The Frontline Video 'Digital Nation'

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Recommended: Multitasking a bad habit

Digital Nation. The Frontline video, Digital Nation, asks an interesting question, just what is happening here? Rachel Dretzin and Douglass Rushkoff walk the viewer through technology that is everywhere in the world. They delve into the lives of MIT students, who are among the smartest in this generation. Sherry Turkle, a Professor at MIT touches on how technology has “changed the way teachers teach” (qtd. in Digital Nation). However, Turkle also takes a strong stance against multitasking, which brings the video to California, where Professor Clifford Nass of Stanford University has been studying the ability to multitask.

Students, who have been chosen by their perceived ability to multitask, are asked to “identify whether numbers are odd or even, letters as vowels or consonants” while dealing with constant distractions (qtd. in Digital Nation). Furthermore, Nass shows that while people may believe they can multitask, it is simply not possible. After Dretzin and Rushkoff discuss technology in their own lives, they meet with the only neuroscientist to examine the effects of the Internet on the brain. …show more content…

Gary Small conducts MRIs to show that there is an increase in the extent of activity when searching online versus reading a book. Consequently, Dr. Small explains that bigger is not necessarily better by using a metaphor of working out at the gym. Which expresses the common knowledge that the more exercise a muscle gets, the less exertion is needed to perform the same activity. Professor Mark Bauerlin states that the research on the effects of technology on humans cannot keep up with the technology, which is why Dr. Gary Small is the only person to have researched this field so far (Digital

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