Social Media/ Web2.0 Group Discussion Exercises

1. I think that professional production values will continue to drop due to "homegrown" advertisements. I believe this to be true because of the fact that the more people are able to contribute, the more people will. Many of these people will have little to no experience on the subject and create amateur TV shows and advertisements. As for high-end companies, such as Lexus or Mercedes, I do not believe they would give in to user-created advertisements, for fear that this would make their product look more "cheap."

2. Article: Lost in Translation
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/tencent-gree-cyworld-technology-personal-social-networking.html">http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/17/tencent-gree-cyworld-technology-personal-social-networking.html

Tags I would use are:
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
European Union
Tecent QQ
China
SK Telecom
Japan
United States

I found that the tags I used were similar to the ones on the article. However, I feel that the tags depend on the person doing the tagging. Some things may seem more important to one person, but less important to another. I found that the main difference between our tags was that in my article they tagged people's names, which I tagged none of.

3. Transparency is an important part of social media because it improves the world of user-generated content and social networking by making it more trustworthy. If people did not trust the websites they are putting their information into, the websites would not and could not exist. It is important in both the online and offline world because online, transparency is the key ingredient to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Offline, transparency is important because it enables us to create more personal relationships.

The Persuaders

"The Persuaders" begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

In my opinion, the amount of advertising we see is excessive. Wherever you go, whether it be a baseball game, a movie, or even a park, there are advertisements everywhere. Billboards, flyers, commercials, and even ads on the internet consume so many aspects of our every day lives. One reason we see more advertising in our daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago is because we have so many advances in technology that allow us to skip over advertisements, and companies feel they need to make up for the loss. One example presented in the video was Tivo, which gives customers the ability to fast forward through commercials. This technology completely erases the effectiveness of television advertisements.

Where are things headed in the future? What are some possible scenarios that could play out as far as the direction that future persuaders may take their marketing techniques.

In the future, I think advertising companies will be forced to come up with new, effective ways to promote their product. Future persuaders may take their marketing techniques further into product placement. This is the only sure way for the company to have its product seen, no matter what. The video shows some product placement that is being used now, in shows such as "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," "Sex and the City," and the movie "Castaway." Although companies have recognized that product placement is effective, they have not yet fully grasped the current ineffectiveness of commercials and therefore do not use product placement enough.

Digital Nation Part 2

The second part of Digital Nation left me unsure as to how I feel technology is affecting us. I am able to see the positive and negative aspects of technology and understand how technology helps and hinders us. It was not surprising for me to see children in Korea having technological addiction problems. With technology so prevalent in their country, it is clear that children may have a hard time staying away. It is somewhat scary to see how technology can completely consume a person's life.

I disagree with the U.S. Military using technology as a recruitment strategy. Children are very easily persuaded and providing them with games that they think are "cool" may lead to them making a decision that they could regret later on. Comparing war to video games is completely inappropriate. On the other hand, technology has been used with children in positive ways as well. The stories about schools providing the children with computers as learning tools was inspiring and it was amazing to see what a difference technology made in those particular schools.

It is hard to truly determine if technology is overall positively or negatively affecting us. With technology changing and improving every day, it could be years before we see the long-term effects of modern technology on people. Until then, people should embrace technology for what it is, while making sure to be responsible when using it.

Digital Nation

Living in a world where cell phones, ipods, and computers are almost necessities, it is hard to imagine a time when these items were simply luxuries. My generation and generations to follow will be exposed to ever-improving new technologies. While my grandmother sits back and watches all of these new technologies develop, my younger cousins embrace the new technologies and could never imagine not having the world at their fingertips. Initially, I believed that the more technology we have, the better off we are. However, after watching the first few minutes of Digital Nation, I realize that there are some negative effects of advancing technology.

The concept of multi-tasking comes into play very often when people use new technology. As exemplified in the video, students are faced with multi-tasking situations daily. I never considered myself to be a good multi-tasker, but I can definitely say that the more I am faced with technology, the more used to it I am becoming. I am certainly more able to be on the computer, cell phone, and ipod than my parents are. However, using three technologies at once distracts me from giving one of them my full attention. Clearly, this can lead to problems when schoolwork is in the mix. It is now apparent that I need to make sure I use technology responsibly and do not let it get in the way of my priorities.

web 2.0 terms

1. User-generated content refers to media content that is created by users. Users are now able to contribute their own applications and comments on the website.

2. Long Tail is a term referring to the retail strategy consisting of selling a large number of items in small quantities.

3. Network as a platform refers to the idea that users can run software-applications through a browser.

4. Folksonomy is a classification system that includes creating tags to categorize content.

5. Syndication is the sale of broadcast material to multiple stations, rather than going through a broadcast network.

6. Mass collaboration occurs when a large number of people work on one project individually.

7. Computer-supported collaboration is research focusing on technology affecting organizations, groups, and societies. Examples of these are voicemail and text messaging.

8. Hosted services allow individuals and organizations to create their own website accessible to all through the World Wide Web.

9. Web applications are applications accessed through a web browser over a network, i.e. the internet.

10. Social-software is a range of systems that allow users to interact and share data with one another.

11. Video-sharing sites are websites that allow users to interact with other users with their own content, such as video clips.

12. Wikis are websites allowing for the creation and editing of any number of interlinked webpages.

13. Blogs are usually maintained by the individual, and set up for commentary, description of events, and graphics or video.

14. Mashups are websites that combine data or functionality from more than one source to create a new service.

mcluhan collage revised

I chose the iPod Touch as my medium because its content is practically endless. What began as a simple mp3 player has now become one of the most sophisticated gadgets ever made. The images I chose represent what can be done using the iPod Touch, or are actual screens on the iPod. Applications on the iPod Touch include the weather, iTunes, Google Earth, YouTube, a calculator, e-mail, and more. Along with being an excellent source for music, the iPod Touch is a mini, hand held computer.

mcluhan collage