The short story "Videotape" written by Don DeLillo speaks about a girl and what she accidentally, or maybe intentionally, records while in the car with her parents.  The girl records normal things such as a man waving, but as the tape continues to play out, we later find out that "Video Girl" records a man being murdered as we see a shot to the head.  Author DeLillo brings up a very important topic in regards to our uses of technology.  In the beginning of the short story, DeLillo begins paying much more attention to the description of the girl rather then the thought of the shooting.  This isn't really considered a social norm because usually, the news of a shooting would trump a girl simply playing around with a videocamera. The author also speaks about the girls ideas toward the technology she is using, specifically her camera.

The author starts the short story by separating the way the child acts from the way the adults do.  DeLillo describes the child as somewhat of a investigator, searching for things.  Children, in general, are more concerned with or invested in their surroundings whether it is in regards to people or things.
"You know how kids get involved, how the camera shows them that every subject is potentially charged, a million things they never see with the unaided eye.  They investigate the meaning of inert objects and dumb pets and they poke at family privacy.  They learn to see things twice." (52).

This short paragraph sums up why it is a critical time for children to have limitations with technology.  When DeLillo describes the child, his description of the girl is immature, with a world of knowledge surrounding her.  The author seems to use the camera as her pathway to this world of knowledge. This is true.  But there is a fine line between technology opening a world of knowledge, and technology taking over our kids.  Today, children seem to be more and more into technology rather then even having a basic conversation.  It isn't a stretch to say that technology is taking over the lives of our youth, and DeLillo's small mention of technology foreshadows the horrors of today.  With this abuse of our modern day technologies, there is a lack of development of basic communication skills.  Simple things like family dinners are being tainted with silence.  Instead of talking about the day over dinner, fun family conversations have changed to awkward silence and phones buzzing.  It can't be forgotten that these types of things are still important.  This information is backed up by an article published by "one of the world's leading innovators in science and technology" (Scientific American Magazine)  Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA.

"In today's fast-paced, technologically-driven world, some people consider the traditional family dinner to be an insignificant, old-fashioned ritual. Actually, it not only strengthens our neural circuitry for human contact (the brain's insula and frontal lobe), but it also helps ease the stress we experience in our daily lives, protecting the medial temporal regions that control emotion and memory" (Is Technology Fracturing Our Family?) .

Contrary to this idea, forms of technology are the reason why our futures do seem so bright.  The author mentions the camera as a pathway, possibly a pathway to begin the child's artistic ability.  Maybe it is used to help the child find the beauties of things around them.  "The world is lurking in the camera, already framed, waiting for the boy or girl who will come along and take up the device, learn the instrument..."(53) .  DeLillo hints that there is something to be taught to the child by the camera. Treating it as if it were an instrument that was to be "learned".  This is an interesting phrase for the obvious reason that you can't really learn a camera in the literal sense.  Despite this, I agree with the point he is making in that the child uses the camera as some sort of game to learn and better understand.  For some reason, the use of the camera somewhat disconnects the girl with the murder incident because she saw it through a lens.  Although she recorded it on her own, the author has made the reader feel that it's almost less of a horror since the saw it through the "eyes" of the lens.

The second point DeLillo has brought up dealt with Video Girl, the random man and his wife, and the attitude the author suggests regarding the group.  Both sets of people are basically being unaffected by violence.  The characters in the story can't stop watching the murder of the innocent man. DeLillo pays more attention to the girl's use of the camera rather than the shooting that she just filmed. I think the author touches on an extremely important issue dealing with how violence is looked at as somewhat of a party now.  It's now grabbing a large amount of attention.  There is even a quote that states "It's like watching a bad car accident..you can't look away.." Wouldn't the right thing to do be to help the people in the accident? Not literally, of course, being  that it's just a video, but shouldn't there be some panic? Is there a quote that states "It's like watching a bad car accident... you see it then immediately stop and try to help!" The answer is no, there is no quote like that.  Although there should be. From violent video games to the beheading of an investigative journalist by Isis shared on Facebook, DeLillo foreshadowed the downward spiral of societies opinions towards violence as becoming a social norm.

Although DeLillo's short story "Videotape" was written in the early 1990's, it mentions issues that have grown to be extremely important over the past two decades.  With new technology on the markets, children's use of these technologies are increasing more and more.  This is foreshadowed throughout the little girls use of her videocamera as she's learning her environment.  DeLillo also discuses the issue in regards to societies increasingly large obsession with violence by explaining how the character is drawn to the shooting almost as if they've been waiting for it for so long.  In society today, violence is at such an all-time high that it is considered completely normal.  Author Don DeLillo touched upon much more than what is in the clear text and has a great way of making readers think from when the piece was originally written and even in future years.
