Digital Age

In today’s world, we live in the era of iTunes. This site, application, place, etc. gives us a platform to download music legally and at a cheap price. iTunes is where the Digital Music age has taken us.

After every American Idol performance, Ryan Seacrest will announce that all the performances will be available on iTunes. When John Cena is running down to the ring on a WWE-televised event, an advertisement will pop up in the corner of the screen. The advertisement says you can download John Cena’s theme song at iTunes.

Twelve years ago, Napster was where the digital music age kicked off. However, Napster was illegally downloading and sharing music. In Lehman’s terms, Napster was not paying any artist for their songs being shared or downloaded, unlike iTunes which will charge people $1.99 for a song or video.

The band, Metallica, sued Napster in 2001, which in the fall of 2001, Napster was forced to shutdown. It was a victory for Metallica, who was at the front of not being paid for their music being shared.

After Napster, you had your Kazaa, Bearshare, and other music-download websites that eventually got the boot like Napster. iTunes offers the same thing Napster did, but it’s legal. iTunes is convenient. If you have an IPhone, then you more than likely have an iTunes application on the phone. We have a store in our own phone.

iTunes is here to stay. Until some other company comes along and really competes against them, they will dominate the music-industry as far as sales. CDs are fading out. No one wants to pay $15 for a CD anymore. You can get an entire album on iTunes for $10-$13. You can buy songs individually, so you don’t have to deal with the songs you don’t want. Like I said before, iTunes is convenient for us the consumer.

The only question left is what’s next for the music industry? How long will the artists stay with iTunes? My answer: As long as they’re getting paid for their music, iTunes will stick around for a long time.

Nostalgia

Wow! Kids, how thoughtful they were to Turkle. I nearly laughed when I read the kids talking about the old days. I laugh at myself when I say the old days.

However, the kids brought up great points about distractions (mainly cell phones). Some of the kids felt neglected by their parents use of a cell phone. I can understand their feeling, however, we had to learn that our parents had to accept our use of a cell phone, or technology in general. I can recount numerous times where I was distracted by the cell phone with my mom, or with my dad. Looking back on it, the cell phone should have been off, or left in the car.

In my opinion though, technology, or a cell phone is not to blame completely on an adult, or a kid multi-tasking. Have you seen the people who do their make-up while they are driving? Have you seen people read the paper and drive? It’s scary to think about. Neither one of those has anything to do with technology. So people get lost in non-technological things.

People do not write letters anymore. Writing is a lost art. It is a lost interpersonal skill as well. How can we find the art of writing again? Will we compromise our technology? Our society is one that wants responses, so can we develop the patience to wait for a letter? I think I will write a letter to someone just to surprise them.

Not only is writing a letter a lost art, but talking to people face-to-face and over the phone are lost art. People do not like to talk over the phone. Turkle said some of the students gave the reason of ‘ackwardness’ as to why they do not talk on the phone. How is it ackward to talk on a phone? Certain subjects can be ackward, but not just because it is over the phone. Talking on the phone can help these young people with their verbal skills. They should talk on the phone more often.

So my last question, what has happened to our communication? Are the barriers our doing? I say yes, but I also say no. However, we can overcome the barriers. People just have to put in the effort to get past the barriers. Sometimes you have to step outside the comfort zone.

Ring! Ring! Do You Answer?

Do you still call your family, friends or colleagues? Why are people constantly texting or facebooking? I know I do both, but not every minute of the day.

Texting can be convenient, however, texting can be distracting. You can be in the middle of class and lose focus because of a text. You can be driving and try to text a friend back, and well, we know what has happened. Federal Laws have been trying to ban cell phone use period in a car.

Texting can slow your walking pace down. Texting is also the new norm for relationships.

One thing a text will do that something like Facebook will not, disappear. Once you post something online, it becomes a permanent fixture. Younger people do not realize posting things can have consequences, whether it be personally or professionally. So my advice, be careful.

Ultimately, the thing lost through texting and facebooking, communication, interpersonal communication to be exact. Are people afraid to talk anymore? Have they forgotten how to verbally communicate? A lot has to do with how technology has formed a different type of communication skill. Letters are rarely written anymore. People are becoming to reliable on the technology. I know I have.

Our class keeps us talking though. We do not completely lose our talking ability. We face-to-face talk.  A thing most teenagers and young adults are not doing. So next time the phone rings, ANSWER! Someone on the other end may actually want to hear a voice. Is that the reason why we hate technological recordings when we call for tech support? They are not a human, but yet we do not think about it when we just text or facebook someone.

 

 

Tennis’ Version of the Final Four

At 3:30 AM ET, Rafael Nadal will battle arguably the greatest tennis player of all-time, Roger Federer. According to Chris McKendry (ESPN), this marks the 27th meeting between Nadal and Federer. I remember watching their classic from Wimbledon in 2008. That match got me hooked on to the sport of tennis. From there, I saw them battle a few more times, with Nadal winning most of those battles. They are our modern-day McEnroe and Borg.

However, the Federer/Nadal reign in tennis may be coming to an end. World No.1 Novak Djokovic has shown his dominance on the tennis court. Putting together one of the greatest season’s ever by a player, Djokovic won three of the four grand-slam events last season (Australian Open, Wimbledon, U.S. Open). He lost to Roger Federer in the semifinal of the French Open last year. He was able to best Federer in a five-set thriller two-months later at the U.S. Open.

A four-time major champion, Djokovic will be looking to cement a legacy. With a win in the semifinal against Andy Murray, Djokovic will look to officially dethrone Federer and Nadal. With a win, he will have his fifth major title, and a third Australian Open championship. From a fan perspective, I want to see Federer/Djokovic three. It would be their third meeting in the last four grand-slam events. The previous two were contested in the semifinal round. This would be a final. It could be Federer’s last stand.

The real winner from whoever wins, the fans. They are experiencing great tennis at a time when tennis may not be the ‘thing’. It isn’t as popular here in America. That’s because we have no dominant tennis star. However, the fans need to enjoy and embrace the great tennis they have been treated to over the past several years. A great rivalry was born and executed perfectly. A new challenger has risen, and he wants his legacy to be remembered in the annals of time. We’ve been treated to tennis greatness, and hopefully that doesn’t stop anytime soon.

“Am I On?” I’d Say So!

“Always On”, what does the phrase mean? For Sherry Turkle, and her book, Alone Together, “Always On” means we (people) are always connected to technology in some way, shape, or form. Does being connected have its positives and negatives? Sure it does. Right now, this blog is part of “Always On”. I’m at a computer typing the blog. I don’t blog constantly, but for class and sometimes for experience, I will type out a blog.

A lot of my time is spent on Facebook and Twitter. My Twitter account is set-up to where when I “tweet” it will pop-up on 1) Twitter, 2) Facebook, and 3) My blog. In my eyes, my tweets and status updates (Facebook) aren’t always the same. It may give off a different dimension of who I am.

Turkle talks about if you lose touch with reality and relationships. You become an “Avatar” if you’re  “Always On”. I don’t belong to website or group, where people pretend to get married. The internet has different websites where you can truly create your own “Avatar”. Why do people do this? Is it for fun? Are they bored? Do they have friends? Are they lacking something in a personal relationship with their significant other? These are questions that I’ve thought about when it comes to Avatars. However, If you have a blog, a Facebook or Twitter account, a dating website account, etc. then you’re creating an Avatar on these sites. I’m an Avatar to a certain extent. You can control what goes up on your own profile (unless someone hacks into your accounts). You control the pictures people will see of you. I feel people want to put their best foot-forward, even if it is Facebook.

However, like Dorothy and her friends found out in the land of Oz, the curtain only opens for a select few. I may my thoughts online with the friends list, but to truly understand a problem, or what a status may mean, you personally will message someone about it. You are only lifting the curtain to them. You allow them to take control. Just like in Oz, when Dorothy and her friends found out the wizard was just a normal man behind the curtain, they had control.

Another aspect of “Always On”, and to me it is the biggest aspect, my Iphone. I am constantly messing around on my phone. I may jump on Facebook, send out a tweet, listen to ESPN Radio, or read my favorite newspapers. The newness of my phone hasn’t wore off yet. I’ve had the phone for eight months or so, and wow! I still get enthralled with it. For me, it is an awesome piece of technology. Is it distracting? Yes. Can we minimize the distraction? Yes, but our society as a whole has become a distraction. Turkle talks about what used to be the only distractions were television and Super Mario Bros. Now, you have shopping, television, movies, computer, Xbox 360, cell phone, Ipad, etc. Now, multitasking has become that much more important. If you can limit and handle the distractions, you can easily succeed in the world.

Digital Culture

Hi Everyone,

I’m Charles. In our first class we discussed DIGITAL CULTURE. This culture is what we live in right now. Digital culture is also a postmodern concept.

So how does digital culture affect my life? For starters, what we are doing for class with our blogs, this is part of digital culture. All the new phones with their applications, digital culture. I have an Iphone, and most of the applications on my phone are news applications. I have USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Foxnews, FoxSports, Sports Illustrated, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, WSB, PGA Tour, and ESPN. Virtually, I’m covered when it comes to my news.

Another aspect of digital culture in my life is social media. Facebook and Twitter I use frequently (Facebook-Daily and Twitter-weekly). The social media sites allow us to interact with our friends, and in some cases celebrities. At virtually anytime of day, if you want to know what is going on in someones’ life, just check Facebook. Many people put their life story on there for us to read. With Twitter, I like to follow my favorite celebrities like Charlie Sheen, The Rock, SportsCenter anchors, etc. Another neat thing I like about Twitter, Trends. You can see what the top-10 worldwide trends are at any given time. Tonight for example, the South Carolina debate has been trending consistently, and then WWE Raw has been trending.

Probably the biggest aspect of digital culture in my life is movies. I collect movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. When I first got a DVD player ten or eleven years ago, I thought it was the coolest technology around. With televisions evolving to what they are now, it was only fitting I got a Blu-Ray player. For someone who watches a lot of movies, I could easily tell a difference from a standard DVD to a Blu-Ray movie. The picture, the sound, everything looks better with a Blu-Ray. 3-D televisions and Blu-Ray players are becoming a norm in digital culture, so hopefully I will not have to convert to those anytime soon.