Daily Archives: October 13, 2013

“Disconnected”

Watching the Carleton College documentary “Disconnected” really made me think about being a student and just how much we need computers to stay on top of all of our work.  Given that the film was produced a few years ago, it was interesting to see the differences between computer use then and now.  For example, the layout of Facebook was completely different back then.  🙂  In all seriousness, though, a lot of the Carleton students’ computer use was based around email, e-Reserves, and word processing for papers.  I would say that’s the same today, but we also have a huge spread of social media that occupies much of our lives.  I think if we were to spend weeks without computers, we’d find ourselves missing out on a whole lot more than just the occasional “wall post” or email about a campus event.  That being said, it was interesting to see the phones that these students had.  I’m pretty sure all of them had basic flip phones, which I can barely even remember being in existence.  If we were just forced to give up computers today, it would be so much easier because almost all of us have iPhones that do many of the tasks computers are used for.  But if we gave up computers AND phones, then we would definitely have a problem.  Overall, though, this movie helped me to see the simple, but many uses we have for computers as students at Middlebury and how difficult it would be to go about our academic lives without them.

The one part of the movie that irked me was when the Payroll office told the students that they had to use computers to enter their work hours to get paid.  One would think that at a small college like Carleton, the staff would be able to work around a few students and their independent project.  It bugged me that these staff members wouldn’t try to find a way to help them complete their task, but also made me realize just how essential computers are to certain parts of life.

Watching the Movie: Disconnected

Watching the movie Disconnected really bought me back to a few years ago. Around the time that the movie was being made and came out, I was in middle school. I had a computer at home and my mother would only allow for an hour use of the computer everyday. Most of the days were spent going out or my mother would shop and go downtown. When Myspace was popular, I had one of those, but I really didn’t do much with it. AIM had an impact with Instant Messaging, but I only really had an hour to use it because I had a time limit. In school, the introduction of the use of the Smart Board was fairly new as well.

It seems as though computers were really beginning to become an increasing factor during these times. Watching the movie showed me that as the world upgrades continuously it makes ways of life, when you’re not used to it, a bit harder. When one of the college students went to the library he was faced with a reading that was on the computer, but he really couldn’t use it. This caused a bit of a struggle as well as writing on a type writer. With that said, it was mentioned in the movie that it was an inconvenience to not have a computer but it helped to become more focused and less distracted.

I believe that this movie was a great way to show the dependence that has grown onto college students and the usage of technology. It’s hard to escape from the urge of using a computer or send out a text. Since that time, many other various advances have been made which complicates things a bit more. Smart phones, tablets, iPhones, and more makes it much easier to have an all-in-one device that’s hard to put down. It’s up to us how we incorporate this in our lives.