Computers allow us multi-tasking. This function is surely the arch-criminal of our attentional problems.
Chatting with friends on MSN messenger, listening my favorite mp3s on WMP, keeping updated with my friends at Facebook, checking emails at another tab… This is so typical, huh? While it is very convenient for us, it may affect our ability to focus and pay attention, especially the younger generation.
Occasionally, I would come across with articles which link digital media to ADHA (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). They tell me that environmental and social factors may contribute to, or exacerbate ADHD, in addition to genetics.
No matter how, in my point of view, when people get used to something, the something will become their habits or usual practices, so that they will do that very spontaneously. Just like when we’re accustomed to shifting our focus from one thing to another in no time on computers, we will behave the same when we leave for the real world.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Games
Video games are doing more harm than good, especially to younger people. Surely, the games themselves are harmless. Will the characters in the Sims burn your house? No. However, when video games and human beings link together, there is a chemical reaction.
Because video games are designed to be fun and engaging, our brains will therefore be completely vulnerable to them. We will be brainwashed or programmed unwittingly. Adults often have few ways to control themselves over video games, let alone children or students. They aren’t mentally mature and know little about the potential harm of the visual world.
Nevertheless, when getting addicted, students spend time on games rather than their study. It’ll greatly affect them. First is they have poor performances at school, second is they lose the chance of acquiring knowledge in the most suitable and important phase of their lives. No wonder people criticize the language level of today’s teenagers.
Yet, I’m not interested in if video games help users learn. From day one, I believe that learning requires effort, voluntary effort. I can give you an example.
When I was in junior high, I learnt to sing a song called “Do ri me” from the movie “The sound of music”.
Because video games are designed to be fun and engaging, our brains will therefore be completely vulnerable to them. We will be brainwashed or programmed unwittingly. Adults often have few ways to control themselves over video games, let alone children or students. They aren’t mentally mature and know little about the potential harm of the visual world.
Nevertheless, when getting addicted, students spend time on games rather than their study. It’ll greatly affect them. First is they have poor performances at school, second is they lose the chance of acquiring knowledge in the most suitable and important phase of their lives. No wonder people criticize the language level of today’s teenagers.
Yet, I’m not interested in if video games help users learn. From day one, I believe that learning requires effort, voluntary effort. I can give you an example.
When I was in junior high, I learnt to sing a song called “Do ri me” from the movie “The sound of music”.
Doe, a deer, a female deer.
Ray, a drop of golden sun.
Me, a name I call myself.
Far, a long, long way to run.
Sew, a needle pulling thread,
La, a note to follow sew,
Tea, a drink with jam and bread!
That will bring us back to do oh-oh-oh
Of course, I knew how to sing it. All I needed to do was memorizing the syllables of the lyrics with the sounds of the song. I didn’t need and bother to know what were “doe” or “ray”. That’s the learning thing. I mean, even if there’s a Chinese child playing a English game; he’ll never know the true meaning of certain words if he hasn’t once checked or asked for the answers.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Peer Production
"Wikipedia is the best thing ever.
Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject.
So, you know, you're getting the best possible information."
I think the best known example of peer production should be the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. I hate people saying the don’t trust Wikipedia thing because everyone can participate, everyone can make it wrong.
First, I believe in the wisdom of crowds. It is because so many people are involving in one article that the article is rich of knowledge, or even valuable knowledge. Next, anything under the sun is being monitored, so does the Wikipedia. Think about how things will turn out if Wikipedia is not that open. Worry is redundant. Plus, the openness more or less creates a competitive environment for the participants. They’re challenging each other, I may say. In another way, the information on Wikipedia is getting even more precise and precious. Lastly, I can’t imagine the world without Wikipedia. People in Hong Kong have already been naïve and lazy. If this large think tank disappears, we have no way to know more. Well, maybe there is… but I’m too lazy to find out.
If Wikipedia disappears? That will make information on the internet spreads loosely; people keep sharing their wisdom, but no one bother to edit it or acknowledge it. At that time, no one will talk about the reliability, because there is not. And this will only leave endless arguments to people who participate, and countless questions to people who read.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
As real as your life
“The boundary in my brain that divides real from fantasy has finally begun to crumble.”
Not that our brains malfunction; It is that the technology advancement and the very purposes of the development make us feel this way.
A lot of us then think that the visual world is fun and engaging. They, especially teenagers who are not mentally mature enough, love the fantasy more than the reality. Where else can give them more success than winning games and getting praise and recognition from peers? School? Ironically, it’s school make most of them suffer (examinations, expectation, etc.). And do schools teach us something about separating the visual from the real? No. Or maybe I should suggest that our education includes the issue to the syllabus, from kindergarten onwards.
Parents worry. Teachers worry. Sociologists worry.
However, I don’t think there’s anyone to blame on the phenomenon or the problems related to video games, such as addiction, violence, and attention deficit disorder.
Or else, if anyone wants to take the responsibility, that will be the responsibility of everyone, because, I believe the problems are the byproducts of the evolution of our society. Unless you want to go back to the time human being burnt candles at night, to the time that we didn’t even have access to electricity, the problems will always be there.
Byproducts, I mean they are things that we can never get rid of, just like the oxygen from photosynthesis. It’s also a byproduct. But the natures of the byproducts, welcome or unwanted, are factors we always have to accept and are not able to change. We should always bear in mind that those are parts of our lives, parts of our society, and parts of the progress of the world. Is there anything such perfect that we always have what we want and God help take away what we don’t want?
Anyway, I don’t like negative nor believe in fate. There’re roads but not rails. It’s not necessary to follow things lie before us. We have brains and we can create. What if there’s a game that teaches us to respect each other or help us understand the problems we’re all facing in the real world, as Michael in the video mentioning? There’s great potential video games do good!
As great power come great responsibility, actually those who have more control over the situation can/should do something to better our world. The bad we can’t erase, the good we can do more. Say, a metaphor, there is a scales. Why not we keep inputting good things to improve our society?
ACTION!
From a video by Michael Highland
Not that our brains malfunction; It is that the technology advancement and the very purposes of the development make us feel this way.
A lot of us then think that the visual world is fun and engaging. They, especially teenagers who are not mentally mature enough, love the fantasy more than the reality. Where else can give them more success than winning games and getting praise and recognition from peers? School? Ironically, it’s school make most of them suffer (examinations, expectation, etc.). And do schools teach us something about separating the visual from the real? No. Or maybe I should suggest that our education includes the issue to the syllabus, from kindergarten onwards.
Parents worry. Teachers worry. Sociologists worry.
However, I don’t think there’s anyone to blame on the phenomenon or the problems related to video games, such as addiction, violence, and attention deficit disorder.
Or else, if anyone wants to take the responsibility, that will be the responsibility of everyone, because, I believe the problems are the byproducts of the evolution of our society. Unless you want to go back to the time human being burnt candles at night, to the time that we didn’t even have access to electricity, the problems will always be there.
Byproducts, I mean they are things that we can never get rid of, just like the oxygen from photosynthesis. It’s also a byproduct. But the natures of the byproducts, welcome or unwanted, are factors we always have to accept and are not able to change. We should always bear in mind that those are parts of our lives, parts of our society, and parts of the progress of the world. Is there anything such perfect that we always have what we want and God help take away what we don’t want?
Anyway, I don’t like negative nor believe in fate. There’re roads but not rails. It’s not necessary to follow things lie before us. We have brains and we can create. What if there’s a game that teaches us to respect each other or help us understand the problems we’re all facing in the real world, as Michael in the video mentioning? There’s great potential video games do good!
As great power come great responsibility, actually those who have more control over the situation can/should do something to better our world. The bad we can’t erase, the good we can do more. Say, a metaphor, there is a scales. Why not we keep inputting good things to improve our society?
ACTION!
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