I bid a temporary farewell!

Wow! My first term in graduate school at Troy is rapidly coming to an end. For now, unless some genius idea pops into my head that I just must share, my postings will stop for a while. I know they'll be back with future classes, so don't fret! In this first term I've covered everything from social media to branding to children and technology. It has been fun and educational and  I can't wait to see where the future takes us in the field of strategic communication. The web is ever expanding and the possibilities are endless.



and now something to get stuck in your head for all of eternity, the latest viral sensation that's killing braincells and entertaining people of all ages! What does the fox say?!

Has anybody seen the baby's iPad?

The 21st century is filled with technology. Almost anything you could do in 1990 you can do better now... with technology. In a generation so saturated with the latest and greatest technology it's no secret that those technologies will spill over into the family unit. Almost every child is itching for the time when their parents deem them old enough for an iPhone (and for some of them the wait is short, getting their own fancy iPhones or iPads in toddlerhood). With such an abundance of technology at
our fingertips one has to wonder how this new digital form of interpersonal communication is affecting our families and more specifically, our children.

Long gone are the days when you had to scream downstairs for a new roll of toilet paper. Now I can just text my husband, "Hey babe can you send Kye up with a new roll didn't realize we're out up here" and voila! A few minutes later up bounces my bubbly 4 year old with an armful of Charmin Ultra Soft. Parents can have conversations with the kids in the room and stay inconspicuous. I remember my own parents trying to ask each other questions in their own type of code (something like pig latin mixed with a few abbreviations) and we'd always be onto them and their agenda. Now I can text my husband "Hey wanna take the boys to Jungle Jump or are you not feeling up to it?" and the kids are none the wiser if we decide against it. Families can keep in contact much easier now as well. No longer are they left waiting and wondering why the bus home from the football game hasn't arrived yet. Now they're connected fully and instantly with their children through cellular phones. Students and teachers alike have kept in contact with parents and authorities through tragic disasters and having a cell phone at the ready could save precious moments when emergency services needed to be contacted. The positive ways that technology use impacts the teens and adults in the family unit are innumerable, but such saturation will inevitably spill over to the younger members of the household.

One of the many games in the iPhone app "Monkey
Preschool Lunchbox," the first app I ever downloaded
just for my kids. 3 kids later it's the best $.99 I've ever spent!

I have 3 boys (4, 3, and 15 months) and will admit, they use technology rather frequently. I had to password protect my iPhone by the time my oldest was around 9 months old because he already knew how to swipe the little tab over to unlock it. In the beginning it was just imitation and the occasional time when he managed to swipe it from me while I wasn't looking. Soon after I started seeing a multitude of apps geared towards babies and toddlers and wondered to myself what they were all about. Could they really teach my child something or are they a parental cop-out for actually teaching your child something? It wasn't long before I found out I was pregnant with our 2nd (our oldest was still very young!) and was moping around exhausted, sick, and with an infant to take care of. I decided that I'd try to buy myself a little bit of rest and downloaded a child-geared app.The app did what I'd hoped, and kept him entertained so that I could sit down for at least 10 minutes without having to chase after a newly crawling and curious infant, but I also started noticing that he was getting things right! I only handed over my phone a few minutes a day to try and get dishes done without a child in the dishwasher (oh yeah, that happens, often!) or to give my aching pregnant self a few minutes to rest, but even in that tiny amount of time he went from enthusiastically slapping at the bright colors on the screen to purposefully selecting fruits and putting together puzzles. By one year old he could do almost everything in the app designed for children aged 2-5 (mind, we've since discovered that he's a little ahead of the learning curve for his age, which might have contributed to his quick learning and technological capabilities). It was then that I started to change my tune on technology and toddlers and started to explore other ways that parents could productively use technology with their kids. I am a very nurturing parent by nature and have always kept my babies close and utilized attachment parenting, but I am absolutely not a natural born teacher. I get so frustrated and my kids feed off of that. Instead of just handing over my iPhone or Kindle Fire to get them out of my hair, they were learning colors, numbers, letters, and shapes while I got necessary things done around the house. 30 minutes of technology helped my oldest know all of his colors by 18 months. He could count to 15 by 2. Now at 4 he's blowing through pre-k without an issue.

This is the iPotty by CTA Digital
Yes, that's a potty training chair
complete with an iPad stand...
don't forget the splash guard!
iPad not included (bummer!)

Where technology gets a bad wrap with kids is when it's used irresponsibly and excessively. The American Academy of Pediatrics actually recommends that children under two years old should not be watching any television at all. I don't know many parents that stick to that, we all have those days where you really just need to put on a movie and save your sanity, but if a television can have negative impacts on the development of your child, one must wonder the effects of extensive technology use in the form of touch screen devices (iPhone, iPad, Kindles and other tablets). With iTunes stocking more than 700 kid-geared apps by the end of 2011 (and that number has most certainly grown, if not doubled, by now) it's easy to entertain your children with a simple screen. While a few minutes a day can be harmful (though that is debatable, depending on the study and person you speak to), excessive technology use can be damaging physically (the overstimulation of bright and colorful digital games can affect sleep in toddlers, which is closely linked to overall health), socially, and developmentally. With technology constantly changing and this kind of complete technological immersion being relatively new, there aren't any definitive studies on the matter. Lots of studies show a negative correlation between technology and the learning pathways of young children and some not so much.

How has technology impacted your own family? Do your kids use touch screen devices? Do you think it benefits or hinders their abilities?



Resources:
http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/20/no-screen-time-for-2-year-olds-do-ipad-apps-count/
http://www.swparents.com/article/is-your-ipad-bad-for-baby-what-you-need-to-know-about-toddlers-and-technology/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-larry-rosen/how-much-technology-shoul_b_3142227.html

Put Your Game Face On

Yeah, because a smiley person in white
yoga pants tells me a LOT about
your product!

In a world of options it can sometimes be difficult to decide what route you should go... Should I go to Pep Boys for tires? I mean, they "do everything for less!" As a woman standing on the personal hygiene aisle trying to figure out what products are best it can be
difficult when your only impressions of the brands are the woman spinning happily in flowy skirts talking about how happy of a period they're having. A large part of marketing is your product. First and foremost if you don't have a quality product, you probably won't have a very successful campaign to market your product. Branding can make or break a product or service. Branding can be safe or risky. Branding can turn people away or bring them in out of curiosity. Some branding does both, depending who you ask. Branding is first and foremost your first impression. It establishes a reputation, creates or breaks trust, and gives your customers an idea of what to expect from your product or service.



There have been many examples branding strategies that fall nothing short of pure genius.  One of my favorite marketing campaigns that helped rebrand a company is Office Max's Elf Yourself Campaign. Who hasn't done it? You crop in your friends faces and watch them dance to hip hop Christmas music in silly elf costumes and hats. The Elf Yourself campaign was an instant hit and now, six years later, hasn't lost it's steam. It is still a holiday favorite and helps bring a positive image to Office Max as a company. To me, the campaign says Office Max is fun and current. They promote friendship and involvement (you can elf not just yourself, but ALL your friends! Even the President!). It not only reaches consumers, but it gets them involved with the company. Since its introduction, more than a half a billion people have "elfed" themselves. The company took the campaign one step further in 2006, reaching out to the mobile generation with a new Elf Yourself app for the Apple marketplace. Office Max made themselves relevant by association. Hundreds of thousands of people with no interest in an office supply store suddenly had a reason to prefer Office Max over the competition were the need to arise. The campaign not only reaches people, but gets them to interact. We can see an Office Max billboard a hundred times and it not form as much of an impression as one video of Barack Obama as a hip hop elf. Expected to succeed for a seventh season during the 2013 Holidays the "Elf Yourself" campaign will probably never be surpassed (at least not with any level of originality) within the realm of office supply marketing.

While Office Max  set their reputation in motion, once they introduced their new branding campaign it was out of their hands. Tim Leberecht talks about how to lose control in branding and how it can be a great thing. Office max introduced the ability to Elf Yourself, and the public ran away with it. The application has gone from an initial email campaign to something shared by thousands through social media at alarmingly viral rates. We are hyperconnected and as a whole have turned a simple campaign into a phenomenon, something no business could have done by themselves.



On the other side of branding is the type of branding that ruins your reputation, loses customers, and leaves a long lasting negative impression of your company.  Quizno's is a company that has ruined their positive branding through a series of failed marketing campaigns. First, there was a series of commercials featuring a talking toaster oven that spilled out highly inappropriate sexual innuendos about sandwiches in an attempt at pushing their brand. Phrases referring to a sandwich as "tasty torpedo" and instructing the employees to "put it in me" were not received well by the general public (though they're good for a laugh, see for yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LQpRQh2KSQ). Stuck between a rock and a hard place Quiznos had one chance to redeem themselves and once again failed. They introduced a series of commercials featuring some kind of rodent with a human mouth and crooked eyes (and don't forget the top hat!) singing about Quiznos with lackluster lyrics in an obnoxiously nasally voice. Of course, that did not go over well either. In 2010 Quizno's was the most rapidly declining fast food chain losing more than 600 restaurants and experiencing a 14 percent drop in sales. That steep decline is due in part to their horrible advertising campaigns that ruined their brand.The ads apparently annoyed people more than they made them hungry for some Quizno's.

Starbucks open support of Gay Rights has
catapulted them to the top on a list of
progressive companies within the
LGBT community.

In between making it or breaking it there is a special area of branding. My favorite company that falls within this grey area is Starbucks. Often recognized as a premier contender in business of coffee, Starbucks takes a risk that most businesses do not: they get personal.Where most businesses attempt to remain neutral on topics of great political or personal controversy, Starbucks is an open book.
While other businesses stare with their mouths agape in horror at the potential damage Starbucks could be doing to their business, others look on with admiration. Of course, bringing personal views to the forefront of your brand can have negative consequences. Starbucks has seen their fair share of boycotts and movements against them, yet they continue to grow. Starbucks stocks continue to climb. While they lost a few customers who took offense to their stand on certain issues, they gained a large following of customers who respect them for their transparency and for not giving in to social pressures to stay neutral. There's something respectable about standing up for what you believe in and Starbucks growing numbers is proof of that.

What are some of your favorite ad campaigns? What about your favorite brands? Has the way a brand represented their company ever turned you away from their products on principle alone?




Resources:

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/34027/The-Top-10-Most-Remarkable-Marketing-Campaigns-EVER-Slideshow.aspx
http://www.fastcompany.com/997393/best-advertising-slogans-all-time-according-digg-users
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31739/7-Components-That-Comprise-a-Comprehensive-Brand-Strategy.aspx
http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/branding
http://www.mediabistro.com/appnewser/officemax-launches-elfyourself-app_b29610
http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-ads-2011-2?op=1
http://www.business2community.com/marketing/marketing-holiday-campaigns-elf-yourself-still-reigns-0322134
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/28/can-starbucks-stock-keep-growing.aspx

Why pay for one what you can pay for 100?

Crowdsourcing: obtain (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet.

The term may seem foreign to you, but crowdsourcing is ever present in our day to day lives online. The idea is that you need to get a large amount of people to participate in a campaign for you, usually for free. Still seem foreign? Not so fast. If you've ever posted a video to Youtube, you've helped to be a part of their crowd. Youtube relies on the submissions of other people to build its database of videos and remain the go-to site for anything you could possibly be looking for.  Youtube is one of my favorite sites to frequent for how to videos and my favorite, cat videos.  (Yes, I have serious crazy cat lady potential!) Please feel free to enjoy my favorite cat video (that has gone viral almost 10 times over!).

This campaign for one of the Boston Marathon bombing victims
went viral.

Another popular form of crowdsourcing is crowdfunding. Surely you've seen them, GoFundMe, Indiegogo, Kickstarter... websites where you can crowdsource your fundraising efforts and hopefully reach more people. The fundraiser pays a small fee to the website from the funds raised and
everybody is happy. Crowdfunding can be a great way to get noticed, to reach out to total strangers, or to raise money from friends and family for little Timmy's upcoming marching band trip to Disney World.

Have you ever googled a question and come up with a long list of Yahoo! Answers results? Another example of crowdsourcing. This example, referred to as crowdwisdom, allows people to crowdsource their questions. They aren't just limited to asking mom and aunt Sally for advice anymore. Now they can reach the whole world in a few clicks and get many different opinions and even have other people vote on the best answer so that they don't have to decide for themselves. Crowdsourcing doesn't end at cat videos and fundraising, many websites rely solely on their crowd campaign participants as a means of revenue. Websites like Spoonflower, Etsy, iStockPhoto, and many others rely on the submissions of random strangers to fuel their databases. iStockPhoto is one of the main sources of stock photography on the internet.


So far crowdsourcing seems pretty nifty, and it is. But so far we've only examined positive examples of crowdsourcing (which may be debatable, if you've ever asked a question on yahoo answers and had Joe Comedian respond...). The issue with crowdsourcing is that you cannot always guarantee quality of participants. Being an avid cat video watcher, there are some bad ones on Youtube. There are some really awful products on etsy. I've seen some fabric designs worth of a vinyl covered couch in my grandmothers on Spoonflower more than once. If you were to take crowdsourcing to a more serious level, things can get tricky. There is no guarantee of what you will get when you enlist the masses on a project. Crowdsourcing is a valuable tool when used carefully and wisely.

Have you ever participated in a crowdsourcing campaign? Did you know you were participating or are you just realizing it?


Resources


http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/19/pf/crowdfunding-boston-victims/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKffm2uI4dk
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/what-is-crowdsourcing/
http://socialmediaclub.org/blogs/from-the-clubhouse/social-media-and-crowdsourcing-cons
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/66891.html

The time to blog is...whenever you feel like it!

If you’ve owned a computer or lived in the 21^st century you’re almost certain to have heard of a blog. Short for web-log, blogs are an ever gro

wing trend with a never ending variety of uses. The first blog created in 1994, links.net (that still exists and is updated regularly) was created by student Justin Hall. It was the first chance the world got to follow along closely in real time with somebody’s personal life. That blog lit a fire that’s still burning strong. By the turn of the millennium Blogger had been established as the first free blogging platform. Now it was easy peasy. Anybody could blog; and they did. If you can think of a topic, there’s probably a blog for that.

Probably the most common reason for blogging is autobiographical; just logging everyday life. Like your My Electric Diary from the 90s but worldwide, public, and very rarely locked down with a password (that I could never remember anyway). I’m often told that I should keep a blog or write a book (many books have actually originated from blogs, actually!). My kids are crazy and my everyday ramblings to my friends and family on my Facebook page are often laughter inciting and utterly unbelievable. While I don’t keep a blog (I should, really…) I love to log our everyday happenings. This was the reason for the first blog and the reason many are still blogging today. Blogging can be an excellent way to keep in touch with friends and family or to just log your life so that you can reminisce on it later with all the details that were fresh in your mind when you sat and tapped out a new entry. Some of my favorite blogs are a bit of a hybrid between a do-it-yourself tutorial blog and a personal blog with everything Pinterest worthy, delicious, or crafty filed away in neat little posts complete with pictures and back stories. 

 

From personal blogging branched gossip blogging. Probably the most notorious gossip blogger is Perez Hilton (a play on words mocking then popular Paris Hilton). Perez quickly took his raunchy wit and love for drawing mean things on people’s photos to the top of the gossip blogging world. Nielsen estimated the visitors to perezhilton.com to be somewhere near 30 million a day in 2007. Gossip  

blogs quickly caught on and many other successful celebrity blogging websites made their mark not long after Perez Hilton. (Who hasn’t heard breaking news from TMZ?!).

Blogs aren’t just for personal use or entertainment, a much larger shift to business blogging has occurred as of late. Businesses are jumping on board at lightning speed. Long are the days when they had to wait for printed newsletters to update their patrons about the current happenings of their business. Keeping a blog can help businesses and business minded individuals alike seem more professional to potential clients and customers. As a business blogger, you control the content. You can easily paint your business in a positive light and highlight the best attributes that you want people to take notice of. Through blogging and interaction with visitors a business owner can develop a platform of trust and understanding with their clients. Business blogging is not to be underestimated. Keeping a blog fun, fresh, and informative can be the push you need to send your business to the next level.

What is your favorite way to blog? What are your favorite blogs to read?

http://nymag.com/news/media/15971/

http://links.net/

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics/serial

perezhilton.com

http://gawker.com/276369/the-truth-about-perez-hiltons-traffic

http://www.twelveskip.com/guide/blogging/468/11-top-reasons-why-blogging-is-important-for-business

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/tech/web/better-seo-why-blogging-more-important-ever?page=all

Hello Cashier! Oh, can I get the Facebook discount?

Social media is everywhere.  Literally everywhere! If you aren’t on Facebook you’ll probably finding yourself feeling a bit like Greg via Meet the Parents: outside the circle of trust. Ok, well maybe trust is going a bit far, but you’re very likely out of the loop. What started out as a thing for college kids and then teenagers has blossomed into a massive social networking platform where kids and adults alike have profiles and interact instantly from all over the world. Even Grammy and Gramps have hopped on the social networking train with as much as 32% of internet users aged 65 and older having a Facebook or other social networking account. Despite the minimum age requirement of 13 years old, as many as 38% of adolescents on Facebook are younger than the minimum required age. Around 4% (or 800,000 users) are reportedly under 6 years old! Facebook appeals to all ages. Being such a powerful communication tool it’s no surprise that Facebook has gone far beyond its initial days of coordinating sorority parties and discretely checking out the other students at your school and “poking” them to flirt in good fun.

Facebook has become a major platform for marketing. As many as 82% of small and medium businesses and 66% of big businesses market on Facebook.  25% are using Twitter. There’s a growing push on Pinterest as well (“pin it to win it” contests are an increasingly growing trend). Why are businesses using social networking? What’s in it for them? Social networking allows businesses an instant and direct link to their customers like no other advertising method has before.  Particularly for big businesses with corporate offices outside of the small town environment that kind of communication is huge. I'm a 20 something mom of 3 and the first place I turn when I want to get more information about a business is Facebook. I get all kinds of information from there. Several local businesses do special discounts for "likers" on their Facebook page. Just mention that you're a

fan! When I used to have a question about a product I'd have to seek out a businesses website and find their contact tab to submit a form and wait what seemed like forever for a response. Now I just find their Facebook page. It seems with the transparent nature of Facebook communications that businesses take customer service there more seriously. The whole world can see the issue or question posted and see how you respond to it. Facebook customer service can make or break a company. I usually get helpful responses within a few hours when I post a question to a company's Facebook wall. The social interaction benefits business and consumer alike.

Have you ever seen a sign like this
posted on the window of
a local business?

Many people take a very casual approach to social media and networking. That may not be the best idea anymore. Many businesses are now using a form of social media background check. Yep, you read that right... SOCIAL MEDIA background check! Still have some old photos from college lingering on your Facebook profile? You might consider deleting them or locking down the privacy settings (there is an "only me" option that would keep your photo stored on Facebook without it being viewable to anyone else). Potential employers are looking straight to social media as a character witness to potential employees. Just about anything could be a red flag to an employer, even your friends and their transgressions! The business of internet background checks is actually becoming a real business. One company out of Santa Barbara, California actually specializes in doing the dirty work of investigating potential employees and providing the report to employers.

This photo could be a huge waving red
flag to a potential employer.

Ever made a comment you thought to be funny on a fan page? Ever vented your frustrations about a negative experience with a business in a less than flattering way on their public Facebook wall? All of those things are tied to your name and will likely come up in a search. If you're looking to enter the world of big kid jobs (Taco Bell probably need not apply) you should take a look at your online presence. Start cleaning house and removing anything that might be a red flag to employers (there's even ways to remove data from Google!).

Have you ever had social networking impact your life in a negative way? How about a positive way?

and finally, our Sunday Funday ;)

Resources courtesy of:

http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_SocialMediaUsers.pdf

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/38-of-kids-on-facebook-are-under-the-minimum-age-of-13/11745

http://streetfightmag.com/2013/03/29/study-82-of-smbs-use-facebook-for-marketing-25-use-twitter/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/224386

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/job-tweets-background-checks-employers-now-include-postings/story?id=13908874

Mobile Interface: The Evil Step-Child of the Digital Media World

It's no secret that mobile devices are growing in popularity. Around 40% of Internet content is now accessed from mobile devices.With this rapidly growing shift to mobile access many companies have

found themselves in a position in which they are trying to find ways to cater to their ever-growing mobile market. If you've ever used a cell phone to access a webpage I'd bet  all the pretty pennies in my red crayon piggy bank that you've come across at least one site that redirected to a mobile-only version. In theory this sounds like a wonderful idea... but is it really? That is the grand question and the central theme of this blog post. If we were only analyzing my own usage, I suspect my statistics would be somewhere closer to the 80% range when discussing internet content accessed on a mobile platform (iPhone 4s in my case... yeah, yeah, I haven't upgraded!) vs a traditional way of accessing internet content (like my desktop computer). For me mobile access is so much more convenient. Reading the daily news while nursing a baby and fixing every crooked wheel on my older kids Monster Jam trucks (I mean really, why are they moveable?) is not an easy task if I'm grounded to a computer chair. Mobility is freedom in my household. I can take the kids to the park, the pool, or pretty much anywhere we want to go and take my news (and even my school, Blackboard app for the win!) along with me. So... I've established that having mobile access is very

I made a discussion board post on this trip
to the beach for one of my final undergrad classes.
Do THAT with a desktop!

important to me. Now begs the question: is it necessary to have a mobile specific version of websites for mobile users? My person answer to that question is... sometimes, but rarely. Now, don't think I hate all mobile sties. Sometimes it's really nice to get a quick, dumbed down version of a web page. When I'm accessing local or national news sites, I am really only looking for the highlights, hot stories, and most recent additions. I also find mobile versions very beneficial for websites that utilize Adobe Flash Player (because you know, Apple hasn't gotten on board with support of that for some insane reason). I don't mind a lot of shopping sites either; they load faster are generally easier to navigate on my little 3.5" screen. Where I come to dislike mobile versions is when they just don't measure up to their full site counterparts and don't have a working option to opt out of the mobile version. Taylor Martin recently made a post that summed this up pretty well. He writes


"scrolling to the bottom and finding the "Full Site" link isn't too much trouble. The problem is what happens after you click that link (granted it's even available) – one of three things will happen:

1. The full site will load and your preferences will be remembered for the remainder of your visits (until you clear you cache)
2. The full site will load and once you click a link, you will be reverted back to the mobile site
3. Nothing happens

If scenario one happens, I'm peachy. But if number two or three occur, I generally get too frustrated to bother with fighting it and never visit the site again from my phone after."

This is the most accurate summation of the frustrations incurred when dealing with mobile versions of websites that I've seen to date. What happens when people like Taylor and I don't ever visit the site from our phones again? It often means we just don't visit the site again in any capacity. Perhaps we're a small crowd, but we still exist and that means lost customers/viewers. I believe mobile versions have a time and a place, but they need to be done well. A mobile version with an option to view the full site that doesn't work is not helpful. A page that reverts back to the mobile version with one click is nothing short of infuriating. Where do you stand with mobile internet usage? Do you appreciate a simplified mobile version or is it more frustration than help?

References and Photos courtesy of:

http://marketingland.com/report-nearly-40-percent-of-internet-time-now-on-mobile-devices-34639

http://www.phonedog.com/2011/12/15/i-never-use-mobile-versions-of-websites-from-my-smartphone/

https://www.facebook.com/rachelandersonmrs

Next up on TLC... Digital Hoarding: How much is too much?

I think we've all seen a pointless website; websites set up as jokes or blogs long forgotten. Most people, especially in the current age of 'share anything and everything as often and as instantly as possible' web usage, don't give a second thought to content left for dead on the inter-webs. An estimated 95% of blogs are abandoned; never to be visited again. Why should it matter? Cost. Most abandoned blogs aren't deactivated. The same is the case for most abandoned web domains. Data storage like that costs money. Lots of money. The size of the internet as a whole is estimated to double about every five years. Can you imagine? From millions of cat memes to tens of millions of cat memes! (I can't be the only sucker for cat memes right?)

Increases that vast require drastic improvements to servers. Larger servers and more employees cost more money. Some think the added clutter is just something that comes with the territory. The internet is a powerful tool that can get you noticed at little to no cost at all, all from the comfort of your mom's basement in your Simpson's pajamas. It takes out the middle man. Many people who's success originated  on a simple online forum or blog probably started over a few times, and likely didn't erase their prior attempts (how about a holler for Blogger eh?). Just like the thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of photos of my kids that were duds (you know, you take 20 in a row to get the one Facebook worthy photo) that I just can't bring myself to delete, I believe most of the internet is being clung to in sad hopes that it will one day be useful or relevant again. Maybe we'll need it some day. Maybe I'll use it in 10 years. In the meantime what is it costing? For me it's a few expensive external hard drives, full of course, that will probably never be accessed again. On a grander scale, it's probably costing businesses (like Blogger) millions in storage for dormant and now irrelevant data. I believe that just like our landfills, we're going to eventually see this form of digital hoarding become an issue. It should be cleaned up before it's too late. Do you have useless information on the internet? Do you feel it will have a negative effect at some point? Have you ever had old information come back to bite you in your later life or maybe in relation to a job? (a good read on social media and job searching! http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/yes-for-the-last-time-your-potential-employers-are-judging-you-by-what-you-put-on-facebook/)



Resources:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/11/release-us-from-burden-of-internet-clutter
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?_r=0
http://www.labnol.org/internet/internet-size-to-double-every-5-years/6569/

Photos retrieved from:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m59h8iU2QG1rr4faco1_400.jpg
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/de/files/2010/09/computer_dump_large.jpg

Scissors beat paper...

...every time! Ok, so I'm using 'scissors' in a metaphorical sense here but in reality the cutting edge of digital media is becoming a much preferred source over printed paper media in almost every facet of news.  In a time when at least 61% of people get at least part of their news from online sources (and really, that statistic is from 2010, I think it's very conservative) it comes as no surprise that the business of printed media is scrambling to stay relevant. Breaking news is accessible instantly. Long are the days of card catalogs and spending hours browsing through library databases to find an old article. With booming search engines like Google and Bing a plethora of information and databases can be accessed in one click from any computer, tablet, or cellular phone (cellular... even that word sounds outdated!). Craig Newmark (the 'craig' in craigslist) has been quoted as suggesting that papers create a culture of participation. I think Mr. Newmark should probably post an ISO (in search of, for those not particularly savvy in the lingo of online abbreviations) ad to try and buy a new perspective. Online news has the population involved in their news like never before.

It's taken some time, but even the older generation in my family is getting on board with the social media trend. Want to see fun? Introduce Grandma to Facebook and see how many times she accidentally posts a PM (personal message) as her status! Through social media I can share and receive links to interesting articles and take place in a discussion about them right there underneath the shared link with people of all varieties and locations. When has a newspaper ever brought together people from 3 generations, living in 3 different states, and all discussing simultaneously about something that interests or pertains to them? Short of a three-way call (do people still do that?) I can't think of an example. In the days when newspapers were thriving you had to write in with a question or comment about an article and wait for it to be published or responded to by letter. With today's emerging media I can access an article directly on CNN moments after it's been published and comment on the article with my views or concerns directly in an interactive platform with other readers from around the globe. Newspapers are only alive because the generation that lived for them is still kicking. With the largest viewership of newspapers being those aged 55 and up, printed newspapers and magazines are sure to continue to die off making way for a generation of instant gratification and global communication. So what say you? Are paper publications dying out? Are you sad to see them go? Where do you get YOUR news?










Resources: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/keeping-newspapers-alive_b8046
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/01/social.network.news/index.html
http://www.naa.org/Trends-and-Numbers/Readership/Age-and-Gender.aspx