The Internet is Everything.

The other day I was blogging for work for Everyday Communications, an educational communications company, and came across a response from one of our twitter followers. This follower is not a teacher, student, or parent, so I was about to delete them from all of our contacts so as to stay relevant. Luckily I did not, because I later realized that they were bringing new followers just for the sake of being interested in Education and the school system in general. Not only did this woman mention us in her blog and twitter but she created many Follow Fridays for us. After racking my brain to figure out why this was occurring I realized there are people out there that just sit at home and look for topics that interest them and research them, interact with them. It leads me to wonder if this is the new library. Twenty years ago, would this same person be going to the library and looking up educational communications company's? Would they be referring us to their friends with Word of Mouth or through letters? Would my advertising and marketing for us cover enough reach with just a newspaper or magazine? Its media and culture questions like these that interest me. The fact that the internet has become such a vital way of communication is insane. Everything is online now, and with society's 'get it now' mentality, there's less people fiddling around in the library checking out books for their information. If they want academic journals they will go online through an accredited academic source via search engine. Really, the question is, will this escalate, and what will this mean for libraries in general?

Growing Up Plugged In

I've had to do a lot of final papers/projects for my hospitality minor lately that deal with research of company's background and profile. Through the process of my research, I stopped to think how i was getting my information. I was on each company's Facebook profile. not only do I get a taste of their market demographic, but I get a whole fact sheet of when it was founded, company policies, beliefs, ect. It used to be that in order to get this type of information you had to call the company or look through public records. Now, the way I want information or to view new media is through the click of a button. My Professor stated that this type of 'get it now' mentality was a misfortune to my generation because it meant that our thought progress and prowess to write would be shot or completely lost. That we can't formulate thoughts or structure a narrative paper anymore because our stream of thought is so jumbled and impatient. I can see a truth to what he is saying, but I don't feel that entirely correct. Yes, a majority of my peers do not take the time to outline their thought process for a paper, but we haven't forgotten what we've learned in elementary school about the personal narrative. I feel that with my generation we are special and in between the 'new age' of social media or a quick get it now mentality. We were still brought up to write out our essays, before Facebook, before I pads even. Even so, we are unique because even though we grew up without these things we are still able to easily utilize them all. I think this 'in between' way to grow up gives us an advantage as we are able to use tools like social media and blogging for a professional perspective. We are able to see a blog or Facebook and not only see a platform but a marketing or business tool. We will have the experience ingrained in our heads of how to write structured narratives and essays to go into our schoolwork and online endeavors. I'm not saying that the next generation will not know hows to write an essay well or is in any way inferior from a learning curve standpoint, but I feel that the way they are growing up plugged in, their sense of life, writing, and professionalism may be different.

Facebook on my TV, TV on my Facebook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzRixR7LCk0&feature=player_embedded

While watching my daily dose of television I encountered a Verizon Fios Commercial that described the intensity of their new televisions, which have supernatural capabilities such as weather programming and telepathic advertisements. Not really…but close enough to reality. The commercial promotes the cable’s ability to check and update Facebook statues, browse the web, check the weather, make dinner reservations, etc. etc. Whatever happened to the days where a television was aimed to provide entertainment, news, and sports? We now live in a world where there seems to be a dying urge to keep advancing; yet the true nature of these advancements is quite ambiguous. I personally do not plan to own a 3D television until they become the standard, and hope that the day where I sit my lazy behind on my couch and struggle to reach a few feet for my laptop, so instead decide to update my Facebook status of “OMG watching television for 8 hours” on my remote control. I sincerely hope that this isn’t the direction of our future, but it almost undeniably is. The Y2K generation, our children, will be caught up in a world of virtual reality far beyond anything we could have imagined. Combining these is not a conscious effort of efficiency, it is a battle to dominate our already diminishing attention spans to focus it all on one device. These kids won’t be able to separate their television preferences from their Facebook lives, and so forth. Yes this technology is fascinating and in some ways downright cool, but maybe our leading scientists should try and develop something that will help improve our overall lifestyle, not our unnecessary devotion to luxuries. - Craig Shepherd

Social Media Trends

I currently hold three internships dealing with the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger. Lately I’ve been noticing the trends of people’s interactions with the content I am using on these sites. I currently work for Mobtown enterprises, which is made up of four local Chicago stores, The Alley, Taboo Tabou, Blue Havana, and Architectural Revolution. It’s interesting to see the trends of what type of content prompts different types of users to engage with your post. I would post a humorous video on Youtube that would relate to each store according to their branding and the same user would engage in conversation.

It was fascinating to see their post everyday like clockwork; they would post on our page for the same type of content.  When reading a newspaper, you subscribe to different content by going straight to the classifieds, stocks, or to the funnies. Online users subscribe to our content on social media websites by liking the store’s page on Facebook, and then commenting accordingly on posts that they care to spend time on. I specifically noticed that a majority of the users tended to interact with media that is mostly funny or entertaining. Business related posts would be avoided completely.  I feel that the users of social media have a tunnel vision for fast, captivating, and entertaining content. There is no room for wordy jargon.  In reaction to these observations, I would post links or photos that were eye catching as well as to the point headlines.

I pose this question; will future generations read newspapers or content longer than a sentence online? I say possibly, depending on how much time schools spend on teaching students the importance of reading a book or even online article. They need to be reminded to pay attention to media competency and the legitimacy of the content involved.