Objective: Examine the role of technology as a force for cultural maintenance and change
At the beginning of the TED talk by Jane Mcgonigal on Gaming can make a better world she states that, “if we want to solve problems like hunger, poverty climate change, global conflict, obesity, I believe that we need to aspire to play games online for at least 21 billion hours a week by the end of the next decade.” When first hearing this I was shocked and thought that this idea was a little bit crazy, but during her talk I believe she brought up some good points that could support this idea. McGonigal says that gamers look for the epic win, when they do something in a game that they had no idea they were capable of it. This is an interesting point because sometimes in life we accomplish things that we had no idea we were capable of, but I feel it happens a lot less in life, but then again I am not a gamer so I could be wrong. I believe McGonigal’s mindset is good and she gives a lot of evidence to support how gaming is a powerful platform for change, but I just do not see how actually playing a game will be transformed into the real world. I think the ideas are all there, but people escape the real world in video games because they know it’s not real. Where does the jump to reality come into play and how will what is learned in the gaming world be applied and enforced in the real world?
Reflection and Future:
Technology has become a large part of our world and has many positive and negative impacts on people’s lives. Jane Mcgonigal brought up many interesting points that helped me being to see how technology could be a key role in cultural maintenance and change. Specifically, in ways in which the gaming world can have a major impact on climate change, sustainability, oil situations and much more. My brother grew up as a gamer and though I personal do not believe it is the best way to spend a day, I think Jane has helped me see that if he was to spend all the time playing a game that simulated ways in which the world could be saved instead of the game he usually played, possibly he and all the other gamers out there could have improve humanity in some way.
I think that technology overall has helped our society grow in astonishing ways. If we can take one more type of ways technology is currently used, like gaming, and turn it around to help the world grow some more, I think it sounds like a great idea. From this article and Artifact #8 I believe that technology can not only help out the world as a whole, but it can help individuals. Jane discusses in her TedTalk how in life people go through stages of, “I’m not good at life phase,” and that in gaming people become more optimistic and she continues to discuss that people are shocked to discover what they are actually capable of while playing a game because they become the best version of themselves. If technology can help us see what and who we truly are then I believe that technology can impact individuals in more ways than we think.
Though I am no somebody who play videos games or likes to sit on my Iphone, MacBook, or watches TV Constantly throughout the day, I can see from this TedTalk that there can be benefits from technology and how people use them. Though I am not a gamer I do have an Iphone and I think it would be interesting to look and see if they have an applications that involves helping the planet and how maybe that would be something I would download next.
This picture is from Jane’s blog. I thought the quote at the top really caught me, “Awakening is an epic win” I believe people in world do need to wake up and realize the troubles we face and it compares it to the gaming world of an epic win. Brings it all together nicely.
you found me. (n.d.). you found me. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://janemcgonigal.com/