'Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized'



I wanted so badly to upload this video for my previous blog post, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to work it in. Thankfully, this week’s blog assignment is wide-open, so I hope many of you will take 3 minutes to watch, as I feel it perfectly sums up the discussion we’ve been having regarding technology and ‘moral panic’. The Onion does a fantastic job of encapsulating an over-the-top dystopian view of ‘technological determinism’, whereby a teenage girl’s social media addiction has rendered her virtually lifeless. Lacking in social cues and the ability to communicate face-to-face with those around her, she is the physical embodiment of what technological determinists fear most about emerging interactive technologies. No parent would obviously go so far as to euthanize their child due to unresponsiveness, but it is funny to see how this video blows ‘moral panic’ out of proportion. This being the case, I believe The Onion’s stance on this subject could be read as a ‘domestication of technology’ outlook, coupled with a mix of typical teenage behavior of course.

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