fast pace. "Multitasking" can cause errors and stress, and it's destroying our ability to focus. The internet can be as dangerous and as addicting as some of the worst drugs out there, and nobody takes you seriously when you approach them with this problem. It's rewiring our brains, and we are becoming less interesting as individuals. Less creative, not skilled at reading or being comfortable holding a conversation. We are not able to look at the end of the day at we have done, because have we done anything productive in the first place? The use of digital technology is an amazing thing that we have easy and excessive access to, but it's tampering with the way we think, and maybe not for the better.

"A hammer is good when you build a house with it, but bad if you hit someone over the head. (It's the) Same with technology. We have to unplug sometimes, and we realize that our lives get better when we let our minds unwind and make time for play."