The short story "Videotape" by Don DeLillo focuses on 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, we find out that "Video Girl" records a man being murdered as we see a shot to the head.  DeLillo brings up a very important topic in regards to our uses of technology.  In the beginning of the story, DeLillo pays  more attention to describing the girl than to the shooting.  This seems to depart from the usual journalistic norms being that the legitimate focus should be on what is being recorded and not who is recording. The author also speaks about the girls ideas toward the technology she is using, specifically her camera.  DeLillo mentions how the camera helps the young girl grow as an investigator, looking deeper into every subject that falls into the screen of her camera, which is positive.  Contrary to that, what she finds might not be something anyone would want to see, but still holds her attention.  "Videotape" by Don DeLillo is a work of literature that exemplifies how new forms of technology can be progressive to adolescent growth by giving children a gateway of exploration, and also harmful by exposing them to inappropriate material that might later become a societal norm due to such easy access.
"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). 
In this short paragraph, the author begins to lecture the reader, giving the feel that he disapproves of the child using technology up until the last sentence.  When the author says "They learn to see things twice." I believe it's a good early example of children beginning to become analytical thinkers.  Rather than looking over everything, the children begin to focus and play close attention to things they normally wouldn't.   Contrary to this, when DeLillo describes the child, his description of the girl is immature.  When he uses words such as "poke" when discussing family privacy which gives us the idea that he is talking about someone who might be uneducated or immature.

The author mentions the camera to be a pathway, possibly a pathway to begin the child's artistic development.  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) . When the author calls the camera an "instrument" rather than a piece of technology, it suggests that the person using the camera might be some type of artist, with the camera being their  journey to gain artistic ability.  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, the point he is making is that the child uses the camera as some sort of game to learn and better understand her surroundings.  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 by giving the camera a human quality.  Not only has the girl now seen someone being killed, but if she wanted to, technological advances allow her to share the video world-wide with simply a click.

The second point DeLillo suggests involves not only the girl but also the random man and his wife, and the attitude the author suggests regarding the two.  Both sets of people are seemingly unaffected at first sight, but with a deeper look, they both are affected.  The characters in the story can't stop watching the murder of the innocent man.  Has it become a social norm to feel the need to watch gruesome acts of violence?  The husband and wife seem to be corrupted without them even knowing. DeLillo nonchalantly mentions how the girl filmed the killing of a man which doesn't suggest that there is any damage to the girl recording it.  Despite this, a young girl has just filmed something most people go through their lives seeing; the emotional stress this young girl must go through seems to be unimaginable.  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 becoming something deemed as less intense than it really is.

Although  "Videotape" was written in the early 1990's, it raises 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.  This is foreshadowed throughout the little girl's 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.
