Is Digital Media Bad for Us?

This question has been divided into several overarching themes that I will tackle individually.

Socio-Political concerns:
For politics, the Digital Age ushers in a new era of accountability where nothing is private and all you have done in your public past will catch up with you. I often wonder what the next generation holds as our future presidents and world leaders will have their childhood Facebook pages and various other internet sources unearthed showing us every facet of that person. In a sense, the era of privacy of open. Wikileaks has broken down the last barrier that separates the government and its citizens effectively acting as a watchdog for malpractice. I can honestly say I do not know where I stand on this issue. While it is important for citizens to know when their governments are breaking the rules, it is too early to tell whether this information will get into the wrong hands and create a mess of things. I suppose Wikileaks is a wait and see.

Interpersonal concerns:
Many people believe that Digital media is the death of intimacy. For every face to face conversation, there are ten one will have over the internet. People will text instead of call. They will send someone an e-card instead of actually sending something through the mail. The internet is believed to have made us slower, more static creatures and I find it hard to argue with that. With the advent of Facebook and iTunes, this blog post has taken twice as long to complete as it should have.

Psychological concerns:
For an internet addicted person, surfing the web consumes all of their lives. When they are in their rooms, they are on ten different websites. When out with friends, they are googling something someone said to fact-check it. I am one of these people. As much as I hate to admit it, I am a computer junkie. Over the past several years, I have not been able to finish a book or a homework assignment without using the internet on the side. It is completely consuming and truly hazardous to my overall well being. In the future people will watch movies with sidebars of other movies because they simply cannot focus on one thing. It is a shame.

I find all of these above concerns to be valid. For me, Digital media has been more of a nuisance than anything. It has made me a less attentive person, and has forced to read about things more than actually do them. It is the catalyst for inactivity and the one thing I devote more time to than anything. So thanks a lot technology, you have made me a much less effective human being.