The first Tv was invented in 1934, and ever since then we have been on a slippery slope. What the television aloud us to do is create a world outside our own. We could stare at a screen and still feel feelings such as happy, sad, and scared; with out having to do anything. It was like we had emotions on demand. more then 70 years later, that world has becomes alot more complex and luxurious. We can now enter that world and do alot more then have emotions. We can now talk to people, send mail with in seconds, read the newspaper, and so much more. It has gotten to the point where the digital world has begun to slip into the real world. Now basic things such as sending mail, listening to music, and readding news articles are being done in the digital world. What this means is that we have become dependant on the digital world. We can no longer understand a world where there is no digital technology. We are trapped in the digital world because we know of no other world.

the movie WallE tells the story of a clean up robot stuck on whats left of earth. The humans have moved into outer space, till the robot is done cleanning up all the trash that they have left all over. Up in space their whole lives are digital. The are carried around on floatting chairs, with little screens infront of their faces, while robots serve them. They spend 24/7 in the digital world. When WallE, the robot, goes up there he accidently bumps into a womans chair, which turns off her screen. For the first time she finally sees the non digital world and she is amazed but what she sees. "we have a pool?!". This is what our lives are becoming. We no longer look at the real world. We come home after school do our homework (or not) then jump on the computer. some people even do their homework while on the computer. We spend so much time in the digital world that we dont see the real world as much. The other day I was watching my step sister play her Gameboy. She was sitting on the window still and on the other side of the window, not even 6 feet away was a hawk. This hawk was sitting there eatting a squirll, but my step sister was clueless. She was so wrapped up in her little game that she didnt see the hawk. We are losing touch with the real world because we are spending so much time in the digital world.

I mentioned in the beginning how digital technology, such as the tv, can bring us emotions when we want them. These days it has gotten behond that. We how take emotion we feel in the real world, and bring them over to the digital world. There is a site called tumblr where afew of the students go to blog their feelings and events. If you fallow these peoples blogs, you realize that they are pretty up to date. It is clear that the days of personal journals and dairies are over. We now take what has happened in our real life and bring it across the line to the digital world. We now use the digital world to help deal with our emotions. This was also true in the book Feed. In the end of the book Violet is pretty much dead, and her dad informs titius that it was his fualt. In responce to that Titius sits in the middle of his floor naked and buying the same pair of pants over and over. He is used to having the feed make him feel better, expect this time it isnt working. After buy the pair of pants he doesnt feel better, so he tries again and again. He no longer knows how to deal with real world feelings because he is use to dealing with them in the digital world. The digital world has become so big in our lives that we are losing the ability to deal with things in the real world.

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It has gotten to the point where parts of our real life are dictated by aspects in our digital life. Recently the government announced that there would be a switch from analog signles to digital and that our tvs would stop working if we didnt get the little converter box. With out question millions of people went out and got the box. People bought the thing because with out it their Tvs would go blank, and that just couldnt happen. This was also seen in Walle. While the people sat in their chairs advertisements told when what to buy. At one point the big screen told the people that the blue suits were the new fashion, and just like that everyone pressed a button to change their suits blue. We have given the people who lead the digital world so much power. We accept what they say or do because they are the amazing people who have blessed us with sites like google and facebook. When they tell us to jump we ask how high. President Obama was praised for his use of technology while running his champain. He was twittering and always on his blackberry. Most of the things we knew about the canidates we found out over the internet. We are letting the digital world dictate the real world. We have become use to find out how to live our lives with articles and videos, it has gotten to the point where if the internet shut off we would not know where to get the same information.

Another huge problem with the digital world is that even though we know what bad about it, we cant stop using it. Recently in class we did a expirement were we had to change one aspect of our digital lives. Some people got off the digital earlyer at night and said that because of it they had better sleep. I am willing to bet that only weeks after making that discovery, they are back to texting and instant messaging all night and their sleep patterns are back to being screwy. The problem is that we dont want to leave the digital world because it is too convenient. The digital world is an easy way to feel emotions that you wouldnt feel at ten oclock pm right when your about to go to sleep. Before the digital world took over 10 oclock pm was a peaceful hour. People were probably readding or getting ready for sleep. There wasnt much excitement or crazy emotions. But now at 10 we can watch Tv, talk about the latest gossip, or play a game that puts us in world war two. There is no longer anything stopping us from getting the stimuli that gives us these emotions. Who wants to read a book when they can watch what happens on One Tree Hill. It has gotten to the point where if we lost the digital world, we wouldnt know what to do with our time. The digital wold has taken over the real world by making stimulus so easy to come by.

We are trapped in the digital world because we know of no other world. We are live a hamster in a cage. The cage can be big and fancy with all those crazy tubes, but it isnt the outside world. It has all the things the hamster likes food, water, toys, with out having all the basic struggles of everyday hamster life. As time goes on the digital world gets more and more complex and we get sucked deeper and deeper into it. When will it end? Will we realize what we are missing and begin to limit our digital life? Or will it get to the point were we no longer have to get up and everything we do in life will be online? We are letting ourselves be sucked into a fake world, and we arent doing a damn thing about it.

The arguement could be said that we are fully aware of the outside world. People will say that we only spend part of our time in the digital world and that most of our time is spent living life free of technology. While we dont spend all day on the computer and we do spend a considerable amount of time moving around and "living life", we are rarely ever fully disconnected. If you are out in the park with your friends playing a pick up game of soccer and your phone rings; will you keep playing or will you stop the game to pick it up. The average person would stop what ever hes doing to pick up his or her phone when it rings. The ringing of your phone can bring you your whole day to a pause. So even though we dont spend all day in front of a screen, we are rarely 10 feet away from a digital device; and when that device calls for our attention we will stop almost anything to give it that.

Now that it is clear we are plugged in enough to be called neo, the question is why does it matter? The more you understand what the problem is the easier it will be to decided what to do. The fact is while the digital world has made things easier, it has began to make things to easy. This does not mean that young people today are worse or shallower than young people in the past. It does mean they get less help. People once lived within a pattern of being, which educated the emotions, guided the temporary toward the permanent and linked everyday urges to higher things. The accumulated wisdom of the community steered couples as they tried to earn each other’s commitment." (David Brooks. New York Times). Understanding the kind of world we live it will help when we try to live better.