#9

I found this article really relevant, especially since Apple is at the top of many markets right now. We have been discussing Apple quite a bit in my PR class, and it makes for quite interesting conversation.

This article is interesting to me from a business perspective simply because of the fact that Apple is taking a huge risk by pricing the Ipad as they do. They do not receive much of a profit off the sale of the Ipad, but mainly rely on sales of third party media to make money. In this digital age, we are consumers of digital media, and the ipad is an ideal consumption device. From the device interface, you can buy ebooks, movies, music, games, newspapers, magazines, and more. Apple simply takes a standard 30% commission from these sales. This is a risky, but brilliant move. It gives them the opportunity to focus solely on the hardware and software, while allowing third party developers to thrive by making third party content. This is, in my mind, brilliant. The major risk to this, however, is that there needs to be a lot of third party content to pay for the expenses in the Ipad production

#8

The article "Consequences of Social Media" was very interesting. I checked the publishing date (Good habit I am developing in this class), and it was published in 2008. This allows the article to still be very relevant in it's descriptions of social networking, but I also believe a few of their issues have actually gotten worse over the past few years.

The first thing that struck me about this analysis of the digital age is the idea of anxiety. I believe that this cannot be more accurate. Social networking can have very positive or negative effects on one's mental health. A favorite part of the article for me was the fact that they compare introverts & extroverts use of online social networking. Both types of people keep very different relationships with those around them, and as a result their social networking relationships will reflect that.

After all the complicated equations, I really liked the paragraph relating to the number of friends in an online social network in comparison to the number of friends in real life. It also mentions the idea of adding people who you do now know on social networking sites, something that is brought up in social networking and differs from person to person.

#7

I found the article "The medium is the message" to be very interesting. It really makes one think about the type of media and idea of conveyed through, and how the media is very important to the message it is conveying. A Christmas Card email is much different than a physical card that has the exact same text. Much of what something says has to do with how it is said.

A part of the essay I really liked is the quote about how "Apple Pie is not good or bad: it is the way that it is used that determines it's value". In this quote, I believe he is referring to the idea that context has a lot to do with situations. In that way, the media is often vital to what a message it trying to convey. In a personal example, at work I can send my boss an email about something, but the difference between emailing her and walking into her office is drastic. In that way, the way I convey that information is vital to showing how serious I am.

Another part I enjoyed was the quote by the former Pope on pg 208. He mentions that there needs to be an equalibrium between Communication methods & our reaction capacity. I found this 1950 quote very interesting and wonder how he would react to our society 60 years later.

#6

One article I found very interesting this week is the article regarding the new Boing 747-8. Like the Boing 747, this plane will probably end up at the industry standard plane and become a major part of the lives of those who even occasionally fly around the country. This plane will have many improvements (many of which are still in development) and will overall improve the quality of air travel.

Relating to our class, the idea that we can follow this online is new and exciting. Last century, we might occasionally see picture of a new product in the newspaper, but it would really take its arrival to spark public interest. In the modern world, we can follow the construction of this new plane in real time. I find this very exciting. Because of this, designers can take public suggestions into account as they build they plane, and can make the necessary changes. By doing this, they can create a quality product that the general public is happy with, and we the public can feel as if we had some influence and insider knowledge into its production. Overall, I think that this is a really cool production method, and one that will become more important as the decade progresses.

#5

The first thing that struck me about the email is the date it was published. The last article was publish about 50 years ago, but it's concepts and ideas are still very relevent today. This article on the other hand examines social relations before the myspace boom. My first thought was that everything would be horrible outdated and inaccurate , but this article was actually very interesting (even if my assumption is somewhat true).

   I think this article, in a way, points out the obvious. Their main finding is that social relationships online are not as strong as those "that are developed in person or over the phone. I think that it is possible to create, develop and maintain relationships over the internet, but of course they are not going to develop as quickly as those in person or via phone. My reasoning for that is because online communication is not something that has always been engrained in our lifestyle. We were born with face to face communication with everyone around us, and even telephone conversations can replicate the audio portion of that. in 2000, typing to one another on computers was easy & convenient, but of course not as fluid to us as speech and physical movement was. However, maybe this will be different for the generations to come. Kids are using technology at a very young age, to the point that many preschoolers I know are able to type and operate computers. Online communication will be a bigger part of their lives and as a result, if the survey were to be reproduced today, the results would be different.

#4

I found this article very interesting. In this century, we always seem to bring up the idea of robots & humans coexisting in this society. While this has always been a common theme for my generation (I remember being mezmerized by Disney Channel's "Smart House" as a child) I have always wondered what role robots would play in our society. This article examines the extent that robots would communicate with humans. It is weird to think about the extent or artificial intelligence they would have. The article is mainly about the idea of artificial intelligence relating to computer programing problem solving. How much of our daily decisions can be converted into computer code & executed by a computer? It is a very interesting concept to think about, and one that will become more important in the next few decades.

What I found most most interesting is the idea of chess as it relates to computer programing. Chess has always been considered a game of thought & skill, but in recent years there have been many computer systems designed to beat humans at chess. These matches have been highly published because although chess programs have been designed to pick the best possible move for the given scenario, are they really making long term strategies? These machines also are programmed to record patterns, so is it possible for a machine programed to make the best possible move to develop skill over time?

All are interesting questions, and we will see over our lifetimes whether computers, while advanced, are able to grow past the idea of "decision makers" into beings that have reasoning and emotion.

The article I found most interesting is the article on computer hacking compititions. With the advent of the technological world, there are many flaws.  Users can now take down an entire infastructure from their living room. However, the advantage of giving users all over the world the opportunity to hack the system is that companies can pay people to try. This idea has been around for along time, and there have always been hackers who are "good" and paid to try to exploit the system. This allows companies to find flaws in thier coding and fix these things before a real hacker tries to exploit it. What I have noticed recently is that instead of askin thier defense team to seek out possible coding issues, they are publically challenging the world. In this article, we see that google is offering a large sum pf money to someome who
Can hack thier chrome browser.  Not only is this an excellent PR stunt (insuring the public that the browser is safe), it allows them to reach a large number potential employees (security work for people who are sucessful). This is far more than they would reach with a simple ad seeking an employee. 

#2

"The Evolution of Media" was a very interesting article. When one reflects on the evolution of communication from written word to twitter & facebook, the advances that we have made as humans are really astounding. 

A portion of the article that i perticularly found intersting was the section regarding newspapers & magazines. The printed written media was incredibly vital to the advancement of human communication. Even in the modern world, it is the most "direct" forms of communication (second only to direct verbal communication) in that I can literally hand anyone something that I have printed and they do not have to go throgh the leaps & bounds that some people go through to access online media. I actually have a small punk rock newspaper that my friend and I publish. We write & collect articles and handprint & distribute the entire thing ourselves. It is truly an awesome experience because there is no middleman. I translate my ideas directly into an organized and polished product and can hand it out wherever I go. Even with the advent of new online media many (including myself) still see this as a sacred medium.

Another main point from the article that I found interesting was the idea of the postal service. When I think about it now, it is truly incredible how there can be a system that is so widesperead and universal, yet so affordable to everyone. It is a shame that in this day in age of electronic media the postal service is slowly becoming absolete for letters/mailers, but purely used for sending physical objects.

Another part of the article I truly enjoyed was the idea of telegraphy. Unlike the postal service or other written forms of media, telgraphy involved many complex electronic discoveries in order to work. Telegraphy made it easy to send a message across a long distance without the need for someone to physically carry the note over.

#1

I really liked the article "Be who you want to be". Identity is a concept that many people struggle with on a day to day basis. We spend our childhood and teenage years forming a personality and set of values that define ourselves, but still many adults struggle to find a sense of who they are in the world.

I really liked the fact that facebook was brought into the discussion. It seems that facebook allows us to create an identity that we ourselves can regulate and alter to change the way other view us. The article brings up the idea that "When users select a profile picture of themselves.....the are communicating something significantly different". Many individuals put quite a bit of thought into what they post and facebook and how they want that information conveyed by their circle of peers.

it was nice to study communications scholar George Herbert Mead again. I have studied his work before in previous COMM classes in relation to identity. What I found most useful/interesting is his analysis of "me & I". He claims that "me" refers to the social self while "I" is the response to me. I found this very similar to the idea of ascribed & avowed identities I had previously covered in another class.