I found myself feeling pretty hostile to this documentary. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that all of us found the idea of holding meetings in Second Life to be incredibly silly, and I think drones probably deserve their own, separate documentary to discuss the complexity of that ethical question.
As for the research on multitasking, it’s interesting, but it’s not really a surprise, is it? I know that when I work on something while watching TV, I do it more slowly — but there are a lot of reasons that might be worth it to me. For example, I could wash my dishes in less than 22 minutes, but then I wouldn’t get to watch The Mindy Project at all, because I can’t justify using my time that way. Or maybe I have a project to work on that I’m very anxious about, or really dreading. It might take me longer to do it while listening to music than it would in an ideal world where I could just sit down and do it, but if I’m stressed out, that’s not an option anyway. It’s important to understand the facts, but they aren’t necessarily black and white.
Finally: There’s some irony in the direction to go to the website and watch hundreds of clips at the end, isn’t there?
I agree that we would all feel a bit silly about holding a meeting in Second Life with all of our avatars. I think that those games are an escape from the real world for a lot of people and the fact that they can consume people’s lives in the way we saw in the documentary is a huge negative. People “kinda quitting” their jobs or having their health rapidly decline because of gaming too much is an alarming idea.
The idea about multitasking is notable. I think it is completely acceptable to complete mindless tasks like dish washing while watching television. Completing a project while listening to music as background noise is something understandable to me as well. While in class during a lecture and being on all different websites is something that I think shouldn’t be done – that is not productive or beneficial and will take away from the learning experience.
I completely agree with your last sentence. It is very ironic that they let you go to their website to watch those clips, which show you how corrupting the internet is.
You pretty much read my mind in regards to the documentary. I thought about the whole multitasking thing that was discussed in the documentary and overall agreed with it. However. if I’m writing a paper I’m nervous about, I have to listen to music to sort of calm me down, even though my whole focus may not be on my paper.
I also agree with you about how ironic it is that they encourage you to go to their website to watch clips about how corrupting the internet is.