The Veldt

Honestly, I was quite shocked when reading the second half of this story. In the beginning, I was convinced that this kind of technology, giving children an immersive experience based on their imagination, was a landmark in technological development. I could imagine the huge benefits it would bring to the medicine, entertainment, and the education industry. But it is too often for us to merely focusing on the positive side when something new comes out and neglecting its negative side. From this story, the home seems to take the place of parents. ‘The house is wife and mother now, and nursemaid. Can I compete with an African veldt? Can I give a bath and scrub the children as efficiently or quickly as the automatic scrub bath can? I cannot'(Bradbury 3). This is the doubt raised by the husband. And I think this the question we need to ask ourselves when we implementing ubiquitous computing in our real life. To what extent, should we allow these computers to help us deal with things? If they manage to solve most of the problems, then who is dominating who? In the story, the feedbacks of the two children give me a sense of feeling that normal family life is interrupted by these high-tech things. Heavily relying on ubiquitous computing results in the consequence that these kids learn from watching instead of practicing, which is not supported by their parents. To some extent, the room in this particular story is going out of the parents’ control based on the freedom given by the designer. Then we come back again to the question of who is the governor of this space, the kids, the designer, or parents? ‘ however, the room has become a channel toward-destructive thoughts, instead of a release away from them'(Bradbury 8). When the room is running on the opposite side of its original design idea, who is there judging whether to shut all these things down, the doctor? This is another question that remained to be answered. 

I hold the opinion that we should clearly define the role technology(diffusion) is playing in our real life. The reasonable rule and baseline are that it should never dominate our lives. They should play the role of the tools helping us to lead a better life. Though readers may argue there is nothing wrong with the room itself, it’s just showing the things that children are desiring to see. While the fact is that it ruins the family relationship. No matter the process, we should insist on that baseline.