Book Panel 11/5

In class there were two book panel presentations. One was reviewing SuperBetter by McGonigal and the second one was Alone Together by Turkle. Alone together talks about how we as a society tend to now expect more from technology and less from other people. The example used is Facebook, which is technically human contact but it is easier to engage and easier to avoid if you want to. This is similar to the social media expert group where we learned that people are feeling down on themselves because we see a highlight reel that makes everyone’s life look so much better than it is in real life. This is something that we know yet we still feel down when our lives don't match up to others on social media. This goes to show how disconnected we may be in our own lives and we use social media as a way to make lives seem so much better than they actually are. In the first part of Turkle’s book the group discusses how our relationship with computers and machines looks like today. This goes into how a robot can be a companion in addition to a machine that is programmed to complete a task. In the second part they talk about how people are emotionally attached to machines and social media in general. How we have need to express ourselves online. This all just shows us how our personal and business lives are greatly affected by social media and technology overall.

The second group presented the book SuperBetter by McGonigal. This book sounded like it was extremely interesting to read. The group began their presentation by talking about ways to keep your mind active and attentive. This can connect to what the author talks about in the ways all games change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. By adopting a gameful mindset we can cultivate new ways to recover ourselves and learn to me more resilient in everyday life. I know that this kind of sounds like a relief because we as a society have been told that video games make us violet or impatient or just an overall less productive person. McGonigal says the exact opposite. The group talks about the steps that she created to make yourself into a more resilient person. This will result in you generally feeling better and being a better person. It is really interesting how video games and even just games in general, can have such a huge impact.