I just finished watching the most amazing show on Frontline that really blew my socks off. It's a tour de force examination of the reality of our digital lives. It's 1 hour and 26 minutes long. The first 1 hour or so was mostly fluff to me. I consider myself to be quite expert on internet/digital age issues. My first home computer was an Apple ][e in 1978 and I learned how to program basic before I started high school. I have always had the best access to computing from home/high school/undergrad/grad school etc. I have been an intense gamer from my first experience with pong to early arcade games to WOW Raiding guilds. I have been involved in many online forums/irc chat channels and forum communities like this one.
This show knocked my socks off! It really gives an amazing assessment of how technology has influenced us, may influence us in the future and I learned a lot.
I encourage everyone to watch this episode of Frontline.
FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (Growing up Online) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (The Persuaders, Merchants of Cool), to continue to explore life on the virtual frontier.
If you missed the link above to the show here it is:
http://www.pbs.org/...
There is so much I want to say about this show I cannot put it all into a summary. The show starts by analyzing how people, especially kids, are impacted by multitasking and digital lives. It then progresses to discuss many issues such as internet addiction, telecommuting and virtual realities such as Second Life and MMORPG's such as Everquest & WOW.
Near the end of episode they discuss how IBM is using virtual realities like Second Life to do many of their business meetings and how they have a huge modern office park that is mostly empty since everyone telecommutes now. They discuss how online communities can create intense social connections between people in games like WOW (they neglect to discuss forum communities like DKos but it's implied).
Then they discussed things like the Army Experience Center which recruits kids by allowing them to engage in virtual combat. They discussed the soldiers who fly the drones firing hellfire missiles at perceived enemy combatants in real time and then go home to ask their kids how their day at school was. They actually discussed how the military is driving this technology to their advantage and how even remote pilots can suffer from PTSD.
If you think the Cable TV shows are muddying the political waters now, just wait till it's a game we are fighting.
Anyway, I wanted to bring this gem of public television to your attention.
I hope you watch it. It is public TV reporting at it's best. It really got me thinking about what lies ahead.