Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier

Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier

PBS Frontline’s documentary titled Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier”, produced by Rachel Dretzin and Douglas Rushoff, covered concerns of information overload, multitasking, digital technology in education, and the roles computers play in society of today’s world. Throughout the segment, pros and cons of technology were shown, with the documentary portraying digital technology as addictive, limiting attention spans, thus, affecting grades and relationships of kids growing up in the world today. The positive aspects shown regarding digital technology were the ability to multitask, along with schools embracing technology, in return, attendance is up, allowing students to be more involved along with student’s grades improving. Dretzin and Rushoff used the documentary “Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier”, to portray positive and negative effects of digital technology, with the agenda of presenting digital technology as damaging of relationships, addictive, limiting of attention spans, all of which, consequently, impact students’ grades, their potential to learn and think critically and analytically. Dretzin and Rushoff’s agenda and premise prove to be well supported in its argument for cumulative and negligible impacts of addiction to technology.