InRealLife (2013) a 1h30 British documentary (BFI), by Beeban Kidron
–-> Have we outsourced our children to the Internet ?
InRealLife takes us on a journey from the bedrooms of British teenagers to the world of Silicon Valley, to find out what exactly the internet is doing to our children
Subjects touched:
– How internet porn addiction changes kid’s perception of love
– The impact of gaming industry
– Privacy (briefly) ; “I share therefore I am”
– Facebook, obviously
People appearing:
– Sherry Turkle (cfr “Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other” (recently also available in French))
– Nicholas Negroponte (MIT Media Lab)
– Nicholas Carr (cfr “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains”)
– Maggie Jackson (cfr “Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age”)
– Andrew Blum (cfr “Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet”)
– Danah Boyd (cfr “It’s Complicated - The Social Lives of Networked Teens”)
– Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia)
– Daniel Solove, privacy expert (cfr “Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security”)
– Clifford Nass (cfr “The Man Who Lied to His Laptop: What Machines Teach Us About Human Relationships”)
– Julian Assange (Wikileaks)
– Cory Doctorow (SF writer, cfr “Little Brother”, “Homeland”)
quote:
“Facebook is a giant behaviourist casino designed to teach you to undervalue your privacy”
– Clay Shirky (cfr “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations”)
At some point towards the end there is an interesting comment form MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. He remarks that human beings develop an immune system by getting exposed to “bad stuff”, getting sick, falling, hurting your knee, eating dirt etc. It is a series of failures and learning how to overcome them.
If you overprotect they become very fragile human beings.
Now, Ito remarks, Internet can also be scary and has its dangers and perhaps in a similar sense it is good we get exposed to it, as opposed to not letting our kids use social media and over protect them.
It is an interesting thought worth considering, but then the next fragment in the documentary gives it a blow it by showing the story of a 14 year old kid who died after being bullied over internet. (a medium which facilitates bullying).
Anyway.
Compelling documentary, always stimulating to listen the above mentioned people, but it just scratches the surface, albeit enough to make you think.
Trailer:
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71pXYIwYpaU
Website:
▻http://inreallifefilm.com/press
