Final Concept Exploration

Summer Wars and Chapter 9

            Out of all the chapters we have read this semester, I feel like I have learned the least from Chapter 9. This is not saying the chapter was not informative—I just already knew almost all of what the author was explaining. Because I am a child of the digital revolution, I have grown up with access to computers, cell phones, and the internet. Some of my earliest memories were of me playing “Frogger” on the computer and “Sypro” on the first Playstation console. My mom has had an Etsy store online for ten-ish years and we have shopped online for Christmas gifts for as long as I can remember. There are still a few concepts that I find interesting regarding Internet usage and the development of technology therein. One of these concepts is the idea of online avatars. Used frequently in the gaming world (and more recently applied to social networking), avatars are masks that we as consumers and users of media wear for the internet world to see. I also find the ever-growing social love for online networking and trading to be interesting. The idea that our society’s love for the internet can spiral out of control is something that perks my interest. There is a really good anime film called Summer Wars that explores the ideas of online buying, playing, business-conducting, and networking becoming pivotal in humanity’s existence. The traffic lights are controlled by a city maintenance system online, every luxury store is located online; even land is exchanged through the internet. Then one day, a virus is created and injected into the network city (called “Oz”). This virus wreaks havoc, crashing city power grids, flattening stock markets, and wiping out company savings, among other things. Summer Wars creates a world reliant on social networking, and then looks at what would happen if it were infiltrated and destroyed. Check it out!