THE SURROGATES

1. THE SURROGATES The following survey tries to determine… How the messages and purposes behind the film were interpreted by the audience, and how it affected the viewers opinion on technology currently. Survey Interpretation

2. Despite The Surrogates being a central part of the Learning Community curriculum, most have heard of the movie through trailers and surprisingly, not through a professor.

3. Most people have read the book or are planning on doing so. This makes sense, considering it’s based around a school assignment.

4. Most seemed to feel that the film did a better job presenting the story than the graphic novel. Perhaps because movies tend to be more engaging. It can also be easier to portray something with actions like in a film than it is to use words.

5. The deeper the blue, the more positive the opinion. The darker the red, the more negative the opinion. Purple stands as neutral. Tom’s more pessimistic view of surrogacy meets strong agreement from those surveyed, showing most have similar thoughts on the effects of surrogacy. Maggie’s more positive, crazed obsession with surrogacy meets obvious disapproval, although a few seem to agree with it. Interestingly enough, there are mixed views on Dr. Canter’s rather violent, adamant opposition to surrogacy. Overall, it seems the crowd tends to agree more with viewpoints that see the negatives of surrogacy.

6. Those surveyed found Tom the most relatable, which makes sense because he is the main character and that was probably the aim when he was created. He also has a more grounded, realistic view on surrogacy, which most seem to agree with. A fair amount also related to Maggie, perhaps because she desired to live a luxurious virtual life through surrogacy, which is a common desire of plenty.

7. About half consider using a surrogate, but only in the case of job safety. About a quarter were strictly against surrogacy and wouldn’t use them in any case. Although some admit they would potentially use a surrogate frequently, the general consensus view is against the use of surrogacy, with the biggest exception being made purely for personal safety.

8. The spread of the perceived purposes is fairly even. However, overall, it was most strongly felt that the purposes behind the film were to convey a message, entertain, and bring the graphic novel to life.

9. Working off of the previous graph where at least a quarter felt that the movie was made to convey a message: when asked what message the film was most strongly getting across, nearly half agreed that The Surrogates showed that technology is too involved in our everyday lives.

10. From the results, the overall view seems to be that while we should continue to advance with technology, there should be moderation in which we use it, because we are becoming increasingly dependent on technology for many aspects of everyday life.

11. Many feel that a future like this is fairly possible. While in reality, surrogates will probably never be created, there are still addictive technological devices (such as computers and the internet where virtual lives can be lived), and through these devices, the same technological dependence that is shown is surrogates seems possible.

12. Findings • Technology in many aspects of daily lives nowadays. • Movie portrayed an extreme view of the dependency some of society has on technology today. While a little dramatic, it still realistically points out how technology has canceled out most of the work in many everyday tasks, and when facing these tasks without our technology, we are lost. • People acknowledge that technology is overtaking most aspects of life nowadays. They feel that there is more dependency on technology now more than ever.