First Post

I had a great time reading The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. It was an exciting and thought provoking story about a family in the future. The goal of this story seems to be to forewarn the audience on the potential for technology to take over your life and relationships. It also serves to warn us that technology can be a weapon in the wrong hands, which is stated clearly at the beginning of the tale.
You are introduced to the husband and wife who rely on the house’s technology to do everything for them, including washing the dishes, bathing, combing of hair, etc. It seems like it would be a really nice life, however you realize that it’s causing a significant amount of depression and fostering feelings of worthlessness within the household. Unfortunately it takes a toll on the kids too. Instead of spending time with their parents, they’re conjuring up a digital world in a simulator room that takes your thoughts and lets you create a world with them. The parents get concerned when they realize the kids are constantly calling up violent lions. They decide that the room needs to be shut off for the safety and well being of the family, and also announce that they’re going to be taking a vacation from all of the technology. This upsets the kids tremendously, and the parents end up being manipulated into turning the room back on. When the parents go in to check on the kids, they get locked inside. At the end it seems as though the kids made the lions eat their parents.
I think that this is an interesting reading to start this digital studies class off with because it’s a take on how technology can really damage your lives and relationships. I think that the author was pretty pessimistic in this story, but technology isn’t always a great thing for us. I think almost everyone spends too much time on their devices and it can take away from real life experience. I also think that parents need to be careful how much iPad and TV time their kids get, as it tends to replace the kids having to entertain themselves on their own. I haven’t done any readings on how this is starting to change children’s developments but I’mc certain that there is some sort of impact on them.