Blog Assignment 6

In the readings, Jenkins describes convergence through technological, industrial, cultural, and social changes. Technological convergence has become huge in this century. An example of this would be our iPhones. We use our iPhones to call people, check our emails, check social media, to wake us up with the alarm clock, time ourselves through the stopwatch, and many other things that we can do with our iPhones. Creative engagement is unique ways of interaction. An example of this would be when we took the survey in class by using our phones to text our response. Our responses appeared online where we could see the percentage of what people said. This is a creative way to engage with your audience. I think by the use of creative engagement, it keeps the audience alert and excited no matter the situation.

Blog Assignment 5

One example of Long Tail would be music type that is not demanded very often. If there is a song or artist that can not be found in a store, due to low demand, then it can be found online. This is an example of Long Tail. I often find myself hearing about a certain movie that is not popular at all. When I can't find it at local stores, most of the time I find it online through a website I find through google. A behavior that fits me the most would be the bargainer. When shopping online, which is often, I, like most people search for an item that is the cheapest. This past winter I had found a pair of boots that I liked online. I found the same boots, brand and all, on a number of different websites. Of course I searched for the website that had the boots for the cheapest price.

Blog Assignment 4 Different people have different opinions on personalization on the Internet. Some find it as an invasion of privacy or annoying that after one search of something, that search keeps popping up. My own personal opinion is that personalization is just part of the internet and it is nice and convenient. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon believe that if there are 10 millions people that visit the website, then there should be 10 million different websites for those people. For the most part, people are concerned about their privacy. It today’s world, we don’t have much privacy. Everything of ours, whether is be a phone conversation, or our latest search on google, is being monitored. It is something that people will have to accept for their own safety. I think society today enjoys personalization. Take pinterest for example. We personalized this website based on the things we like, and what we want to see. After personalizing it, we only see the things that fit into those categories. I believe that before long, everything, even in the physical world, will be able to have personalization. We are seeing it more and more through stores that print coupons and other things that relate to what you buy in the previous days. Many people argue their privacy with personalization but overall, I believe personalization is a favored thing. It makes things more convenient and can make life easier and faster.

Blog Assignment 3 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/opinion/yik-yak-stopping-online-harassment-before-it-starts.html?ref=topics&_r=0 This is an article that talks about the new social media network, Yik Yak. I chose this article because it talks about the negativity of this network. Harassment has become a huge problem throughout this network. I think it is interesting to see not only the positive outcomes of different social media networks but also negative ones as well.

Blog Assignment 2 After reviewing the three networks law, Sarnoff's Law, Metcalfe's Law, and Reed's Law, I would say I would have to agree with Sarnoff's Law. This law is the most logical to me. It states that the value of a network increases with the number of people on it. The more people that are involved with the network or listen and watch, determines how popular it is. This law refers to traditional broadcast, such as, TV and radio networks. When trying to understand this law, I think about it in terms of a radio network. The more people that listen to a certain radio station the higher the value will be. If listeners decrease, it can cause the station to have less advertisers, which can decrease the amount of money coming in to the station. The station will then have to shut down, because of the amount of people on the network. I also think about how people will get their information 5 years from now. Because of our great use of technology, it's hard to think that in time, anything can get better than what we have now. I believe that all information 5 years from now will be retrieved online. 5 years is not that far so I don't think that the will be a huge change in how we get information. I do think that as far as news, newspapers will slowly die out. It is so easy now to Google a news story, or watch a newscast online whenever you want. Lives have become so busy that people have stopped taking the time to watch the news, or read a newspaper. When they get time, they are able to go online and see what is going on. Thats why I believe that majority of information that we receive, will be from the internet.

Why We Blog

Before reading this article, I often thought blogging was a “weird” thing to do. I thought it was a secretive way of expressing yourself and telling all these random people how you feel. After reading “Why We Blog” I have learned that it is so much more than that. Blogging is done for many different reasons. It is often used as a form of journalism. The article gives the example of political blogs. These are used as a form of journalism. I learned though that ordinary people do blogging the most. The motivation for blogging has to do with documentation of people’s life, expressing opinions, and keeping up with your community. I have a friend who is studying abroad this semester. In order for her family and friends to keep up with what is going on in her life, she has created a blog available to the public. After reading this article and thinking about why people actually blog, I have changed my opinion about it. I realize that it’s not as weird as I thought it was. It is just a way that people, who may have a hard time expressing themselves out loud, can tell others how they feel or their opinion about certain things. I think that blogging can be a great thing for people.