Internet Safety Video

Frontline Documentary http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/
I watched part of the PBS Frontline Documentary. It shows how teens are addicted to technology.

Although we have tools to reach so many people, this multi-tasking through technology is dumbing down the world. One girl remarked, “Well over half my life is spent in the virtual world.” Sad! Living your life in a world that you can’t touch.

Part of this video showed a study that was done with MIT students who are constantly texting or emailing. In class students don’t have to listen because they have laptops. Students reported that they were fully capable of multi-tasking during a lecture, however the study suggests otherwise.

Six multi-tasking students were chosen for the study. They thought they were brilliant at multi-tasking. However, the study shows that they get distracted. The researchers worry that technology is making people unable to think clearly, and inhibiting the purpose of technology: to help us be our most creative selves.

One neuroscientist has studied what technology does to our brains. The front decision making part is increasing. Some think that this shows that technology is making us smarter. However, bigger is not better. Like cigarettes which took a long time to discover that smoking is bad for our health, we may be slow to discover that using technology a lot is bad for our brains.

Technology is addictive. Asia is tackling the teen gaming addiction. In Cyber cafes some kids have died playing games without food or water for over 50 hrs. Many teens are addicted to gaming.

So the Korean government is offering internet recovery camps for 2 weeks. They have counseling sessions and activities to help teens gain the childhood that they lost. Most of the kids there have had to have medical treatments for effects overuse on the net, like eye or hear strain.

Even Doug Rushkoff who pushed the use of technology in the 90’s and wrote the book “Cyberia”, is now questioning the addictive nature of technology.

I have seen some of my brothers really get into gaming. One of my brother’s friends turned his garage into a place to have networking parties. I think that parents need to be aware of the harmful effects of overuse of the internet on their children, and limit its use.

As a teacher I have to be more enthusiastic and present things in interesting visual ways, because teens think differently. They need fast attention grabbers. This means I have to plan more and be a more effective teacher.