I’m going to vent a little here. I don’t get Lasn. He is looking through a filter that is so thick it is insane. Frist about 70% of the US economy is made up of small family owned companies. They employ majority of the American work force and contributes back to their local community supporting schools and youth sports programs. Then he goes on and talking about how the internet is bad for us. But yet when he couldn’t get the air time he wanted form the big new networks in Canada, he could have turned to the internet to inform the public about the whole deforestation that the one paper company was doing. He just jumps to the conclusion that everything about who we are and what we use are bad for us. He is writing one sided and not looking at any of the good aspects of the internet and technology. In Second Skin, Dan came to the realization that the game was fake and just something stupid that he let fill his mind. Yes computer games take you away from you current crappy life and it is understandable for one to think, if I could only do this I would be happy forever, because they are living in a fantasy. It is no different than when you go to a sporting game or to the theater to watch a play. You let yourself go; it just happens that the games and plays end because there are humans in them that need to eat and sleep just like us. If you could have a play with 8 Million people in it from all over the world and it could never stop, would you want to leave that world? If anything its more about how much time the people spend in these fake worlds that we should worry about. That is what makes their fantasy world their real world. I don’t want to sound ignorant but people do decide to kill themselves over a lot of different things. It could be a dramatic loss of a love one, their significant other braking up with them, the voice in their head, or these games. It happens and it has happen before the modern economic system was evented by the Romans and the introduction of technology. After our last class most of us if not all of us where laughing because this gamer life that Second Skin and Culture Jam try to portray on us is a little out there to me. Here at SHIP there is a gamers club, I don’t think they represent even one present of the campus community. I’m just waiting for Lasn to say games like pokemon, uno, sudoku, etc. are hindering us from our max social potential between humans. We are social. Its human nature to be, that’s why facebook is so popular and they have chat windows in games. We are connecting with people who have the same interest as we do, so why does it matter how we go about it? There will always be this trade off effect in this world. So the true question is, do the social networks and technology benefit or hurt the majority? I say it benefits us.
I think that Lasn is just bashing the US for no good reason. He does make some valid points but they make him seem like a hypocrite. He says how he hates advertising but his book is all an advertisement for his opinions. Therefore I do not get Lasn either.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the depth of his opinion. Seriously he is taking it to an extra negative level that is insane... Personally i find it annoying because there is no good in his comments. There are def. benifits because with out facebook I would not be able to stay in contact with some people i never get to see!
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you Aaron that Lasn does not share any good aspects about the internet or technology in this one sided book. Internet and Technology has made everyday activities easier and quicker. The internet is great because basically any question you may want to know all u have to do is type it in a search engine and a second later you fine many results to your answer from trusted sites. Say your front headlight blows out and you don't want to have to pay the high maintenance cost from an auto body shop. All you have to do is type in how to replace a headlight bulb for the model car in a search engine and it will give you in depth directions and tools you need to do such a thing.
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