Steven Thomas
ENGL 1121
“Digital Nation” Argumentative Essay
U.S Troops With PTSD: Healing By Games In this new era of advanced technology, individuals can definitely live in two different worlds, the real world and the digital world. Around the universe, there have been some controversies about the increasing rate of technology, as some people believed that technology has certain negative effect on our society, others believed that their lives have been impacted positively by the same digitally-inclined world. In the U.S. military, Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder is one of the most common diseases among combat troops and there has been a tremendous effort to reduce or eliminate the effects on the troops. Computer simulation is one of the programs put in place to help treat the disease. Although this program has not been clinically proven, there has been an optimistic response from the soldiers tested on. Computer simulations can be used to test or treat human psychological and cognitive functioning. A television program produced by “PBS Frontline” entitled “Digital Nation” examined various aspects of life and the effects of technology on different walks of lives. The program explored using technology in different ways such as creating virtual world, military drones, having a technology-based classrooms to help kids get familiarized with computers, the U.S military experimenting the use of computer simulation on the troops suffering from Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disorder(P.T.S.D.). The program also emphasized on the research study on the issue of multitasking among students. In a research study done at Stanford University, Professor Clifford Nass points out that “multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.” The professor also thinks that “multitasking could be dumbing the world” because of the fact that the students selected for the research study are easily distracted while switching from task to task. There is also an issue of addiction to computer gaming among Korean kids. Lately, there has been some tragic deaths in the so-called “PC bangs”, otherwise known as “Internet cafes” in Korea “after gaming marathons where they played 50hours or more with little food or water” says Douglas Rushkoff. With the new and clinical trial of computer simulation in treating U.S troops with Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder, there has been “over 40 centers around the country piloting this program”,
