One Lindsay Lohan is Enough!

I must have been eleven or twelve years old because I absolutely loved Lindsay Lohan. You know, back when she was too young to be trashy. I think I liked her so much because she had freckles, and she wasn't really that cute. I had a lot of those akward freckles in middle school, and it was nice to know that someone famous did too.

Anyway, one day Linday Lohan's The Parent Trap came on Disney Channel, and I was floored to find out that she had a twin sister! When did this happen? Has her sister just been shy up until this point? I did not understand how she just came out of nowhere!

I probably thought she had a twin sister for two or three years until my dad finally told me that it was digital effects. Apparently, movies can film the same person on two separate occasions and combine the two clippings to make it look like they are interacting. Who knew?!

To be perfectly honest, I was kind-of mad. I felt like I had been deceived. But at the same time, I was in complete awe that technology was capable of pulling off such a stunt. I mean, Lindsay was holding her own hand in the movie, and it looked completely real!

That realization was the first time I ever stepped back and thought about what all the video games I played and television shows I watched were actually capable of. What other things had I overlooked? What else could be created?

These kinds of questions are what drove me to the New Media Institute at UGA. I may not be the most technologically savvy person in the world, but I am one of the most curious. To me, the applications of the questions "why" and "what if" are much more important than the question "how?"

These are the questions I will continue to ask throughout the semester in relation to digital storytelling, a class about engaging others in life's journies while pushing the limits of technology.