Does new media technology = more happiness?

There are lots of things that shape our lives, starting with our parents and the people who raise us. The people who we are surrounded by and the experiences we have, and what we learn from them, all play a role in the shaping process.

But it is also clearly evident that the media we create, shapes our lives. From the discovery of paper, to Gutenberg's printing press, to traditional media, to new media and everything else in between. For example, the creation of the internet has brought opportunities that were only dreamed of before. Opportunities such as building your brand online, communicating instantly with someone who lives across the globe, and exploring the world around you without even leaving your seat.

Specifically new media, like the internet, has transformed our lives and how we communicate. Our communication has expanded from interacting with those who are relatively close to us to those who can be a million miles away. While connecting us with friends, family, and even strangers all over the world; does new media technology really bring us more happiness?

     

Try living without the internet for a week. Can you do it? I could live without it if I was forced to but I find that the internet has become inseparable with my lifestyle. It represents convenience and saving time, two things that everyone seems to look for to make their life easier.

When it comes to happiness though, I think it just depends on each person. The internet did not always exist and people found happiness through other things. As we create new communication technology, let us pay close attention to what good it brings; what, if anything that it replaces; and how it shapes our lives so we can better determine if it truly brings us more happiness.

Recruiting all gamers for the dream team

A guest speaker in last week’s class, Dr. Lindsay Grace, Armstrong Professor of Creative Arts, Director of the Persuasive Play Laboratory Miami University, introduced to me an area of digital media that I had an immense amount of experience in (playing), but never from an advertiser’s perspective.

I have spent countless hours playing video games trying to get a high score, to get to the next level, to achieve the next objective, etc. In the end, I may have fulfilled all the objectives and saved the world from ending, but not in real life.

“Games don’t just sell products…they sell ideas,” said Grace. “But playing a game by yourself doesn’t help you spread the word…the new goal is to turn each player into a message promoter.” Darfur is Dying is a great example of a social impact game, that I had never heard of until Grace mentioned it.

Grace’s presentation got me thinking, we have so many problems in the real world that are still waiting to be solved…yet how many hours are we putting in to solving them?

I decided to explore a name that Grace mentioned, Jane McGonigal. Her TEDtalk on how ‘Gaming can make a better world,’ is a compelling argument that is on the verge of genius! "My goal for the next decade is to try to make it easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games," says McGonigal ("Tedtalks jane mcgonigal:," 2010).

Games make us virtuosos at urgent optimism, weaving a tight social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning, McGonigal explains, making gamers super-empowered hopeful individuals ("Tedtalks jane mcgonigal:," 2010).

These are exactly the kind of people we need on the team to solve ‘real’ world problems. Why not use the super powers of gamers? Brilliant. We can build an army of gamers, a real dream team! 

Not only can we sell ideas through games, but through social impact games, gamers can generate ideas to give to us; discovering possible solutions to world problems that we can only begin to imagine.

Tedtalks jane mcgonigal: Gaming can make a better world [Web]. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html