Like My Status!

I know the effects of Facebook as a form of media have been beaten to death already, but we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this phenomenon.  So, let's focus on one essential part of Facebook for right now: Status Updates.  OMG!  How annoying are those friends that feel the need to update their Facebook status twenty times a day?  What is wrong with these people?  Are they socially deprived and use Facebook to supplement real friends, or do they just honestly believe that everyone cares what they have to say?  Hold on.  Here's a better question: Why do you care???  People are often very critical about attention-seekers and then don't realize that they are actually apart of someone's fan base.  On campus it's hard to go a single day without hearing something like "Did you see [name]'s status today?  She needs to realize that no one cares".  My response to these naive people is, "Obviously you must care if you feel the need to talk about it!"  One dramatic impact that Facebook has definitely had on society is that it has made uninteresting, unpopular, and under-appreciated people more visible.  Whether you search for the person or not, once they are a Facebook friend, their status updates will pop up on your news feed without regard for how much "no one cares".

eBook Readers Beware

When Amazon.com launched it's Kindle ebook reader it opened the doors to a whole new market and a whole new medium.  This is a digital age and everyday more and more books are being purchased and read electronically.  It wasn't long after the initial success of the Kindle that other companies started making their own ebook readers.  Barnes and Noble quickly came out with it's Nook ebook reader and Apple 1 up'd the Kindle with the iPad that has several practical functions as well as an ebook reader.  As is customary with any form of media, ebook reader are now another way for advertisers to push their message on consumers.  Some ebooks have advertisements built into every couple pages, so in a 500 page novel there could be an extra 80-100 pages of advertisements!  This is a bit ridiculous in my opinion.  If I were reading a book, the last thing I would want is to be interrupted every couple pages by an advertisement and have my train of thought broken.  With advertisements popping up in between pages of popular novels it could prove to be very misleading.  Readers of a popular author might feel that ads coming up during the book must be supported by the author and the ideas of the book or else it wouldn't be there.  I definitely do not put it past the media to try and trick ebook readers in this way.

The Big Bad Media Monster

With all of the different channels, cable packages, and independent broadcasters around the world, you would think that you would get just as many different views, right? Wrong! All the forms of media in the world don't mean a thing when they are all owned by the same handful of conglomerates.  The fact that these few companies own virtually ALL of the media is a scary thought.  What happens when they decide that they can truly control all media if they begin to merge with or buy their few remaining competitors?  I know that the federal government has strict laws against product and service companies forming monopolies, but what regulations do they have on media companies doing this?  What happens when the general media is literally controlled by one person or group of people with all the same motives, goals, and beliefs?  Say goodbye to the last ounce of objectivity that we had left in this world.  Say goodbye to actual truth and or open opinions.  The only reason this hasn't become a reality yet is due to the fact that the few media moguls in existence are all on opposite sides of the spectrum, whether it be republican, democrat, conservative, liberal, or radical.  Thank God for these differences or I doubt we would ever here an objective word again.

How Ineffective are Fliers?

Everywhere we go on this campus we see fliers, posters, and banners promoting events, products, and services. Often we ask ourselves and even friends the very same question, "Who is actually looking at these things?".  We like to think that advertisements, even the lesser forms such as fliers, don't actually effect us in any way or stimulate interest in anything but this just simply is not the case.  If you honestly believe that billions of dollars are spent every year by marketing executives on ads and promotions that don't actually get your attention and influence your decision-making, then you are sorely mistaken.  Even the most common of advertisements, such as fliers, leave a significant impression in our minds.  The more times we see a flier the more it saves in our memory and eventually when the subject of the flier comes up we realize that we already know about it and can't figure out how this is.  Marketing works! Even the insignificant flier proves this.