Buffy Response

On September 3rd, we watched an extremely entertaining episode of the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode involved the cast coming into contact with a medieval demon that gets scanned into the schools computer system. The demon proceeds to possess two boys in the school, telling them in order to receive power, they must in turn give him their love. Doing so entails them carrying out his orders to kill characters such as Buffy. Although the show does tend to be a bit over the top and comical, it carried a very interesting message about the power of computers on our society.

Technology has become so prevalent in our society that we often look past the impact it really has. Although this show was shot in the 90's, it was already portraying how powerful technology is. One character pointed out that computers were not just a fad we were creating but an entirely new society. Here in the 21st century, we can see just how true that statement is. The show pointed out that technology controls all sources of medical information, missile info, and many more essential factors in our lives. Technology is not hard to access, and, just like the demon in the show, if put into the wrong hands, could throw our entire society into a meltdown. Too often, though, we become so enthralled in technology, we completely overlook just how much it controls us.

The old fashion librarian in the show had strong feelings against the internet. He stated that information was no longer available in books, but instead all online. He was very bothered by this as he has never became very technology savvy himself. He saw it as a great threat because there was "no context, its there then its gone. Its intangible." It feels as if the writers of the show are trying to convey just how risky the overuse of technology has become and how controlling it is. Were the writers really portraying a demon in their show or was the demon really just the power technology has come to have over our society? There is a good chance the writers were trying to make the point that the more we allow technology to control us, the less power we will hold as humans. CMC has come to be such a prevalent factor in our lives, and while it is often very useful, it can also come to control us if we don't learn to keep our personal relationships and tangible resources alive, too.