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Essential Question: How has digital obsession affected our society?

Revised Thesis: The permeation of digital devices has massively affected the way
we live in a negative way.

We wake up in the morning get our daily coffee and catch the next train which will drop us by our destination. After getting there we realize that we left our most prized possession at home; our cell phone/laptop/I pod or any other electronic device. This is why the whole day becomes a “bad day” simply because this one item is missing from our life. But have we ever given any time to think about how these digital/electronic devices affect us and the way we live. They are creating us into robots; we rely on technology more than we rely on our family. Has this world gone mad? These materials have made us into completely different creatures; they have made our society different. They have made this whole planet different. Think about it, we didn’t use technology the way we do now ten years ago, so what happened? No answer, huh? The drastic permeation of digital devices has massively affected the way we live in a very negative way.

Technology is used without any limit which impacts us in a negative manner; this is because we simply rely on it too much since society causes us to do so. M.T. Anderson seems to think about this digital/electronic craze and how it has affected our society. He decided to write a book titled Feed to share his thoughts with others. After reading the book, it helps us get back on track and realize what is going on in front of us. We are living this life that is controlling us; we cannot live without our electronic equipment. Majority of the characters in Feed have a Feed hooked up to their brain. This is the most important part of their body; when something goes wrong with their Feed then they are in danger. One character named Violet gets to be the victim of this problem. She has a hacker that keeps messing with her Feed. This malfunctions with everything in her body, later on this leads to many problems. Her relationship with her boyfriend gets very messy. Her days are numbered, suddenly she is controlled by her electronic equipment (her Feed) and it controls many aspects of her life .When Violet is completely malfunctioned her ex boyfriend gives her a visit after lying to her about receiving her messages since he did not want to be in a relationship with her any longer. This is because her feed malfunction; it completely messed up their relationship together: “And for the first time, I started crying. I cried, sitting by her bed, and I told her the story of us. “It’s about the feed.” I said (297). Since Violet had a hacker hack into her Feed her life was ruined. She had nothing left; she had someone else that was controlling her life. This is exactly how we are living in this world; we are controlled by the digital devices that surround us. Without them we cannot seem to live. We seem to massively depend on these devices and cannot leave them behind. When we find ourselves without them we are in trouble. Even if we try to detach ourselves from the usage of such materials we are forced to use them by our society. Without the usage of these materials, it seems like our futures will be in jeopardy. This is true, because of this whole craze with digital/electronic media; everything seems to rely on the usage of these devices. If we do not have any contact with them then we will be putting ourselves in danger. For example, computers are the most common things out there. Everyone has to own a computer; in fact if you do not own a computer then you would be considered an outcast. Suddenly, applications are being filled out online, homework is being typed and students are goggling certain things for their research projects. For example many students that are applying to colleges fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In a website that answers questions about this form they give students the choice of filling it out by hand or online. “You have two choices when you fill out your Free Application for Federal Student Aid: online with FAFSA on the Web, or the old-fashioned way— on paper. FAFSA recommends that you save a tree and fill out the FAFSA online.” (http://www.universitylanguage.com/guides/fill-out-fafsa-online-or-on-paper/) They recommend that students fill out the application online, later on they state that applying online has the benefits of access to help, automatically checks errors, faster student aid report, more spaces to fit in college choices and more. When filling out applications and surveys online everything seems to run easily and smoothly. The society makes it even easier by adding all these benefits. They make it seem as if filling out the application by hand is an “old fashion” way of doing so. If a student were to fill out a FAFSA application they will be encouraged to do it online using their computer. This is never ending; even if we try to keep our distance from these devices our society doesn’t let us do so. We seem to be spending more time using these products rather than getting a full night of sleep. M.T. Anderson has predicted our future and so far it seems like he is right with how the way things will end up later on. Technology is taking over us and creating us into completely different creatures.

Not only do we use digital devices without limits, they can cause much harm to our health both mentally and physically. Digital/electronic media usage has really boosted up within a decade. When thinking about it, our society was very different a decade ago when being compared to the way it is right now. Society has molded us into these creatures that seem to be very different to what we are supposed to be like. These devices are just bought without having any research done. We see an ad and if it catches our eye then it’s ours no matter what happens. After bought, these devices are showed off to others to make them know that we are up to date with this digital/electronic craze. This makes the people you showed it off go out and purchase these devices and this chain keeps going on and on and on, until the product gets “old”. Nobody really knows how these devices have harmed us, mentally and physically. Spending some time doing research on these devices and how they harm us can really change ones decision when they are about to purchase this certain product. Cell phone radiation is a big concern and there are many health concerns associated with it. As of August 2005 there have been 2 billion cell phone users worldwide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health) , yet they seem to ignore this fact. This concern has raised the number of researches being done about the possibility of having health problem connected with cell phone usage. Some researches show that there are no risk factors present, but other researches show that they may cause tumors in certain nerves. One research claims when using a cell phone, radio waves are absorbed by the human head. These lead to harmful effects with memory, sleep, the brain, and many more. After reading such an article one may be very surprised because none of these risks are shown in ads or as warnings in packages when purchased. If cell phone usage stays the same way it is right now, in a couple of decades many users will have to suffer with health conditions caused by cell phone usage, they will regret it all. Looking at the way things are now, the usage of cell phones seem to be expanding more then ever. Another big health concern regards the usage of video games and how they affect gamers. There are many video gamers out there that are completely addicted to their favorite games. They want to reach the hardest level of the game and tell everyone else how they are the best at it. What they don’t realize is how all this gaming has been affecting them in a negative way. One study finds that males seem to be affected physically while females are affected mentally: “Female video-game players reported greater depression and lower health status than female nonplayers. Male video-game players reported higher BMI and more Internet use time than male nonplayers.” (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818083224.htm) Obesity is very common for video gamers since we can see that they become lazy since they are sitting around and playing their game for hours. It’s not very common to hear that video games led to depression. After looking at this research there may be many reasons for why these females playing video games are depressed. When we think about it there may be many reasons, for example female characters in games may seem to be “attractive” and females playing the game may want to look like them. Another example is all the violence and nudity in games, these may not be appropriate for all players yet they do not care. These graphics may not be suitable for any player and it may cause them to be depressed. It all depends on the players past experiences, these graphics may bring back experiences in the past that they may not want to remember. All these digital devices affect the society in a negative way, from the “outside” they may look very appealing and something that will be depended on, but digging deeper we find that they do are not much good for us.

When using digital/electronic devices, we are in a state of disembodiment. Wall-E is an animated movie which is about a robot that is abandoned in our planet full of trash and litter. This movie attracts many young viewers because it looks “cute” and kid friendly, but there is much more behind it. When looking at every aspect of the movie, it shows us how our world will look like in the near future if things stay the same way they are right now. Our planet will be a useless pile of dump, and every living human will be aboard a spaceship which will include every digital/electronic equipment built. We will all be obese and sit in a power chair that will take us every where automatically. We will have no sense of where we stand; instead we will be chatting away with others on the screens provided in front of us. In the movie, Wall-E disturbs a lady named Mary who is chatting to a monitor while sitting on her power chair. At first she doesn’t seem to nudge at all; she is too busy talking to this screen. Some how Wall-E makes the screen in front of her disappear. This is when the lady realizes that he is trying to talk to her. She then realizes where she is at and all the amenities that surround her. “I didn’t know we had a pool” Mary states. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/quotes) Even though this scene is ten seconds long, it really shows how disembodied she is. She has no sense of where she is, the digital/electronic materials surrounding her are enough to keep her alive. This connects to how we are living in our world. We are always watching television, texting away on our cell phones and type away on our computers. We are always in a state of disembodiment and never even realize it. Another example from this movie is when Wall-E enters the space ship and seems to be amazed when he sees all the digital and electronic media surrounding him. He is very confused at first, but later on it excites him. Since he doesn’t have a power chair like all the others do, he is on his own feet. He is very different compared to the others since everyone there is being transported by the power chairs. While he is walking around he bumps into a guy that is sitting on his power chair. He falls off the chair and cant get up; when Wall-E helps him he states his name and the man is very confused and seems to be out of it at the time. He has a very confused face on and mutters his name: “Uh hmmm, my name is John” (Wall-E). This is exactly what happens day to day in our society. We will be walking by and when we bump into someone that is typing away on their black berry they are very confused and do not know how to respond. They are completely in a state of disembodiment. They do not know what’s going on around them. They just know what is going on in the screen in front of them. We ignore each other because we are too busy with these devices which we depend on way too much. We have no control on ourselves, we seemed to be controlled by them. This is not good for us because we are becoming too dependent on them and we cannot detach ourselves from what is going on. We cannot sense our surroundings, yet we seem to only look at what is in front of us. We are lost in another world but seem to appear to other people even if we are not mentally there at all.

The permeation of digital devices has massively affected the way we live in a negative way. We rely on technology without any limits, technology causes us mental and physical harm, it also causes us to be in a state of disembodiment. Reviewing all these points, this argument can be proven correct. When asking others how has digital obsession affected our society? What will their response be? Many say that it has been affecting us in a negative way. Others say that it has done us a lot of good. Then there are those that have no idea where they stand. All sides have good arguments, but what is the right answer to this question. The only way to find out is if we stick around long enough to see for our selves.

Works Cited:
Feed by M.T. Anderson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health
Wall-E directed by Andrew Stanton
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/quotes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090818083224.htm
http://www.universitylanguage.com/guides/fill-out-fafsa-online-or-on-paper/

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