YouTube will get me famous

My last blog I want to bring up the YouTube craze that is sweeping the Internet. YouTube has opened the doors for several online celebrities, and also cause several uproars with companies on infringement problems. Who hasn't spent hours watching ridiculous videos on YouTube? I want to investigate how YouTube has extended reach for future musicians and creation of online celebrities. Before YouTube the only videos that were around were music videos and blog websites to watch funny videos. Now google anything you want and more than likely a YouTube video will appear. Focusing on musicians they now have the ability to start a craze that will allow them to get views and hopefully looks from talent agencies. Now artist have a new venue to perform for and it may help create a career for them. Take Alexis Jordan for example. She was on America's Got Talent and then her YouTube videos became viral. That then lead to her being signed by Jay-Z's label RocNation. Alexis Signed to RocNation .  
Same goes for all new online celebrities. Several have had the opportunity to actually become famous because of the viral videos they have created. Look at Tosh.O he actually features some of the most ridiculous videos and invites those people in for redemptions. Also you can see various people getting a start by being featured on several talk shows such as Ellen. Then you have those who are making parodies of videos and getting many views off of that. My favorite group would be Songify and the hilarious musical flips they do.
So is this craze creating a new way for people to do outrageous things to become famous? I think people are starting to abuse YouTube in hopes to become famous and can cause several problems because some don't know what is right and wrong. 

The Positive Side of Indulging in Technology

Another student wrote a very interesting blog post on the affects technology has in making us lazier as human beings and increasingly dependent on the devices we use. The blog post touched on how we’ve become so consumed by our technology that it’s created ignorance to theses new novelties in life that we experience everyday and how our generation is creating a wider gap from past generations because of technology. This post had a lot of valid points and got me thinking a lot about how YES technology has it’s downfalls, but for the most part it has always had it’s downfalls from the beginning of time and that the pro’s always highly outweigh the cons. A media ecology approach to evaluating technology, within modern times, would be to look at our environment as a whole and historically. We then must notice that it directly reflects the way we communicate and behave. Ordering food via the Internet and online shopping are “historically” what’s modern and convenient in the 2000’s. Why waste time cooking or going to a mall just to find absolutely nothing of what you were looking for when you can do it all in a few clicks of a button? Isn’t this making us smarter consumers when time is so valuable?

Technology might make some of us lazier, but it is all about the individual’s usage of it. For example I have several health and fitness apps that actually encourage me to eat better and be more active. I never have time to watch the news the old fashioned way, but with news apps and breaking updates on my iPhone I am way more informed on current events. This medium has actually changed my environment and enabled me more intelligence.

I also really hate the thought of generation gaps because they happen in every generation with the older generation supposedly being more intelligent or as the student in the previous blog post said “blissfully ignorant”. My father recently got his first iPhone and has so much trouble with it. He’ll get so frustrated trying to upload something or navigate iCloud and I joke with him and say sarcastic things like, “Wow, you must of totally outsmarted the top paid programmers at Apple if you’re finding all these glitches in their software”. The man reads a new novel every week and is very intelligent, but for some reason has the hardest time working the simplest technology, which in my opinion is just another form of reading. You scan through everything until it makes sense and perhaps he is just “blissfully ignorant” to it.

I feel as if generation gaps are going to end with this generation. We have all been pounded into our brains the severe importance of technology and how understanding it, mixed with intelligence, gives you more of an upper hand on your fellow humans than ever before. We must all find our positive niche in using technology and embrace it.

Dear Technology, You are wonderful, but we are becoming increasingly indolent

Technology in general is doing one of two things to us.  It is making us lazier and inherently more dependent on it, as well as making us more specific and controlling.  Specifically, we are stuck in a generational  divide of being concise or careless consumers.  

The reason I say this is because it has never become easier to streamline your life through the technological advances made available to us.  Hungry in your night class and don't feel like cooking when you get home? It's no problem.  Just sneak on your laptop or use data on your smart phone to go online and order a pizza and have it delivered within five minutes of arriving home.  Also, we can shop and buy a myriad of other things online such as clothing, shoes, make-up, music, etc.  In fact, I haven't even bought an overpriced textbook out of the campus store in a few years.  The great thing about this is also that often times, there are reviews that one can read that have been written by our peers, for realistic feedback and anticipation on what to expect.  Websites such as tripadvisor.com and yelp.com are crucial to many people people in making distinctive decisions on where to dine and entertain oneself.  

The downside with the internet being such a cold medium is that we are losing our focus on how to productively spend our time.  This is what essentially what I mean by the fact that we have become careless consumers.  Our parents, the older generation didn't as readily have to worry about internet predators and trolling.  Not to mention that although we are connecting and communicating on sites such as Facebook and Instagram, is all of this extra banter really necessary? Or is it more of a narcissus syndrome and a need to validate the supposed awesomeness of our individual existence? Such seems to be the case on website such as fourchan, jezebel and gawker.  So many anonymous folks troll for the sheer pleasure of riling others up.  Also, many times when one is mindlessly shopping online, is that stuff really necessary, or is it ultimately more superfluous sartorial artifacts that we don't need, but still justify for our self esteems as we shop in our underwear at two in the morning.  

Overall, mass media is achieving its goal of improving the overall quality of our lives,  but we must be mindful of the other underlying costs associated with the penance we must pay to provide for ourselves these novel new ways of life.  One must be responsible and properly educated to reap the full benefits, lest we become oversaturated further, and muddle this mystery of our lives.  Some of the older generations tend to rebuke and renounce these new ways of life, and that is their own blissfully ignorant and or intelligent choice to make.

Attached is a cartoon from a website that I love about many social commentaries.

www.theoatmeal.com

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

opening an actual book for research?? really??

    Due to today's advent of technology...and as we all know that is .. Google. the actual method of researching a idea , topic, or what ever it may be in a book is extremely rare. Rare because it may be harder to do ? time consuming? Mostly because the invention of the internet and it infinite database of info and online books made looking up actual info in encyclopedias a primitive thing to do nowadays. You will find that almost everyone if not everybody that is in school doing research uses the internet as their book to look up info .
    I remember that when my parents were growing up and in my early years of school , they used to help me look up info in the encyclopedias. this took hours and hours of our time and sometimes got nowhere. Often at times the encyclopedias were out of date and were not concurrent. This made things worse and increased the time of doing the dreaded research. The modern internet today stays updated at a fingertips notice and almost instantaneously eliminating the need for re publishing issues and newer versions of some books in some cases. What an amazing improvement now.
     For some of those who were born during and after the age of Google, the ease for them of researching info at a fingertip has been taken for granite. My little brother for example was born into the Google age. He has not experienced looking up info and doing research in the old fashioned text book style. To him its far-fetched and just senseless idea to do such thing. So why does he think this? Some people thinks its because of being lazy. i think in a way it is. However it is so widespread that it has become the norm for all . but does it make it more meaningful for people to look up info the old fashioned way? i believe so . For me it makes the material more meaningful and makes the understanding much better, you have the ability to retain the info much better and remember it more. Google has made the access of info a lot easier but the retention of all that info less memorable for the short term memory.

Googles Driverless Car

The innovative thinkers of Google have not only developed but engineered a technology that could change the future of driving. Google has developed a car that can drive itself using intelligent driving software, proximity sensors, and GPS data.

Imagine being able to inform the car exactly where to go using a GPS system, then sitting back and enjoying the scenery waiting to arrive at your destination. The advanced sensory system allows the car to sense all of it's surroundings. It may even be said that this sensory system is more advanced than human perception. So could these cars be significantly safer than a human driving car? Sebastian Thrun, one of the many people who helped build Googles driverless car, seems to think so. The car can drive itself day or night, on

highways or narrow back roads, and even in back to back traffic. You can view Sebastian Thrun's promising outlook for the Google Car in his speech at TED: http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html. 

It may seem as though the technology of this new car is cut and dry, but receiving it's full legalization is going to be a long journey. Google received it's U.S. license to test drive this new car from Nevada's DMV. This was made possible when the 2011 legislation in the state allowed the test driving of vehicles that were capable of piloting themselves. Google's self driving technologies have been put into 8 cars including the Audi TT, Lexus RX450h, and 6 Toyota Priuses. Don't worry, the car isn't all auto controlled. If the driver taps the break or turn the wheel, they are reverted back to manual controlling. So if you feel like the car may not be making the right decision, the option is available to do it yourself. 

People say that a human brain can never be as smart as a computer. Does the same hold true for this new technology? Could human perception never be as accurate as a self driven car? We use GPS to find our way around as it is, usually getting irritated about taking the wrong turn or driving miles in the wrong direction because we missed a direction or read them wrong. Having a car make these decisions for us could eliminate all the confusion. The car could sense the traffic ahead taking a different route whereas our human perception could only see the traffic as we pull into it. Imagine you are driving on a  back road at night and a deer jumps right out in front of you, our perception and reaction of this situation may lag and we may end up hitting the deer, either causing physical harm to us or our vehicle. We may not have our full attention on the road at this given time, we could be texting, talking on the phone, or changing the radio station. What if this same thing happened in the driverless car? The cars main focus is it's surroundings without any distraction. So, it would sense the deer right away stopping the car and potentially avoid a car accident. The same goes for surrounding cars on a road or highway. 

Does this car also give the blind the access to drive? Blind people have depended on others to drive them around for so long. Imagine if they could drive themselves from point A to B. Giving them back their independence and allowing them to do things on their own time. Steve Mahan, a blind man who has lost 95% of his vision, shows this is possible.

The Google Car can not only make driving safer for the population but also giving the blind and handicapped the freedom to drive again. This technology shows that it may be worth it to trust technology more than you trust yourself. Advancements in technology have saved the lives of millions of people, so why wouldn't we trust it to drive us?

http://techland.time.com/2012/05/08/googles-driverless-cars-now-officially-licensed-in-nevada/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdgQpa1pUUE
http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html

IG seems more SAVY

 http://youtu.be/Pj73W_GUTPg

I was having trouble posting the video so here is the link incase you guys still want to watch. Thanks!

Destroying Our College Culture

In my previous blog posts I discussed the consequences of moving from traditional classroom education to online education. There is no doubt there are some serious consequences in making this move into a new form of higher education. There is clear evidence for the positive implications of internet education on society. It will offer global education to anyone with internet access providing the world a new and easier way to learn. I acknowledge the positive aspects of educating the world via the Internet but I am more concerned with the negative implications that arise in the transition from traditional college education.

The experiences and human interactions found on traditional University campuses are important to society and need to be taken into consideration before we replace it with online education. Universities help shape and define our culture and acts as a foundation for individuals. The environment of traditional Universities promotes the creation of individual values and identity. I am concerned with the Internet’s inability to produce this “student culture”.

Personally, I would not be the individual I am if it had not been for my attendance at a University with a strong culture and exciting campus. I am a student as well as an employee for the University of Cincinnati and my personal experiences has allowed me to find out who I am and build personal relationships with fellow students and faculty. These experiences and relationships would not exist if I had attended an online University and I would not be the person I am without them.

Why don't people write notes and letters anymore??

I was helping my mom clean out her basement because they are moving soon and I came across a bad FULL of notes from my friends that were from junior high and high school. I eventually got the time to read all of them and they made me laugh and think about different things that happened then and I was thinking, "It stinks that kids don't write notes anymore." I know that when my sister was in junior high and high school phones had already been out and notes faded because people would just text their friends. I think it stinks because if I wouldn't have found those notes, I wouldn't haven been able to remember all those times that my friends wrote about. There were so many things that I had forgotten about and I'm so glad that I saved those notes. Now, everyone texts and emails more than anything. People even call and have conversations less on phones than they do with texting. So what is it about texting that takes away from writing a note? The thing I love about texting is that it's fast and you don't have to continue on a conversation with someone. Sometimes you just want to say a few words or even just one word and you don't feel like calling the person for that. But I feel like that takes away from the memories that you won't have over the years. Now that I have all those notes from high school, I have memories to share with my kids one day. You don't have that on phones unless you save every text message and your phone wouldn't even be able to hold that many texts.

The same goes with letters. I still occasionally write a full fledge letter to a friend or family member and it makes me feel good. I would LOVE to get a letter in the mail. It wasn't that long ago when people still wrote letters, but I feel like it's so vintage. It's fun opening the envelope and knowing that somebody was thinking of you this much that they had to write a letter. That's awesome! People need to write letters more! That's easier to say then do. People are rushed more these days. Having their phone at their finger tips and sending an email or text is much quicker than sitting down and writing a long letter to a friend. But the letter is more intimate.

For those of you who watch How I met your Mother, phones are like Barney Stinson. They are young and want to quickly get into everything and be over with it quick too. On the other hand, letters and notes are like Ted Mosby. They want to have a lasting relationship and take their time to make sure everything is just right.

I know people still won't write letters and most definitely a professor is not going to catch a student in class passing notes, but people should do that more. Think of your friend or family member who is going to get the mail and see a letter from you. Their face is going to light up and you'll be the most greatest friend they have.

Google God -- where we stand

In my last blog post, I went through the many ways in which Google has transformed how people think about and interact with God. The many facets of Google have enhanced our ability to research theological questions and to share our thoughts and feelings with others. They've retrieved a sense of community, where we're always connected with sources of information and people we want to interact with. Continuing with Marshall Mcluhan's 4 Laws of Media, I now want to look at what Google obsolesces and retrieves in regards to spirituality.

To start, Google obsolesces concordances. This is a good thing, because it can get annoying constantly looking up key words in a giant book to try to find where a verse is in another giant book. With a simple search, you can find where any verse is in the Bible. There are even websites like openbible.com which will show you all of the verses that deal with a certain topic. It harnesses the power of collaboration because people can vote verses as helpful or not, ensuring that after awhile, the most pertinent verses will be at the top of the page. However, social networking sites like Google+ can also obsolesce the need to share one's faith with friends. Posting a verse or thought about can give the feeling of having shared something deep, but in reality it may not even penetrate the glaze on many readers' eyes. It may end up blending in with the onslaught of information we all receive daily, and would not be nearly as effective as if shared personally.

Google is all about speed and efficiency, so it's no wonder that even deep thought itself is becoming obsolete. If I'm struggling to remember the actor in a certain movie, instead of sending a series of synapses throughout my brain, I can just Google it. Instead of remembering directions to some place, I can just look at Google maps on a smart phone on the way there. According to this article in the Daily Mail, an England-based newspaper, researchers at Harvard and Columbia University have done tests showing that we are starting to only remember where to look up information, not information itself. Since we have 24-hour access to the internet, we're using it as an external brain and our own brains are becoming useless. What does this have to do with God? Obviously, spiritual things are not surface-level topics. These are deep subjects that require the time and the effort to ponder. Yet with Google trying to provide us with an experience that uses the lease time and effort, we're becoming scatter-brained and having difficulties with concentration. One does not simply connect with God without time and focus.

So while the advantages of Google seem to make everything in life better, they may actually have a reverse effect (the last of the four laws) in some areas of spiritual life. We may think that having access to so many sermons and encouraging websites would draw us closer to God, but maybe all God wants is our time. James Bryan Smith, author of The Good and Beautiful God, says that "hurry sickness" is the number one spiritual illness of our day. "We have unhesitatingly bowed to the god of productivity and sacrificed our wellness in order to appease it." Smith points out that in the Bible, there is a time when Jesus comes to visit two women, one of whom is rushing about the house cleaning and cooking while Jesus is there. The other woman is sitting at his feet and listening to him talk. He says the one at his feet has chosen the better way. I think many Christians can be like the woman who was rushing around. We try to use technology to learn more about God, share with others, and do good deeds. Yet sometimes those good intentions can be reversed into us becoming stressed, seeming shallow, or saturating people with the same thing over and over.

I think Christians are standing at an interesting crossroads in the technological world. We have so many new possibilities thanks to Google and many other giants in the industry. But we can't forget that there is no app for intimacy with God. We have to  force ourselves to be "unproductive" sometimes and simply think about life. We need to slow our pace so that we can be present wherever we are. Instead of thinking about our next appointment, we can think about how to impact the people we are with for the better.

Google has radically changed our lives and will continue to do so in the future, but there are some things in life that are too important to just be feelin' lucky.

The Septuagenarian's Final Thoughts

 When deciding on how to wrap up the final blog, I asked my father to tell me which era he thought was better, and which was harder and to elaborate on his thoughts. He sent me this email:

The prohibition era was bad; the Internet era is good.

Thanks, Dad, for being so descriptive. Not that he lived during Prohibition, he fancies himself to be somewhat of a comedian, but he has been adamant on saying how much he appreciates this era now. A time with smart phones and tablets he sees as being a better time because of the greater accessibility to knowledge, people, everything. I am surprised he thinks it as such because I was certain he would decide that the simpler time was the better time.

Some things that we have lost out on as a society that we had in earlier times are;

• the joys of family dinners, 
• first dates where a person doesn't already know everything about the other because they checked their facebook profile, 
• face to face, one to one, genuine interactions with one another

And some things that are gained and that certainly make enrich our lives are;

• Real time updates for weather alerts and other breaking news
• Contact with people around the world at any hour
• "Global village" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_village_(term)
• Having a world of knowledge at our fingertips.

Before I jump into my DeLorean...

...and go back to a simpler, easier time as it might seem that I'm itching to do, let me explain myself.

Walking around on campus I overhear bits of conversation that goes something like, "Yea, he friended her, can you believe that?" "Oh my god, he might as well have just publicly poked her, that's so rude." "I know, and to think we just went FBO."

WHAT????? I am guilty of this jargon as well, it has worked itself into our every day discourse, but what does it mean? We are obsessing over virtual actions. Is that wrong? Some would say no, because virtual actions can be seen by some as capable of ruining relationships, (online flirting, dating sites, craigslist's infamous personals section...), but all of this is adding unnecessary complications into our day to day life. So from the social media standpoint, we have gained an obsession and paranoia about ours and others' actions online, and analyze them without pause.

So what do you think, would school have been harder then, than it is now? Minus the computers and the internet and all our technologic goodies? Sure, it is a godsend to have computers that facilitate and make writing papers a snap, and to have huge databases of sources and journals that we can access at any time and from anywhere, but with that comes all of the distractions that our culture has become so keen on multitasking with. Multitasking seems to be less and less of a fortuitous skill, and more of a hindrance because so often when we multitask our brains will focus on one part over the other and our work therefore suffers. A better way to sell yourself at an interview today might be to say that you have the ability to sit down, focus and concentrate on one task at a time!

It is scary for me to realize that I have a very difficult time trying to imagine a life without a cell phone, it literally seems impossible, I mean, how could people reach each other? What if their car broke down? In our overly technology crazed time, it does indeed seem like a time without instant access to others and the web would be impossible to live in, but you can't miss what you never had (Those in the 60s wouldn't have known what they were missing). 

I think it is important to stop and compare the two periods, periodically (haha) and realize all the great inventions that are available to us, and where we actually are today so that we don't end up in goo, realizing that we have just been living life in the Matrix.

Post Script: For some odd reason the beginning of the blog has a formatting error, I apologize I have tried to remedy it and can not figure out why it is not uniform. Ohhh technology, right? ( ;) ) 

Technology in our lives, business affects vs personal overlap

For this last blog I would like to address how communication technology affects our personal lives as well as our business lives and how they overlap; again focusing on Smartphones. As we all know the first blackberry with email, the 850 models were designed with business efficiency in mind. However, after their introduction and growth in popularity they started to take over our personal time. Before Smartphone email capability personal and business communication were separate. One worked from the time they clocked in to the time they clocked out. Most people didn’t even have ‘personal computers’, or ‘iMacs’ and the Blackberry opened the market to the general public. It quickly developed the nickname “Crackberry” because those that owned one were on it all the time. They would receive emails at all hours of the day and regardless of where they were they started to respond to email anywhere, with their girlfriend, with their wife, with their kids, with their parents or other types of private time that was once divided from business time and held high personal value. The email capabilities of the Blackberry changed the face of communication, as we knew it because it became an expectation that you would receive emails like text messages and in turn respond, which also developed the need for full keyboards on phones. The early models had a mechanical wheel and push buttons that wore out due to intense use. This ability to check email continued to evolve with the Smartphone to the point where it was standard on any phone, and the Blackberry platform began to fade into the background of the emerging Google platform, known as Android, and the ever dominant iPhone and Mac platforms. When these two key platforms were introduced they revolutionized the face of communication beyond what Blackberry ever imagined. They completely merged personal and business life. Their phones were given the capability to process multiple email accounts at once, therefore receiving both personal and business emails on our phones at all hours of the day. The rapid growth of technological advancement has made us all require quick and instant feedback. It has skewed our sense of time and space to the point that we miss our own lives as they fly by us. We don’t take the time to enjoy our personal lives anymore; our true one-on-one interactions. Personally when I am at dinner with someone or with a group I refuse to use my phone because I feel like anything that is happening on it can wait 45 minutes to an hour for a response and I can give the other person(s) my full attention for a bit and check out from my phone. At the same time as a server I watch people sitting at dinner, especially on dates, that wont hesitate to take a phone call at the table, and then proceed to be on the phone for thirty minutes, which I watch ruin their dinner. What is the point of going to dinner with someone when they spend all of their time on the phone? For whatever their reason for taking that call in the middle of dinner, it most likely has to do with business, that call “I have to take.” The Blackberry started the trend but it was honed and refined by the newest, most complex systems we have ever seen; systems that sync with our computers, facebook, twitter, mobile banking, gps and more. Systems that change our perception of time and space; time now moves faster than ever before and no one notices it because it feels normal; space that constantly shrinks and makes the world feel so much smaller, from face-time to the ability to look up anything or keep updates on anything you want. I know the goal of these Smartphones was to make things more efficient, and while they have accomplished that in general, they have had some negative effects on our personal lives. They merge everything we do into one big clump. They force us to never be focused on one specific thing at a time because we are constantly multitasking on our phones while we do other things. And they cause our family lives to suffer because we always feel detached to our families, because our families feel like we are not truly invested in our relationships. I think as a whole Smartphones have been beneficial to our world, and I will admit, I love mine. However it is a necessity to separate our personal lives from our business lives, to check out of the business communication world and into the personal communication world for a little while and be there 100%; for our girlfriends, wives, kids, parents, siblings and more. We need to find a way to balance it all out, and keep it as sincere as possible. After all, success in life in measured in many ways, but happiness in life is determined by the quality of our relationships and the only way to maintain them, we must give them our full attention more often than not. I know it feels like we will die if we don’t check our phones every ten minutes, but the reality is, we will be fine, we will have higher quality relationships, we will be less stressed out, and by default, we will be much happier than if we allow our personal and business lives to intertwine themselves as they so desperately cling to each other and try to take over. We must take a stand and give our personal relationships the investment they deserve.

When I sold my soul to technology

I can remember very distinctly the first time I became obsessed with technology. When I was younger I wanted  a Nintendo more than anything else. I'm talking pre-Super NES and pre-N64. At the time I wanted nothing more than to play Mario and Duck Hunt for the rest of my life. I can remember how I thought the gun must have been taken from our government. I can remember how at this moment, looking back, I became obsessed with technology. Nothing else mattered to me. From then on there, every new technology that has come out, I had to have it. From the NES to the 360. From my dad's phone built in the car to my Iphone, nothing had changed. Every. new technology seemed to fascinate me. And in that fascination, I soon developed an obsession. I remember when I purchased my Iphone. I stood outside of the apple store for 4 hours before the store opened up to pick up my phone. By the time I got my phone and got home, I had fallen asleep. This is proof that my dedication to the receiving the technology had out-weighed my sanity. Being a "slave" to my phone, gaming console, and computer, I now realize how ridiculous my behavior has been. I look back and realize how ignorant I was to wait outside for a piece of technology that would bore me in six months when the "newest" technology would come out. The biggest question I have for myself is, do I want or need this new technology? Am I truly wowed by the newest and coolest thing, or am I just addicted to having the newest and coolest thing? From time to time I step back and question my decisions. I purchased Modern Warfare 3 when it came out. I went to the midnight release. I took a vacation day off from work the next day. I know, very sad. Did I buy the game because I loved the previous versions so much that this game is what I needed, or was it because that nobody would be playing Modern Warfare 2 anymore, that this game became a necessity?
Another example of my technology problem is when I purchased my first blu ray player. I was so excited to purchase the cool technology that  only after I got home, I realized I never asked an important question: Can I play DVD's on this thing? I didn't have any blu rays, all DVDs. Fortunately for me I found out that it could play all my DVD's. Eventually I became angry to learn that blu rays were almost twenty dollars more than DVD's. I've only recently come to terms with that. I've understood that technology, somehow, has become a part of my daily life. More so than I could have ever imagined, it has become a part of me.

Searching for Sensationalism

As has been the subject of my previous blog posts, I will continue to delve into the impact of technology on the nature of arguments. More specifically, how mobile technology has effected the credibility of an argument. I have stated many times in previous posts that people engaged in arguments often resort to desperately searching their smartphones for information to support their ideas. This desperate use of search engines to produce information in agreement with various arguments already skews any possible results obtained in the search. At the very least, it reduces the ability of a participant in an argument to seek independent information. Just the ability to obtain biased information from either conservative or liberal blogs creates a greater divide among people debating on a daily basis. While the internet and mobile technology is often seen as great fact finding tool, I believe that it has done more to harm the credibility of an argument as most results obtained through searches do not contain verifiable or empirical data. Very few people bother to take the time to read through academic or peer reviewed articles and instead fall in favor of reading opinionated blogs. Whether this is because it is a more entertaining medium for information or that it is more likely to support a particular bias, this seems to be more frequent with the rise of mobile information. Of course the rising popularity of political blogs is often due to the fact that many seek to find sensationalist stories, many of which consist of conspiracy theories. This can be seen today with the rise of the "birthed" movement and conspiracy sites such as Alex Jones" Infowars. Many of these sites claim to be breaking stories that mainstream sources have withheld from the public for the sake of maintaining a vast conspiracy. Often they cite supposed "credible sources" that upon further review may be very shaky. Because of the bold claims these cites make, many of the younger and influential internet audience have latched on to these movements. Defying older more traditional sources of media has become somewhat of a popular trend today in America. Unfortunately, these sources are not held to the same high standard and level of scrutiny that mainstream sources partake in. Many of these more traditional sources such as The New York Times and various cable outlets have attempted to latch onto the growing trend of mobile information but have yet to obtain the popularity of these underground sources among tech savvy users. As a result, arguments continue to lose credibility due to the rapid spread of disinformation in the form of sensationalism across the internet. The more these sensationalist sites are visited, the more likely they are to appear at the top of search results. This is an unfortunate reality and maybe and necessary evil of a democratic internet ecosystem.

Video for 5-24

Jane McGonigal -- Gaming can make a better world http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html Ali Carr-Chelman -- Gaming to Reengage Boys in Learning http://www.ted.com/talks/ali_carr_chellman_gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html

Video for 5-22

Michael Wesch -- From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8

Wiki leaks is an online forum which releases anonymous news. It's considered a cite composed of whistle blowers because they uncover corruption and expose classified information they feel the public show be aware of. Wiki leaks changes our media ecology. The question is is wiki leaks a pollutant or a filter in our media ecology.  Wiki leaks could be considered a pollutant in our media ecology. The cite released documents and materials that the government considers classified information. Some of this information may be a matter of national security which needs remain classified for our safety and our troops safety because we are in a time our war. Some of the information wiki leaks releases is not a matter of national security but does interfere with people's privacy. Blogger Derrick Ashong supports the idea that Wiki leaks is a pollutant in his blog found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-ashong/the-truth-about-transpare_b_789196.html. Ashong criticizes Wiki leaks motives by saying " There is a difference between holding government accountable for its decisions and holding government officials hostage to their words." The line between protecting the public and inducing panic that can become blurry. Wiki leaks is accused by other publication such as The New Republic as being harmful to foreign policy because it released email and letters sent by  diplomates. These emails and letters contained no real shocking information but Wiki leaks felt the public should have access to them.  Wiki leaks could also be considered a filter. It provides a big brother for the real "big brother" and is watching when no one else is. Blogger Bill Quigly supports what Wiki leaks stands for and their mission at his blog found  at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-quigley/why-wikileaks-is-good-for_b_789762.html. Quigly support Wiki leaks because it is participating in the checks and balances of democracy. By having these larger groups like Wiki leaks watch over government and large companies and keep them from abusing their power. Wiki leaks releases information that the public should be aware of and has exposed things such as corrupt military practices that would have slept through the cracks.  Wiki leaks may be considered a pollutant or may be considered a filter but it's there. Many more watchdog cites have emerged and will continue to be part of our media ecology. 

Videos for 5-17

Yochai Benkler on the New Open Source Economics http://www.ted.com/talks/yochai_benkler_on_the_new_open_source_economics.html Chris Anderson: How Youtube is Driving Innovation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Zo53M0lcY

Are you in a "Text Trance"?

If you think about how often you spend a day texting on your phone the number might surprise you. I decided to keep track of this myself and I realized that I spend 2 hours on average of my day texting.

In this blog I am going to give some examples of why texting is starting to consume our society. Below is a video that gives a great example of how texting can consume our day to day habits. If you really think about how often you text, you also need to think about, what am I missing when I am stuck in my "text trance"? A text trance happens when you cannot focus on anything else besides your text message. How many times have you ever ran into someone or been listening to someone talk and know nothing they said because of texting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPW8xmI4w6U

Although this example is quite funny, a lot of negative feedback from distracting texters that text and drive. The information below was found at aaafoundation.org under distracting drivers.

More than one million people have died in car crashes over the past 25 years in the U.S., with 33,788 lives lost in 2010 alone.

Drivers spend more than half their time behind the wheel engaged in distracted behavior.

Using a cell phone while driving quadruples your risk of crashing.

Not only can texting be dangerous to your health, but it can also can take away our natural instinct of analyzing our surroundings. People miss out on other people passing by, good deeds or chaos happening around them, as well as the natural environment that surrounds us. A lot of beautiful things are passed by without a glance while someones face is glued to the phone screen. Texting has began to consume our day to day lives. If you put the phone down and look around, you might find that you have been missing out on some important details about the world happening right in front of you. The one question I want to ask you is what have you been missing out on lately?

Our Virtual Self

In my last couple of blog posts I discussed how aspects of our lives have been turned into a virtual reality. This time I am going to argue that we have created a complete virtual second self. There are multiple ways that we have constructed our virtual selves, but usually the one way we do so is by enhancing qualities we wish we had.

For example, many people tend to hold in their innermost thoughts out of courtesy or shyness. But when they have an outlet to express those thoughts they have free rein. Christopher Poole (4Chan) created such an outlet in which users have complete anonymity. This allows for people who tend to be more shy, to be able to freely express their thoughts.  Even Facebook or LinkedIn profiles enhance our qualities that we want people to see. Facebook we can show pictures of our life that make us seem more exciting, post status updates that might make us seem more humorous, or have several hundred “friends” that make us seem more popular. LinkedIn profiles allow us to show off our professionalism, work experience, and our finer qualities.

Amber Case makes the argument that we all have a second life, and that aside from maintaining it we all go through an adolescent period. We go through the experience of first learning technology and social media and we make mistakes as adolescents. Then after going through those experiences we learn from our mistakes, just as we did when we were actual adolescents.  

Nearly everyone who has a social media profile has a second life. What they portray online is a different than their actual life because they’re enhancing the qualities they wish they have, or qualities they like most about themselves. As a personal example, I wish I led a more exciting life. I tend to enjoy being at home, and have a very small circle of friends. But several of my albums show me being out at fun events like Bark in the Park, or going to Columbus or other cities. Though I know I don’t lead that exciting of a life, I do try to portray otherwise on social media.

Social media has allowed everyone to expand aspects of their physical realities into virtual realities (such as friendships, photo albums, or creative ideas). Social media also allows us to create an entire virtual reality of our lives, by having the ability to create a second or virtual self.

This has many pros and cons. The pros of having a virtual life is we can connect to any person at any time, and we can create our ideal self. I created my ideal self by showing the more exciting version of my actual life.  Cons though include a clouded version of our real self, and lack of awareness of our physical reality. Sometimes when we get so wrapped up in our virtual lives, thinking about the perfect status update or which pictures to upload, we tend to forget that actual life we’re living. Amber Case explained that living in a virtual world we forget to reflect and appreciate our real-life experiences.

Social media and technology have so many abilities, but having that balance between a virtual world and a physical reality is essential.

Facebook doesn't have dictatorship as of now.

Evgeny Morozov: How the Net aids dictatorships

What if you logged onto Facebook tomorrow and everything is blacked out. Every post you have ever written, any comment you have ever made, and every like or dislike you've made has been blacked out.
The Internet has shaped our lives through our ways of thinking and interacting with one another. Countries around the world implement the Internet according to their needs, such as using it for social media or just for common directions from one place to another. I believe that our generation uses it to spread their own opinion about what they're doing at that point in time as well as how they feel about issues that the government is taking on or changing.

Facebook is a daily used social media tool that allows people to speak freely and interact with one another. Some people may not recognize what they type or like affects the opinions of others.We can find huge gaps between society, people, culture, and governments because of the Internet. This is because the Internet has no control over when people use it or what people may say. If the Internet starts to have any type of control of what we can and can not say, will we lose our own voice? If we are told that we can not have blogs, or opinionated posts about anyone in government, who will be able to speak freely? When will our voice be heard if our main source of communication like the Internet is monitored 24/7.  Does this go over our rights as citizens. What about Marshall Law? I believe that the Internet will not be monitored, becasue we the people we not allow it to happen. The government will not be allowed to control what we say or when we say it. The Internet has no dictatorship, let's not allow it too. 

2 Effects Digital Media has on Your Life

 Digital media has become very intrusive in my opinion to our lives, especially when speaking of two aspects that are very important. These two aspects I am going to talk about are modern family life, and experiencing the world or life as it has been presented to us. Digital media such as smart phone and lap tops have become a disturbance when you think about the relationships you have with your family and the experiences of the world that we have been blessed with.

                When it comes to your family life, circumstances are obviously much different than previous generations due to the advancement in technology. I notice, not only of others but with myself as well, that sometimes family is set to the side in order to obtain the addiction to a medium screen. The biggest change of time spent with your family is at the dinner table. When out to eat at a restaurant with family, I have noticed that many families are spending more time fidgeting with their smart phones rather than using the quality time to interact with their own family. Even while at my family’s holiday dinners I have noticed the more recent generations of people are sitting on the couch browsing what their smart phones have to offer, and the older generations are wondering about the house looking for a new member of the family to begin a conversation with. As I spoke about in my paper, it is also interesting to observe how I have received numerous text messages or emails after performing well in a baseball game, but then 3 days later I receive congratulatory cards in the mail with a letter from the older generations in my family. Another part of family life that I noticed this past weekend would go as far as watching over your children. While I was relaxing in the hot tub, I noticed a family with younger parents come into the pool area, and whilst the children swam and played in the pool, the parents were glued to their smart phones, iPads, etc. There are more instances that fall under this category, and after you realize the effects of digital media with family life, it is very interesting to sit back and observe different events that fall into this aspect.

                This next aspect of life that is affected by digital media is very interesting to take a look at. After viewing a video on the internet, it made this topic more apparent to me. Digital media is a complete disturbance to the interaction with the world that has been given to us to embrace. Now days since people live through the computer screen, no one takes a moment to take a walk outside and absorb the environment or beauty of nature. We have limited ourselves of full access to the wonderful world that has much to offer. Rather than actually visiting the Rocky Mountains, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon, etc. we have found it just a pleasing to just view these images on the internet. Also embracing the abilities humans are capable of with a bit of training, we are more content to watch other people conquer these acts of exuberance. We have submitted to digital media to experience the sights and wonders of the world rather than interacting with it personally. People are more caught up in checking their facebook or twitter rather than fulfilling these wondrous emotions that can come of viewing something beautiful or experimenting and training our bodies to do some unbelievable actions. I have attached a video below that is meant to be one of the digital media that allows us to experience without actually embracing, but can also succeed in showing events that we are missing out on because of being occupied with a particular digital medium for hours of the day.

 

Reflection of Technology

            Technology is one of the most important parts of my life, which is hard to say because it is unreal how affected my life would be without technology. Every single day everyone uses some sort of technology. Such as; every morning I wake up to an alarm clock, make phone calls or text messages on my cell phone, I use the computer for homework and emails, lights in my house, watch television, etc. With today’s day and age, we are swarmed with technology and it’s a way of life for us because we are so dependent on it. If something were to happen to where all technology failed, I would not know what to do to have food and communication would be very difficult. I have as much respect possible for our ancestors who survived through the age where they used fire for light and to cook the food that they hunted for because they did not have technology for food to go through a process and into a store.

            Technology certainly dominates my way of life, and I would be hopeless without it. This is a very scary statement but true for me and many people of my generation, some generations before, and most definitely the future generations. In my opinion, technology is already somewhat a destroyer of society. Technology makes tasks around the household much easier that there are other tasks people worry about, and unlike the old times, there is not a family effort to keep a household steady which may be the cause of a higher divorce rate now then back then, in my opinion. I’m excited and frightened by what technology will turn into for years to come in the future.

If Facebook is Making us Lonelier, are Dating Sites Doing the Same?

After reading the article posted by Professor Jenkins (Is Facebook Making Us Lonely), I couldn’t help but wonder if Dating sites are doing the same thing, or at the very least making it harder for those who use these websites to date in real life.

Dating sites have created a culture where you submit your information (assuming you were not lying on the questionnaire or to yourself) and wait for some mysterious algorithm to give you a list of potentially compatible mates. It has expanded our need for instant gratification; users assume that within a matter of weeks they will find their soul mate based on what a computer generated matching system has told them. It’s my belief that dating sites in all that they do have made people less date-able, just as some would argue Facebook has made us lonelier. With these dating sites you have the luxury to assume that you and your interested partner have some things in common, you won’t have a boring or awkward first date because your personalities are bound to match (and more than likely you have been in communication via emails or phone calls before you actually meet in person), you aren’t supposed to be nervous about the first major fight because your core values will most likely be the same. Now say after one, maybe two, or even three to five times of ‘dating’ different people on this website I would assume you have found your life partner (if the success rates the dating sites claim are correct). Now think about where we have traditionally found our spouses usually in the same social circle, through a friend, at work or school, or maybe even in our neighborhood or church. Traditionally dating required that you socially extend yourself in the search of a partner, now with dating sites you don’t have to do that, and without that need for social interaction to find a partner one would think that the lack of these meaningful relationships and interactions would make us lonelier.

In her article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely” Stephen Marchie writes “our omnipresent new technologies lure us toward increasingly superficial connections at exactly the same moment that they make avoiding the mess of human interaction easy….[Facebook] enables us to be social while sparing us the embarrassing reality of society.” I would argue that dating sites do the same thing, especially if you do most of your communication via technology (emails, phone calls, skype, etc.) while dating and during the time that you ‘fall in love.’ This sort of communication saves you from the embarrassing moments of tripping in front of your partner, spilling something down the front of your blouse, having something stuck in your teeth, those awkward moments of silence, but I would also argue that it hinders your opportunity to truly get to know your partner. It’s during those awkward times that you eventually form a unique bond and get to know your partners quirks that make them such a unique person and essentially your other half.

For all the services dating sites provide, I fear that they are doing just as many disservices.

Sherry Turkle, in her 2011 book, Alone Together: wrote “the ties we form through the Internet are not, in the end, the ties that bind. But they are the ties that preoccupy.” While Turkle was mainly referring to social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) I feel that her quote can be applied to dating sites as well.

I found a scholarly article that supports my personal beliefs to an extent, and for my next blog I will more than likely further examine this article "The Impact of Emotionality and Self-Disclosure on Online Dating Versus Traditional Dating".

Where is your representative?

Recently our class watched a video that talked bout how our "selves" are going to collide. I believe that to be true. We have so many selves especially when it comes to dating with the influence of technology. Dating websites, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook gives us the ability to create different selves. Selves are who we want to be, but don't have the courage to become that person. So having these social network sites allows us to become who we want to be! When our parents were our age, they only had their one self to represent. They could't invent somebody, post a photo shopped picture to make somebody fall with them. They had to bring who they were to the table. In our generation we have the ability to digitally alter photos, lie about what we want in a relationship just to get somebody to take a second look.

So, since you have your dating profile which I imagine it looks something like this.....

Nice, Right? Wrong. Technology has become so advanced to the point where we can make a whole new person to represent us. But when somebody sends us a message on the dating website, or Facebook wanting to meet you who are you going to send? Your representative? No. See this is where your representative/self collides with you. What do you do? Your parents didn't have to go through this, it was very simple during their time. While dating websites requires you to put up a picture for your profile to be complete, it is up to you to put up YOUR picture. A picture of you that totally represents you, not who you want to be. Since this is my last post I wanted to leave you with a funny commercial that totally sums up what I am trying to say. Enjoy!

Click here!

Social Media And the Battle of Men vs. Women

     While watching Johanna Blakley in her youtube clip, “Social media and the end of gender” I had mixed feelings about her stance on women and demographics in the media.  What’s wrong with my age demographic?  I kind of like the idea of a box that I fit into comfortably and are surrounded by all different kinds of people my own age.  But according to Blakley, the days of those kinds of demographics are over.  It’s no longer about what age group you fit in; it’s about what you choose to click on.  So instead of separating the digital population into age groups where anyone over 52 doesn’t even exist, I think social media has divided us up the old school way: boys vs. girls.

            Blakley believes social media has brought the end of gender differentiation in the media and I have to say I disagree.  From her presentation she showed how women have overtaken social networking and are the main representation of who fuels the social networking craze.  How would these sorts of findings represent an end to gender?  To me, it points to a very different conclusion, which there will be more of a gender divide and a marketing push to engage the women who social network on those sites.  For Example:

Facebook:  Facebook is a prime example, at first look, of a gender-neutral space.  The layout is plain and any opportunity to customize it is limited to ensure most pages look the same.  But Facebook has begun to understand who their main audience is and is making changes to accommodate them.  The new “timeline” layout allows a more customizable page in which women can make their space more personal and aesthetically pleasing.  The adds on the homepage are personalized by our facebook activity so the more time you spend on facebook, the more personal and relatable those ads will be.  This specifically targets the women who spend more time of facebook because those are the women whose ads will most likely associate with them best and result in a sale.

Twitter: Twitter satisfies the constant need to update and know what’s going on in other people’s lives without having to put much effort in.  I’m a woman and whether or not I like to admit it, the updates and whereabouts of my friends and those around me does interest me.  Twitter allows me to follow whomever I want without much notice and keep an update on them.  My cousin, a man, does not believe in Twitter or the use of it to update himself on people he doesn’t care about who he feels are “flaunting their lives to feel better about themselves”.  Does he have a point?  Yes.  But it doesn’t make me love Twitter any less.         

Blogging:  The blogging world has become a place that men can access but women have taken hold of and (seems like) will never let go.  Blogs are a place that women can find other women who are interested in the same things they are and relate to each other.  Women can talk and network with others on subjects that are important to their everyday lives.  Feeling like they are part of a group or something bigger than themselves is a state woman can understand and have a gravitation towards.  Men, obviously, can have blogs and are very present in the blogging world.  But the decoration and maintenance of the site, the pictures used, really the whole idea is focused on activities that women traditionally enjoy. 

Pintrist:  Pintrist is the perfect example of a site that may be gender neutral in set up but is focused on the women’s demographic.  A site that allows people to “pin” or save what they like as pictures and go back to it later seems neutral enough.  But when the biggest categories are crafts, home decoration and wedding ideas the main audience isn’t hard to pinpoint. 

Social networking caters to the type of people who want to feel connected, who want to feel liked, who want to feel like they are part of a group.  Women, traditionally, have been the leaders in all of these categories and therefore naturally will be the most satisfied with Social Networking sites.  The object of any business venture is to target the audience that will bring in the most revenue, in this case women.  Instead of downplaying the gender differences like Blakley thought, I feel that the Internet has realized who their largest audience is and moved towards catering to them.  Not only have the type of sites available started associating themselves more with women’s needs, but sites that have been up for awhile are starting to implement aspects that women like.  The male hasn’t been forgotten or disregarded in social networking, the woman is just more available and therefore targeted more specifically.              

Rise of the Planet of the Apps

Just like the moon, there is a bright side and a dark side to the explosive popularity of mobile devices. More often than not, we can see the bright side clearly, but sometimes fail to notice or acknowledge the dark side. As with other forms of technology in the past, we are quickly becoming dependent on mobile devices and the apps that populate them.

It seems like nearly everyone around us these days has some sort of Internet-enabled mobile device: a smartphone, a tablet, a personal media player, etc. Usually, if one person does not have one of these devices, someone adjacent to them almost certainly does. One of the more common phrases I have heard over the past couple of years has been "Hey, can you look something up on your phone for me?" Our dependence on mobile technology has grown to the point where even those without mobile devices are becoming reliant on those who do. Rather than waiting to use alternative means to seek information or media themselves, they are much more comfortable with asking another individual to access that media for them on the spot.

Of course, there are others who do have firsthand access to these devices, and have built such a dependence on this mobile flow of data that they essentially shut out the rest of the world. You see them all over the place, in coffee shops, shopping malls, walking down the street, and sometimes even behind the wheel of a car. Head down, arms close to the body, hands firmly clutching a smartphone or tablet mere inches from the face, thumbs approaching the speed of light. They may or may not have headphones plugged in, and may or may not take an occasional glance forward or to the sides to make sure they haven't inadvertently strayed into the path of a bus or navigated to the edge of an endless precipice. Admittedly, these users sometimes display amazingly effective and efficient acts of multitasking, seemingly dividing their attention across a dozen tasks while remaining fixated to the screen of their smartphone. At the end of the day however, they are simply consumed by mobile media, for better or for worse. Take away the device and they would likely adopt the expression of a lost sheep, unsure of what to do without their apps.

Of course, these kinds of drawbacks and dependencies are a direct result of the mobile device's recent evolution into the "go to" device of many users. With hardware specs approaching and in some case rivaling or exceeding those of many laptop computers, it makes sense that some power users might be more inclined to use their phone or tablet to access media than their laptop or desktop. Fast processors, beautiful high-resolution screens, blistering wireless speeds, and intuitive interfaces have all been features in the latest uberphones and tablets over the past year or two, making it easier than ever to liberate one's self from the shackles of the personal computer or television. Every device that we have used and become dependent on in the past 10 years is being consolidated into something that fits in the palm of our hand, that is thinner than our wallets, that display so many pixels we'd need a calculator to count them all, that can download an HD-quality movie from iTunes before we're finished brushing our teeth, that looks better than the drunken sorority girl you met at that party last week. We sign our 2-year data contract and are handed a device that can do everything, that becomes everything to us. We are liberated from the shackles of old technology that held us down, but by that point we are already tightly bound by mobile media.

Facebook vs Face-to-face

I was recently talking with my cousins and fiance' about how facebook is one of people's main priorities now a days. Our aunt is on there constantly making posts about happenings in her life, things her "genius" kids do. She uses facebook as an excuse to put every little aspect of her life on so she doesn't have to tell us what is going on when she sees us in person (not that we really care anyways). I have noticed a trend of this from a lot of people I know. People will put information about themselves on Facebook or other social media websites that gives people a rundown of things about their lives. They make it seem like they are social butterflies and that everyone likes to be around. Then when you actually see these people face-to-face they  have the personality of a wall. We now have a population of people who depend on words they put on the internet to physically speak for them since they don't know how to themselves. Granted there are a lot of positives from using social media sites. Sometimes we don't always get to physically see people we want to talk to so it is nice to use social media to do the talking for us. However it seems most people take too much advantage of that and they seem to be losing sight of how important it is to go out and actually engage with people instead of pretending to. Facebook was created with the best of intentions for people to use. But anymore it seems like it has become a free e-harmony of sorts with relationship statuses and drama being put out for the whole world to see. When will we wake up and realize there is more of a world out there instead of what we can see on our screens or create with our keyboards?

Impact On Business

            Social media impacts business in many different ways. An article written by Maya Grinberg for the Huffington Post explains just how beneficial these social media sites can be for businesses. In this article she discusses a survey done by Wildfire examining the impact of social media on the business world. Social media has become the best way for businesses to reach their consumers. 85% surveyed said that they use social media as a way to engage in dialogue with their consumers. This is a huge benefit for businesses. By being able to engage in dialogue through social media, businesses can speak with their consumers about the products or services they offer. They will be able to know if what they are doing works, if the consumer has suggestions, or if something needs to be improved. Being able to interact with consumers is very important to business because they value consumer feedback. By hearing this feedback they know how to make their business run successfully and continue to gain consumers.

            88% of those surveyed believe that social media has helped to grow brand awareness. This proves that social media is a valuable tool to business. People can learn about what a company does and read comments and/or blogs on that company to see if the company might offer something of interest. When a person sees that one of their Facebook friends “likes” a company they may look at the company page and there they can learn about what the company offers. Companies are always looking for ways to build brand awareness and social media sites are the perfect platform for them to do so.

            Social media sites are a strategic way for businesses to reach out to their clients and grow their brand. By integrating social media sites with marketing, business can reach almost anyone. These sites present businesses with easy and effective ways to reach out to current and potential consumers. Businesses will continue to use social media to grow their business and it will only keep getting better do to the improvements and advancements made on these sites almost every day.

The following site provides an image showing statistics and another information found through the Wildfire survey: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maya-grinberg/measuring-the-business-impact_b_1217733.html 

Cell Phones and the Changing World

This week, I am going to focus a little more on the cell phone and internet in one. Last week I discussed the space-biased nature of the cell phone and how we can virtually communicate with anyone, anywhere. This week, I am going to develop this idea a bit more and analyze the other boundaries cell phones have erased, other than just those that deal with communicating with people. In today's society, many individuals have Internet on their cell phones as well. As a result, the cell phone now doubles as a lap top, a radio, a television, a camera, a GPS, an encyclopedia, a gaming system, a ticket office, and even a bank teller with the new app where you can virtually deposit checks. Having a smart phone has literally given people the ability to run their entire life while sitting at home.
With the example of the check depositing app, I think this space-biased nature of the smart phone shows how we are relying on people less and less. People blame outsourcing for our loss of jobs in America, but what about technology? Right now, I work as a bank teller and I can see the number of customers each day that come through and use the ATM. At one time, tellers were doing all of those transactions, and now with the ability to desposit money from your cell phone, it makes me wonder how much longer there will even be a need for bank tellers.
In addition to this, iPhone now has Siri. We don't even need to use our fingers to use our phones anymore, we can just ask any question out loud and our cell phone will answer us in a woman's voice. Pretty soon, we aren't even going to have to be near our cell phone in order for it to do whatever we want.
As you can see, the space-biased nature of cell phones is just continuing to grow and the opportunities are endless. The amount of things we can do from the edge of our finger tips is amazing and I believe that we will only continue to become more reliant on technology as the abilities grow.

The Youth on Technology

The Youth on Technology

        Everywhere during every day we see different types of media for different purposes of daily interactions.  The growing popularity of different forms of digital media in every part of life have turned media from something that would be a nice thing to have to make something easier, to being something essential to academic and social survival.  Every day different commercials are showing us the hottest phone or the next best computer to come out.  Without access to a computer college students would be hopeless for trying to write papers.  Considering this, should we really be relying so much on technology for almost everything we do?

            There was a time when grade school students were taught how to write in cursive and print as a designated class. Some people were taught to even use a step up from that and work with typewriters.  However, this has now all moved towards the computer.  Students are now being taught to type faster and the different ways that you can access information from computers rather than writing and researching from books.  With this more and more people are relying on computers for daily tasks.  Nearly every college student needs a laptop unless they plan on spending countless hours in a school computer lab, which likely many do.

            Aside from our heavy reliance on computers as a medium, we are relying very heavily on the cell phone.  The environment for interaction is changed dramatically.  Instead of placing a call now people rely on the text message just to tell you they are at the door instead of knocking.  We are expected essentially to be available all day every day no matter where we may be.  If you don’t respond to a text quickly enough people may be wondering what could have possibly happened that you took 30 minutes to respond. 

            Our reliance on these technologies is something I would like to personally try to make less of.  However, I don’t have the option for not using a computer every day for different class activities or homework to be completed.  I cannot even leave my house without my phone or friends wouldn’t even know what happened to me.  Instead of being a means of making things easier we are becoming more and more essentially required to have our media networks everywhere to continuously interact.