TheOneMinutesJR

http://www.theoneminutesjr.org/

TheOneMinutesJR is an international youth network collecting one-minute videos from around the world. It seems to embody the ideals of media literacy and digital story-telling. Check out the website for some videos and more information about the network.

I was struck by this one from Japan:
http://www.theoneminutesjr.org/index.php?thissection_id=10&movie_id=200900015&country_id=141

It questions whether technologies, such as cell phones, iPods and the Nintendo DS are really necessary. Would we be better off without these things?

I find it interesting how these technologies are represented within the video, contrasted with an idealized "old-timey" life before the intrusion of mobile digital devices. The music and video quality are used to create this binary between old and new, slow and fast, connected and disconnected. Undoubtedly, books, baseball, and even friendly conversation were at one time regarded as cutting edge technology. However, their age and implicitness in contemporary life in Japan/throughout the globalized human world make them ordinary and quaint from this perspective.

I question the binary between the fast-paced technological present vs. the leisurely technological past. Yet I'm deeply appreciative of the question posed here. Do we really need these technologies? How do they help and how do they hurt? The video takes its place in an ever-burgeoning discourse dedicated to finding the proper role for technology in life today. Especially in Japan and America, I wish it were a question to which we could start finding some meaningful answers.