1) After watching Jesse Schell’s video, I realized a number of things. Schell talks about many scenarios in which the future may end up like if technology continues to advance like the way it has been over the years. Some points he makes do seem plausible and others not so much. The first example of what seems implausible is when he describes how there would be a point system going on to reward people by doing a certain actions such as drinking Dr. Pepper, taking the bus, and reading a book on kindle. However, many of the things you can do to make points involves advertising. This part does seem plausible because everyday we are faced with advertisements everywhere. Advertisements are on our way to school or jobs. Sooner or later ads will be in bathrooms and day cares, places where we least expect them to be and we’ll be more involved with them than we ever have been. As scary as it seems but the human race will be walking advertisements just like Jesse mentioned the tattoos of ads on humans and how that would earn you some points as well. People already wear shirts with the Mountain Dew logo or a Rees’s candy logo, its only a matter of time before we are really walking billboards for major companies.
2) As cities continue to grow and develop, as well as the people living in it and around it, I believe that the technology and creativity surrounding “city screens” and animated billboards that display information will continue to empower, educate and bring communities together. Examples where this is already existant is in social medias. They’re not necessarily billboards or gigantic screens displaying information, but they kind of are like that within the social network community. Websites like Facebook and tumblr are examples where giving out information that is personal is not big deal and this can cause us to become closer or turn against each other. I think that social networks are a negative way of communicating information across simply because it can be twisted and come across as something else than it was originally. On the other hand, billboards like the ones in time square can be helpful and bring us together and inform us. For example I remember watching a documentary about September 11 and in the video they showed a scene where people that were walking through time square were all standing in disbelief while reading the electronic billboard that was displaying information about what was happening that day. All the people standing there together reading it was kind of a uniting moment but at the same time it was during a tough time for America.
3) Gaming can factor into what I was saying earlier in many ways. As Jesse was saying in his videos how everything seems to have a game aspect to it, something as simple as losing weight can even be related to a game and have a point system. I believe people are so attracted and interested into the game world because it gives them something to reach for and want to accomplish. For example, the game Sims is a game where you can create a person in a virtual world where you get to live a separate life from your real one. I think that many people are so attracted to this kind of gaming quality because they can live a separate world that they can control and minipulate without any worries of the real world. I also think what seems so exciting for people is that they can tie in their lives with a virtual life and they feel like they can relate to something thats not so much materialistic like making a relationship with a real human. In this game you can even earn points by going to work or eating or even just using the bathroom. It gives people a feeling of achievement.
-Emily Guerrero