The End of Paper

If the newspaper has any hope of continuing, they are going to have to learn to adapt to the ever changing technology which plays such a big role in our lives today.  After reading the article, "The End of Paper?" it made me realize this was not going to be as simple as many thought.  The article was written four years ago so obviously technology has advanced since then, especially e-books and tablets which the article focuses on.  I do hope that the newspapers will be able to adapt their ways to continue to be successful, but it will be much harder than anticipated.  I think that if enough people were willing to buy subscriptions to magazines and newspapers when they were in their original paper forms, it should be no problem to get consumers to purchase them electronically if they have the technology to do so.  Once the technology of e-books and tablets becomes even more common, the market for publishers will grow and therefore will be easier to gain revenue from their consumers.  Personally, I prefer to have the actually newspaper or magazine in front me rather on a digital screen, but as publishers have to adapt to up and coming technology so do we.

Let's Ban Books

When I was looking through the top 10 children's books that were banned, I was shocked.  Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid, these were stories that I grew up to, and I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to ban them.  One comment that I thought was completely absurd was the reason why James and the Giant Peach was banned, because it contained to word "ass"... you have to be kidding me.  Sure I remember if we were reading a book in class and the work "ass" was in there everyone had a little giggle, but other than that there was no detrimental effects to our livelihood.  I have always been against banning books, if you are against the context of a certain book I have a simple solution for you, DON'T READ IT!  People expect everyone to have the same beliefs as they do and if they don't, they shouldn't be heard.
When I heard that dictionaries were banned from schools I didn't even believe it.  But sure enough, because a parent found the definition of "oral sex" in the dictionary it needed to be banned.  First of all, what was this parent looking for the in the dictionary that they came across this and became so offended.  Secondly, if you don't want your child to learn what it is from a dictionary, what are you going to tell them if they ask you what it is??  Absolutely ridiculous if you ask me.  I hate the fact that classic books that have had such an impact on their readers and society, are being banned because a few people don't agree with the message.  If it were up to me, I would not allow the banning of books, as I stated before, if you don't like it, don't read it!

Poor Richard

"Quarrels never could last long,

If on one side only lay the wrong."

Just think of the last time you got into a fight whether that be with your spouse, parents, or friends.  Chances are you were not 100% right, and they were not 100% wrong.  The definition of a quarrel is an angry argument or disagreement, typically between people who are on good terms.  If one side of the argument was completely inaccurate, it would not take much to disprove it, and vice versa.  Although this is not always the case, each side has some sort of wrong doing they aren't acknowledging.  

It was really difficult to just pick one quote to discuss, because so many of them were easily related to.  You would think that a bunch of things written in the early 18th century would be no longer valid in current society, when in fact they are very relevant.  

Social Interaction

When I first thought about the Internet effects social interactions, it seemed really obvious that of course they inhibit interactions, but after really thinking about what people use the Internet for it didn't seem to be such a simple answer.  Just as the article "Social Media: The Internet and Social Interaction" by Sandra D. Delgado discussed, using the Internet gives individuals a much broader spectrum of people to interact with.  These people/businesses are able to reach people who otherwise would be impossible to come into contact with.  Although for businesses it may be more beneficial to reach a higher number of people, for an individual, quality of an interaction is usually more important that the quantity of interactions.  I believe that the Internet has the ability to make interactions easier or simpler, whatever you want to call it, but is not always able to help those interactions move into more personal relationships.  

Overall, I think that the Internet does hinder real social interactions among people.  The Internet can help to begin many interactions among individuals, but I think that real person to person interactions are vitally important to our lives.  As Delgado mentioned at the end of her article, there is no replacing seeing your dog roll in the snow and experience their happiness first hand, and listening to an album downloaded from your computer only lets you see (or hear) one side of the artist's lifestyle however when you attend a live concert and see how that artist interacts with the crowd and with others in the band.  There is no way to replace real social interaction, no matter what the technology may develop into.

CBS Thought

Convenience, that is what society today is all about.  This can be seen in almost all aspects of life from the food we eat to the gadgets we buy, they are all designed to make our lives easier and more convenient.  Jeff Greenfield uses the word convergence to describe how nearly all forms of media and information are now all combined onto one form of media, he then stated that this convergence of media shifts the power from the providers to the users.  This statement really stood out to me.  From society's desire for convenience, companies that once distributed other forms of media, like the newspaper, serve relatively no purpose anymore.  It is one thing to make things convenient for yourself, but when that has a negative effect on society or yourself, too much of a good thing can easily become a bad thing.  

Communication today is much different than it was just ten years ago, rather than just pick up the phone and call somebody, people resort to texting.  This form of communication changes the way people talk to each other, the shortened words and acronyms can be hard to keep up with and I believe it does affect people's grammatical skills overall.  Along with the grammatical errors in texting, the content of some text messages can be misinterpreted.  You could say one thing and because the reader can't hear or see you, it may be understood as something completely different.  I also think that people will say a lot of things that they would never say to another person directly because through text messaging, they feel that they have more power.  

I definitely agree with Greenfield on his last message about keeping the fundamentals.  I think people have overlooked or forgotten the importance of direct communication.  Younger generations will have no idea what "clear vivid language" is when they mature and I find that very sad.  This is part of the reason that more and more children who reach junior high and even high school still can't understand what they are reading in their textbooks or newspapers.  

Media Junkie

After taking the internet junkie test, it revealed that I was an average online user.  It got me to thinking what exactly is considered an average user... With all the increasing technology these days, and with almost everything beginning to be computerized I feel that the "average" media user is always increasing.  Compared to the rest of my family, having an older brother and my parents, I think am I the least "media active."  It is impossible to get through dinner without my brother texting his girl of the week, or my mom playing on her tablet.  My dad however is like me, we keep it old school.  Just setting up this blog and everything for this class I was a little bit lost.  Being a young person, people expect me to know my way around all this new technology, but I have no clue.  My media usage consists of course of the texting and Facebook which, I think is a part of everyones life these days.  Ever since I got a smart phone, I notice I am checking my Facebook a lot more than I did when I just used a computer.  I have never been one to play online games or any kind of video game and I don't have cable at my house so I hardly watch any TV either.  I do have a Netflix account however, and whenever I start watching a show I seem to watch about six or seven episodes at a time, and before I know it, there is no more to watch! 

Most of the time I spend using various types of media, is purely for entertainment and is definitely not a productive use of my time, however, thanks to Pinterest I have found many great ideas and quick tips to make life a little easier at times.  I don't remember the last time that I sat down to complete an assignment, and didn't check my emails, or Facebook, or pin a few things on my Pinterest boards.  Overall I think it does help keep me sane, because using a computer for all work and no play would just be no fun at all! :)