The Future of Television and The Power of Shared Economies

   About a week ago in class, we discussed television, and how the future of TV could look like in 10, 20, 30 years from now. I love watching TV, especially big sporting events such as World Cup, NBA Finals and the Super Bowl. I also like watching my favorite sitcom shows such as Seinfeld and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Television though has changed throughout the years, and the technology is helping it improve. When I was growing up, I did not have Smart TV's, 50 inch Plasma HDTV's, or Led TV's with 1080 picture. I had a thirteen inch television, with bunny rabbit antenna ears, and that is how we watched all the local channels. Innovation in technology has changed all that, and TV's now are just out of this world. If you have a smart TV, you can instantly watch whatever you like with one click of a button. You have access to the internet, and your choices of what you want to see have expanded. There are now specific channels for people that are interested in what they like. For example, if you like basketball, there is NBA TV, if you like golf, there is the Golf Channel, and for cooking lovers, there is the Cooking Channel. Television is changing and evolving, and there is news that a 4K Ultra HDTV is coming, where you can actually feel that you are in the show that you are watching. I think the new technology is going to be beyond our comprehension, and it will continue to get better. As far as the future goes, some people say that TV is going to fade away, and the internet is going to take over. I don't think television is going to fade, because there is always going to be a market for it. I just think it's going to change in terms of design, and more things are going to be live streamed. I always have a ritual where I go home and turn on the TV, and see what is on. My dad always watches the news, and television plays a big part in his life, just as much as mines. When the World Cup was on this past summer in Brazil, my family watched all the games on TV, and it helped bring us together. It was great to watch the games with my dad and brother, and we had a great time.

    Earlier in the week, we talked about shared economies, which is the socio-economic system built around the sharing of human and physical resources. People rent cars, beds, boats and other assets directly from each other, coordinated via internet. Peer-to-peer rental market is worth 26 billion dollars. One of the examples that we talked about is Uber, which is a ride sharing service. For me, that would be great, because say if I am going to the club, and I don't want to drive and neither do my friends, we can just get somebody to drive us too and back. I think that kind of service is extremely beneficial and depending on who you get, it could be cheap as well. Another example is when you rent your house off to tourist and people that need a place for a period of time. I would not do that because of trust issues, and sometimes you may not know what you are getting into.In that kind of situation I would rely on customer feed backs and satisfaction reviews. Even then, I would much rather get a hotel, rather than go into someone else's house. As good as shared economies seems, one problem that arises is other business are loosing money. With Uber, the taxi companies are complaining because Uber is stealing all of their customers. They are loosing money, and in Seattle Uber is banned, because the taxi companies complained. For renting off the house, the hotels are the ones that lose money because customers don't want to go there anymore, because they have found other cheaper alternatives. If that is the case then hotels will go out of business and many people will loose their jobs. Thanks to the digital age, these things can be done in an instant. Personally, sharing economies works for me because I rent my books from Amazon, rather than buy them from the bookstore. It saves me a ton of money, and I am sure that other students do that as well. People now and days are strapped for cash because of a poor economy, and many people just don't have the money to buy things as they once did. Sharing economies could be a better option and alternative for people looking to get cheaper things.

    Since we have been talking a lot about Facebook and Twitter, I want to discuss two stories that have been trending in the media for the past week. 1st I want to talk about the Ray Rice scandal, and the power that social media played. Ray Rice was accused of assaulting his fiancee in February, and the NFL initially suspended him 2 games in April. Recently though a video surfaced of him, knocking out his fiancee in an elevator and dragging her out like she is garbage. Since the video came out, the Baltimore Ravens terminated his contract, and Rice is furthermore suspended from playing in any NFL games this year. When the news broke out, Twitter exploded with many people posting that Roger Godel, who is the commissioner of the NFL, to be fired for his handling of the situation. There were also postings made by women who had been in abusive relationships, with the hash tag, why they stayed. It more of a power movement, and it was all thanks to social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook. The other case is of a gay couple that were physically assaulted by a group of cowards in Philadelphia. One of the victims was beat up so bad that they had to shut his mouth. They were beat because they were gay, which is utterly disgusting. In the beginning  police had very few leads, but luckily a video surfaced online that showed the group responsible for the assault. Immediately, people began posting and sharing the video online through Twitter and Facebook. It exploded like a firestorm, and one of the people responsible was identified, and he happened to be a football coach at a local archdiocese high school. He was fired and now could very well be facing criminal charges. This was all done thanks to Twitter and Facebook, and everyone who helped share the video. Social media was able to bring an entire community of people together. I think in situations like these having social media is beneficial not only for people trying to get information, but also for the police because it gives them another tool to help catch the perpetrators and bring them to justice.