Mid-Term Exam Blog

“HOW IS MEDIA/TECHNOLOGY IMPACTING/CHANGING LIFE AS WE KNOW IT?”

I believe the best way to answer this question is to first look back at the overall public view of media and technology prior to the era of 'social media' and then follow this up by diving into the ways in which social media specifically has helped expand and change that general view to reflect on technology and media as a whole.

Referring specifically to the several articles on video gaming, including "Video Games Are Their Major, So Don't Call Them Slackers " and "Video Games in Health Care: Closing the Gap" we are able to directly see a glimpse of the way media and technology were sort of viewed prior to social media. The need for the articles, their nature, and the way in which the content is presented screams 'look, things are changing'. The general public would have once thought of video games as a manner to occupy kids, a tool used by slackers to waste their lives away and live in their parents house, and a cause of brain rot and moments of violence in children. 

However, these articles clearly tell us that the outlook of video games and the nature of video games is becoming more widely accepted as a respectable career, tool, and learning process. Video Game concepts and techniques, along with technology is being used to help surgeons through their training and lab sessions, which is a far cry from other methods of just five years ago. If we look at the article titled 'Who Says Social Games are Shallow?' we get a look at a an obvious and abruptly direct influence of the 'Social media' era on video games and thus the public. The generation of Baby Boomers and other adults who had previously shunned anything video game related, now spends their time playing Farmville, Ninja Wars, Cityville, and other social media based games through Facebook, Xanga, Twitter, and their various Apps. So where did the change come from? What prompted those who had frowned upon such things to become enveloped in them?

The Social Games article points us in the right direction for this specific concept, but also serves to show us some insight as to how not only the older generation, but young as well, have come to grow more dependent on media and technology. More or less, Social Games were simplistic to start off with yet addicting. Those who dared to step into the world of Facebook for a chance to connect with their childhood friends now find themselves playing games together, or in competition with people they are reconnecting with and potentially reliving those relationships and growing new ones. 

The key words here are 'simplistic' ' addicting' and most importantly, 'connect'. It is my belief that technology and media prior to the 'Social Media Era' sewed the seeds of fear, uneasiness, and complexity within all but the young and educated. Technology grew at such an alarming rate and new innovations were popping up left and right for many years. There was no sense of simplicity, nor was any of these very user friendly to those who were not already educated or familiar with the utilization of such things. Thus, a since of disconnection from technology and the media grew out of the confusion. 

However, I believe websites such as Facebook and Twitter, along with the ability to reach such outlets across various platforms (i.e. Computer, Smartphone, TV, etc) brought a swift and sweeping change to many people. Suddenly, the technology was no longer  confusing to use because Facebook was user friendly and allowed connectivity to people with whom some one might not have spoken to in years. This silver-lining served to draw many people young and old into the world of media and technology once again and actually sit down and learn things they might have thought they never could have done before. 

This ultimately led to many other utilization across various platforms, of the technology. The idea of web-based businesses spread like the plague, businesses began to use tools such as Skype to hold conferences of employees spread across the world, and more people felt like sharing their thoughts through blogs and sites like Twitter and Tumblr. The introduction of social media to the world opened up a wide array of jobs and career opportunities that are still expanding. We also see many companies begin to advertise through Twitter and Facebook, and the article 'Marketing small businesses with Twitter' serves to show us just how this came about for even small and local business with only the introductory paragraph. Advertising for all types of businesses is now something that permeates every part of people's lives as they enter the world of Social Media, and with advertising being geared toward their preferences and likes, the outlook of media and technology changes even more as consumers feel as if things are more tailored to themselves.

We can next look at the government and political elections for a drastic change in technology. Some of the older generation certainly recalls a time when they might have felt that their presidential candidates were far from approachable or able to make communications with the voters. How about their look back on past presidents, from whom they only heard through radio and TV broadcasts every once in a while? Yet, we look at the last election and the way in which our current president, as well as up and coming candidates contact voters. Social Media, and thus media and technology is the key to securing votes and making voters feel as if they are able to actually connect with the candidates. President Obama saw the importance of reaching out to the people through this outlet when he held what is now referred to as the 'Twitter Town Hall". 

Even before that, he was recognized as the first President to accept and utilize Social Media. The article "Barack Obama The First Social Media President?" clearly emphasis he heavy use of the social tool in his rise to presidency. However, the Twitter Town Hall shows even more the change in technology. Viewers were able to Tweet questions they wished to ask the President and get immediate responses to some of their questions. This was the first time something like this had ever happened on such a national scale and it is still mind blowing. Thus, we see many ways in which the Government's use of Social Media would effect the general outlook of media and technology in a positive manner. 

We must also look back to the events within Egypt and other middle eastern countries, as well as the more recent riots in the UK and recognize that many protests and related acts were set up through social media. the people of these countries and these movements would absolutely not have been able to organize in such a manner, under such conditions, nor as effectively, without the means of social media. The outcomes might very well have been different had social media never came into existence. I cannot emphasize this point enough in itself. Political movements were directly tied to being able to organize through sites like Facebook and Twitter and they overcame tyranny because of this important outlet of technology and media. 

Thus, I close this blog with the following: Technology, which had once been shunned by the majority of people who were not younger or educated, is now permeating their lives. It is in fact permeating the lives of people of all ages, across the entire world, even in under developed countries and it has done so in only a matter of a few years. That fact in and of itself is something to sit back and marvel over. Social Media, had a major key in allowing this to happen, but regardless one cannot refute this simple fact that the outlook and acceptance of technology and media is growing.