Digital Nations

This week the class has been split into groups that have been presenting on digital nations. Each group had an interesting topic and thoroughly explained what each one was about.

The first one I want to talk about is Reece and Chris’s presentation on how gaming can be militaristic. They explained how there is a gaming center where army recruiters lounge about and talk to teens that are interested in war games such as Call Of Duty, which is a first-person shooter game. They explained how games can actually help people learn strategy and sort of familiarize them selves with war like environments. They explained how technology already plays a very large role in war. They gave and example of remote controlled planes that are used instead of actual people. I really like this one because I myself am interested in games like these and agree on many of the points they presented.

Second I would like to talk about is Shelby and Justine’s presentation. They talked about how relationships were affected by technology and how it is changing. Many of the things they brought up were sort of sad, but true. The biggest thing was the problem of whether to censor the internet or not. The example they gave was the girl who found an internet page on anorexia. They pointed how that the information that the site gave could be very harmful, and should not be on the internet because of that. I completely agree that this site should be censored or removed, because the things it talked about were rather disturbing. It was sort of like a religion for anorexia, which is just sickening in my opinion. All in all I found it very interesting, and at some times disturbing, how technology is affecting the way of relationships in the world. I think they did a very good job in pointed out the main points also.

The third one I want to talk about is Willy, Cody and Kinsey’s presentation on Virtual Worlds. I found this one particularly interesting, because I think it is amazing what they talked about. One of the things they talked about is the second life program, which is where you create a digital version of yourself, an avatar, and interact with others who do the same just as you would in the real world. I think this is interesting, but it kind of concerns me that we will become disconnected from reality because we are too focused on something that is fake. The other thing that interested me was their talk about video games and how it affects people’s habits. They explained how violent games do not really influence people in the long run, although it might have short-term affects. They pointed how games can actually help us. I think this whole topic is very interesting, because I am very interested in technology. Overall they did a good job in presenting their points.