We'd still be living in "Stone Age" without Media

We'd still be living in "Stone Age" without Media

Role of media.

The definition of media in dictionary.com is the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely.

How media is formed.

There are different kinds of media, as mentioned above. Newspaper is a form of media for spreading information, according to The Seattle Time," The purpose of the newspaper has always been to keep people informed of events around the world as well as those in our backyard. “ and then there is radio, a form of media used for wars, spreading informations in local areas/national wide, and are now mostly used in cars for music/entertain/commercial purposes. TV was first created when Charles Francis Jenkins believed everyone should have the chance to have a television and watch a movie, or theatre at that time, at home. Then a revolutionary machine called computer is designed, and it brought media to a new phase which is called social media. It began with myspace, and then Facebook took over the trend.

How powerful is media.

All forms of media is very powerful, magazine can reach tenth of thousand people in a short amount of time, newspapers are capable of reaching millions of people daily, television on another hand reaches tenth of millions of people, and then there comes social media, reaches hundreds of millions at once. Average americans spends over 4 hours on television, and 1.5 hours on social media on their phone. Now that the methods of spreading information have gigantically increased and the numbers of people reached by the information through new media form has multiplied by thousands.

So the point I give all the information and back ground for medias is because what media can bring to the society is humongous.

How business can use media for commercial purposes.

After advertisement was created, businessmen has constantly trying to find new ways to advertise for their business. Yet, medias (TV, Newspaper, radio) have been one of the biggest form of advertising, due to it’s power and ability to reach millions of people at once, but as always it has been too expansive for small businesses to use. Then a miracle happened, as mentioned above, computer. After the creation of computer, Google ads, youtube ads, Facebook ads, etc social media advertisement form emerged, which provided all the businessmen a affordable, more powerful way to advertise. With the increasing number of small businesses and an affordable method of advertising, comes the next point I want to make, 

It brings progress to this world.

How would simply a form of information spreading, a form of communication change the world? Easy. It increases the number of small businesses. Progress has always came in a form of innovation. Just as computer is an innovation, every single technology is an innovation, wash machines, x-box, etc. Innovation therefore makes people’s life easier just as x-box brings people temporary happiness and fun; innovation brings progress to this world and take the world to the next step. How does innovation comes in? Small businesses of course. People(small business owners) driven by money, design new technologies/innovations to profit. And now the number of small business will increase with the new affordable form of advertisement, social media.

Therefore without small businesses, without the concept of innovation, without an an affordable advertise method, without MEDIA (the most powerful way of advertising) there will be no progress brought to our world, and we would still be living a hard life (without most useful technology).

Had a little issue with blogger email invitation, original post posted http://feiwangunl.blogspot.com/2016/01/role-of-media.html   at 9:45 pm.

RE: Hector Carral

Physical interaction has been consistently dwindling as a form of communication. Writing has been around for thousands of years, allowing people to communicate across distance. It was, by no means, a fast form of communication. In recent centuries, the telegraph made it possible for people to transmit their thoughts across distance much quicker. Then came the telephone, and then television, making fast communication not just audio but also video (It was, however, limited in who could broadcast). Then we arrived in the age of the internet. This opened up the world to near instant communication between anyone. Things like snapchat and facetime have allowed anyone to send a picture or hold a ‘face-to-face’ conversation with anyone in the world with an internet connection. While all of these things have reduced the level of physical interaction required to function as a citizen, the internet especially has dramatically reduced that level. The most affected age group of this reduced need for physical interaction would be teenagers and young adults. With their higher technological ability, they have access, not only by technological literacy but also by social normativity, to more media for communication (i.e. Snapchat, twitter, etc.) than elder generations. However, their constant use of smartphones and internet communication services may be limiting their social abilities.

            Interacting with the people around oneself can build and maintain different social skills. When people are constantly confined to interacting with the people at the other end of their phone conversations, these social skills do not get developed. This is especially true for teenagers as they are just entering the realm of adulthood which is a crucial time for development of these skills. As an avid user of my smartphone and the internet, I have noticed that I may have been hurting my social skills. As a kid, I was always outgoing and rarely ever shy. Now, I sometimes find myself struggling to ask questions in classes or being hesitant to make phone calls for professional reasons to people I haven’t met. I honestly believe that my use of technology has contributed to this “fear”. I developed a sense of safety and security with texting to the point where I don’t even make phone calls. I also believe that, had I not had my phone on me, I would acknowledge the world and the people around me much sooner. Being able to shop, compare products, find reviews, and even bank online has significantly reduced the number of times I need to leave my home but also the number of interactions I have with people. It has hurt my confidence and I’m sure the same is true for other teenagers and young adults.

            Even some forms of digital communication (i.e. the phone call) are being used less often because they expose a vulnerability in people when they use it. However, this vulnerability doesn’t really exist. People have been able to hide behind messaging as it allows for people to carefully craft what they say before they send it. The vulnerability is purely an overinflated fear of not being able to come up with words on the fly that qualify as human speech as is required with phone calls. The reason the vulnerability doesn’t exist is because people have been orally communicating for millennia and all of a sudden humans are afraid of the words that may come out of their mouths. Nonetheless, some people, even myself, still feel this fear and it’s equally the case for physical interaction.

            So what’s wrong with not being able to communicate in physical interactions? Well, for example, employers have interview processes. Often times this can be over the phone or in person. Rarely do interviews take place via e-mail. Potential employees need to be well versed in talking to people and technology has made some not so. I must reiterate how extremely strange that sentence is when compared with the centuries upon centuries of people communicating orally. But tragically, it’s a reality for some young people.

            Digital communication has severely stunted the social skills of people of all ages, especially young people. While it is not entirely bad and technology has done amazing things to progress us as a society, it limits our ability to interact with each other. It, in turn, severely limits the professional potential of anyone who allows it to consume them. While there is no way to get people to stop using their smartphones, the best way to get people talking to each other is to show the benefits that can come from physical social interaction.

Humans' Inability to Focus

Technology, particularly handheld technology, has shortened our attention span in an alarming way. I personally have only been using this type of technology for a little more than five years and I have already noticed the significant impact it has had on my attention span and it seems like it is affecting the generation who was born with it even more.

            I can remember road trips with my family several years ago – no phones, iPods or mobile data. When I think about those excursions now I have no idea how we did it. Thinking back to my last car ride that lasted longer than five hours I was probably on my phone at least ninety percent of the time. I have noticed I have a harder time just sitting and thinking – every time a thought stirs my curiosity, I’m inclined to browse the internet about the particular thought. This habit has definitely gotten worse over the years. Just last night as I was watching a basketball game on TV I noticed something I did that I had not noticed before – I don’t watch commercials, and I’m sure I’m not alone. As soon as a commercial comes on or there’s as much as a dead ball during a basketball game I immediately get on my phone to look at the most recent tweets on my timeline or to look at scores of other games being played. Because technology and the internet have become so accessible and have so much information it is getting increasingly difficult to give all your attention to one thing.

            Our attention spans have decreased so much in the past fifteen years that the gold fish has passed the human race in this aspect. In 2000 the average attention span for humans was about twelve seconds; in 2015, a Canadian study showed that our attention span has decreased down to eight seconds – a whole second shorter than a gold fish’s. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11607315/Humans-have-shorter-attention-span-than-goldfish-thanks-to-smartphones.html

            Many argue that our focus is still the same, but we are using it in different ways. I disagree – I have seen too many students religiously check their phones during class to believe that argument, and I am guilty of it as well. Even if I don’t feel my phone vibrate and I know I don’t have any new notifications I still feel the need to check it instead of paying attention during class. The effects are showing up even more in the younger generation. In a study that polled four hundred primary school English teachers forty percent said students did not enjoy reading by the time they are eleven. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9342391/Children-with-short-attention-spans-failing-to-read-books.html

I believe the reason for this is the new technology and social media. We are so used to our entertainment reading being extremely short (think memes) and to focus on an entire book is just not very appealing to many people anymore.

            Having so much information available and extremely accessible is great and there are definitely benefits. Our generation has become more socially aware of what is going on outside of our city, state, country, etc. This is very important for a healthy society, but our ability to pay attention to what is going on right in front of us is suffering.

I Can't Juggle

            The fact is: I cannot juggle. My coordination is terrible, and if I were to try tossing around something like oranges, they are more than likely going bruise as they hit the floor in less than a second. However, I CAN juggle with my mind. Whether this is a good skill or a bad skill is the conclusion of this brief experiment.

           

            As a freshman in college, my hand is glued to my phone. I am constantly checking notifications left and right. But how often am I really separating myself from the real world to take a peek into the virtual one? The experiment started when I created a log for all of the communication that takes place in my average day. I had estimated how many snapchats I’d receive (optimistically thinking I would receive more than I really got. I guess I don’t have as many friends as I thought I do). I decided to keep track of what I used most on my phone and computer: messages, calls, snapchats, twitter, instagram, Facebook, reddit. I also recorded my time spent on face to face communication and what I’ll call “faceless communication” which was time spent with others, but not engaging and looking down at my phone. The experiment took one whole day, and the results were a bit unsettling.

            But before we laugh at the time I spend on my phone, let’s conclude what exactly “Juggler’s mind” is.  Nicholas Carr shows in his article, “The Juggler’s Brain,” The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, the human brain is one that strives for information and greater complexity. He concludes that there is a common trend amongst those who use the Net and how the vast amount of information available shallows the mind. With constantly switching back and forth from interesting subject to interesting subject, we lose the ability to dive deeper into one particular thing.

            I completely agree with his statements. There is evidence in MY everyday life that it affects people who frequent the Net. Without reading the article before (in order not to create a placebo affect) I became conscious of my almost meaningless interactions with the virtual world and what information it has to offer at first glance. I became very aware of how good I am at juggling all of the WRONG things.

           

Hopefully think link can help all of you victims out there and your tendencies to shallow information on the net.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/10/17/how-to-quit-mindlessly-surfing-the-internet-and-actually-get-stuff-done/

Social media and us

We all have heard how technology and social media applications are damaging the human relationships with each other and with ourselves. While some of that claim might be true, I have to disagree with the statement. I will even take it a bit further and say that I think social media is helping our generation communicate better with each other. I think it is helping all of us know what, we as a generation, are up to. Let’s take Instagram as an example.

No matter what your life goal might be or what your interest are, you will find at least a handful of people who are doing exactly what you want to do and often they even share how they achieved their goals or finished specific projects. I think it is amazing to have people visually show their journey through pictures, memes, quotes, and captions to go along with the pictures. Having access to people from different parts of the world to share their journey with you is not only motivating but also educational. I will take myself as an example and a pretty generous number of photographers in Nebraska. One day I woke up and decided that I wanted to buy a camera and take pictures. I have a few photographer friends and it seemed to be a rad and fun thing to do. So I went and bought my camera, opened it, turned it on and started to snap pictures of random things around me. I quickly found out that photography is not just snapping a picture. I found out that I had to learn how light works, how my camera works, how colors work, and a lot of other creative and technical things. I started to reach out to my friends to find out how they figured everything out and all of them referred youtube videos and certain IG pages to follow to educate myself.

There are some amazing people who will share their craft with you and will post tips for people who want to do what they do but might not know how to yet.  I got to see amazing work and pick out details in the pictures and that helped me figure a lot of things out. I am also very big on health and fitness, and I have learned a lot about healthy eating and how to properly work out from IG pages of different people who eat healthy and work out regularly. It is amazing how people that have never met and maybe will never meet in person can form these awesome small online communities where they motivate and help educate each other weather it be fitness, photography, make up, fashion, modeling, singing, accounting, dentistry, nursing, architecture … and the list goes on and on. I dislike hearing how technology is bad for us, or it is destroying us and somehow taking away our communication skills or people skills. The truth is that it takes a lot of creativity, skill, and attention to detail to take one picture, write a couple of words and influence, inspire, or educate thousands of people.

Having social media is actually helping our generation be more unified and on the same page because we have access to more people then just our friends in our city, we can reach out to people all over the world.