Facebook and the Future of Digital Media

   Facebook has become one of the biggest websites the internet has to offer. It has shaped and defined what social media is all about. Who would have imagined that when it was first created in 2005, that it would be this popular 10 years later? Facebook currently has 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million active users and 757 million daily users (Protalinski, 2014). When you see those numbers, they are mind blowing, as it just goes to show the powerful force that Facebook has become. You can literally have an entire continent filled with just Facebook users. Facebook is great because it has amazing features that you can use. You have the news feed which basically shows you what everybody is doing, you can message people and more importantly you can create group pages for special events. One good example is last year it was my 21st birthday, so my friends decided to take me out to the bar. They created a Facebook page explaining where the party was going to be held, and the invites of people who were coming. I had a great time, and Facebook was a big part of that because it brought and connected everyone together. One thing you have to be wary about is be careful who you add as friends because people are not always who they seem to be. Be careful when you are talking to strangers on Facebook because there have been a lot of instances where people have gotten hurt. In class, we had an interesting discussion about Facebook an the policy settings. Many people did not know that you can make your page private, and who can view it and who can't. I think it was important information to know because now we can use Facebook better and less people have access to our personal information. Facebook is also a great tool for meeting new people, as I have meet a lot of my friends this way. I talked to them in the beginning to find out who they are what they liked, and then eventually I meet them in person. It was great because when I saw them in person, I already knew a lot about the person and it would not have been possible without Facebook. My only concern is just be careful of how you use Facebook and try not put out a lot of information about yourself.

    During our last class day, we discussed Digital Media and what the future may hold. We talked about Netflix, Amazon and Google. More and more people are turning to Netflix and Amazon to watch their shows and movies. Who could blame them? Cable is becoming more expensive as the days go by. My friend Lauren told me, "My family pays over $200 dollars a month for Comcast." When she told me that my jaw dropped because that is an insane amount of money to pay month after month. I had Dish for a while, but it became very expensive so we stopped carrying it. Now, I mainly use my laptop to stream my events to the TV using the HDMI cable. It's such a cheaper alternative, and it saves you a lot of money. The future of digital media is interesting because we don't know what's going to happen. I personally think that streaming will be the way to go in the near future, as more and more shows are going to go online. TV will take a hit, but not a huge hit, as now you are starting to see more and more smarts TV's come out. Netflix will stay the same, but I think they will charge a higher fee, as the supply and demand grows. It will be another way for the to make more money. HBO will also become big, and eventually they will have their own app, where people can watch their favorite TV shows and movies. Media is changing and it's only a matter of time before everything becomes all digital. I am also hoping that in the near future, they come out with Sports flix, where you can watch as many sports as you want for a reasonable fee. That would be amazing because I such a huge sports fan.

    In conclusion, Facebook has become really big, and I expect it to grow within the next dew years or so. It's not going to fade anytime soon, so people better start getting used to it. It's a great tool for meeting people and finding out what your friends are doing. Like I said before, you can have an entire continent just filled with Facebook users, as that is just insane when you think about it. I love using Facebook, as I use it almost everyday. The only thing I would tell people is to fix their private settings so that people don't have access to their personal private information. As far as the future of Digital Media goes, it's very difficult to tell what is going to happen. We can only speculate and predict what is going to happen. I do think that everything will be online streaming, and TV's are going to evolve. Netflix, Amazon, Google and HBO will continue to rule the digital markets. I also think more people are going to start cutting the cord on their cable bill, and start using other cheaper alternatives. Our world is changing, as more things are going digital, and within the next 20 to 30 years, I expect everything to be all digital.

                                                           Reference

    1. Protalinski, Emil. "Facebook passes 1.23 billion monthly active users, 945 million mobile users, and 757 million daily users." TNW. N.p., 29 Jan 2014. Web. 11 Dec 2014. <http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/29/facebook-passes-1-23-billion-monthly-active-users-945-million-mobile-users-757-million-daily-users/>.

                                     

Online Dating and Online Shopping

    Online dating has become a huge cultural phenomenon that just keeps growing day by day. More and more people are meeting online than ever before. The internet has become a huge medium for couples to meet. Sites like Match.com, eHarmony, Zoosk have become extremely popular. Match.com already has 54 million users, and it will continue to grow. It's funny because back in the day people meet face-to-face, as there was no digital world. Now though, meeting people has become very easy and more reliable. However, please be very careful of who you meet online because there are a lot of fake people out there. This is online, and you can never be sure of who you are talking to, because you are communicating through a computer screen and not face-to-face. Personally speaking, I have never tried online dating, but I am thinking of doing so soon. It might be very interesting because you might never know of who you are going to meet. my main concern though is that it's online and you can never be sure of who is talking to you behind that computer screen. Its like the movie we saw in Comm Theory last year; Catfish, where the dude thought he was talking to a hot girl, and it ended up being somebody else. It's sad because people will manipulate you online and tell you all the good things, only for you to eventually find out that its not true. If people want to meet online, I have no problem with that, but just be careful because people will try to fool you, as trolls are everywhere on the internet. However, I would actually like to try this online dating experience, and see where it might take me.

    Another topic that we discussed in class was online shopping. Online shopping is becoming another phenomenon that is shaping the world of shopping. For people, shopping online has become a norm, as there are sites like eBay, Amazon, Walmart and etc. Online shopping has become huge business, as companies make billions of dollars. Just alone this past holiday shopping, Black Friday online sales were up at 2.4 billion dollars (Halkias, 2014). Online shopping is starting to replace traditional shopping of where people physically go to the store and buy what they need. Now, they can get what they need with one click of a button. Online shopping can also be a much cheaper alternative, as in this tough economy people are trying to save money however they can. One good example is, when I bought my laptop over the summer, I was looking for an HDMI Cable. For people that don't know what that is, it's a set of cables that help link the laptop to the television. I don't have cable, so I mainly rely on my laptop to watch all the big games and shows. I was going to try and buy it on BestBuy, but they had it for $25, whereas Amazon had it for $5. Obviously, I bought it on Amazon as it saved me a lot of money. I also buy school books online through Amazon, because buying them at the bookstore is too expensive. The prices they charge are ridiculous, and it just makes more sense to buy them online.

   Another pro of going online is you can open up your own business. Say I wanted to open up a designer shirt business, I can just easily do it online. I can create my own website, and not pay anything. I can run it from home, and then depending on how big it grows, I can expand and start hiring people. I don't have to open up a physical store which will take time to build, and then pay money for property to the city. Here it's better, cheaper and easier. The one problem that I have is now you are starting to see these physical stores go out of business because they just can't compete anymore. You then start to see people loose their jobs, and communities loosing their business. With more people shopping online, few people are physically coming to the stores. They say that Amazon could very well replace Bestbuy in the near future. I really do not want to see that happen, because so many jobs would be lost, and it will be a huge blow for people that liked buying electronics. I have bought so many things from Bestbuy that I currently use in my house, and it will be a big blow if they were to bow out. I know that there are other alternatives to buying electronics, but seeing Bestbuy go would be a little too much.

   In conclusion, I would say online shopping and dating have become very big, that will continue to grow and expand for some time. More and more people now are starting to date online, and it's becoming a big part of our culture. I would like to try online dating, but some problems are you can never be sure of who you are talking to because you can see the other person. Whereas, if you are face-to-face it's a complete different story. If you are talking to someone online just be careful because that person might not be who they say they are. As far as online shopping goes, that is also becoming a huge part of our culture, as more people are starting to shop online. It's easier, more convenient and cheaper. You can buy anything you ant with one click of a button, and honesty speaking you cannot make it more easier than that. You can start your own business online and make money through sales and sponsors. The only problem with online shopping is that it's taking away from the physical stores that people go to shop. Many stores are going out of business and people are starting to loose their jobs. It's become cheaper for people to shop online that physically going to the store. I hate seeing people loose their jobs because it's a problem for the community and it raises the unemployment rate. Online shopping is great, and I sometimes even use it, I just wish it was not taking away from the physical stores that we shop at. Going back to online dating, I will try online dating and maybe I can find the woman of my dreams.

                                                    Reference

   1. Halkias, Maria. "Holiday weekend sales slide, but online shopping scores big." The Dallas Morning News. N.p., 30 Nov 2014. Web. 11 Dec 2014. <http://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/20141130-holiday-weekend-sales-slide-but-online-shopping-scores-big.ece>.

Net Neutrality: Pros, Cons and the Future

    Net Neutrality is one of the most fundamental principals of having a free and open internet. So, let's first start out by what is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applicants regardless of the source, and without favoring particular products or websites. This term was coined by Columbia law professor Tim Wu in 2003. Basically in simpler words, it's free and open internet where people can access public information freely. It's very important to have open and free internet because it leads to competition and enables investments and innovation. Also, consumers make their own choices and the services they want to use. Recently though we are in danger of loosing the free internet because of cable companies who want to monopolize it and make more money off it.

    So who is in favor of Net Neutrality? The big companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Ebay, Microsoft, Vonage and Skype are all fighting hard to keep the internet open and free. So essentially, it's anyone and any business not involved with the cable companies. If Net Neutrality was to vanish, then the open internet as we know it will cease to exist. There would be no competition and Cable/Phone companies will win the ability to charge internet content providers and individuals and extra fee for delivering content. Cable companies can actually slow down, degrade or even block the content of any website that does not pay it's fees. That means that small business and innovators that rely on the internet to reach consumers could be priced out of the marketplace entirely. That is why people and corporations that are for net neutrality are fighting very hard to keep the internet open and free.

    So who is against Net Neutrality? Basically, all the major cable and telephone companies who provide 94% of the broadband internet access. They are spending millions of dollars lobbying congress to eliminate net neutrality. For example, Comcast had already spent 14.5 million dollars in lobbying last year. The only other company that has spent more money in lobbying is defense contractor Northrop Grumman. These cable companies have Washington in the back of their pockets to an almost unbelievable degree. They want a closed internet where the carrier of service providers has control over applicants,content and the media.

   The FCC, which stands for  Federal Communications Commission, is an independent agency of the U.S that regulates Internet, TV, Radio, and Cable in all 50 states. They are doing the best they can to keep the internet free, but the pressure of lobbying is catching up to them. The bad thing is President Obama, recently hired Tom Wheeler to be the chairman of the FCC. He was a former lobbyist for the cable companies, and now is in charge of the FCC. That is a very bad decision because it makes it more clear that having a closed internet is coming soon. However, Mr. Wheeler stated that "What I want is what you want, an open internet that does not affect your business" (Fung). It's still very early to tell though in which direction the FCC might go, but for everyone sake, I hope the keep the internet free and open.

   In conclusion, net neutrality is a very difficult and complex issue to understand. You have a lot of companies for and against net neutrality. I think in my opinion, it's very important to keep the internet free and open because it allows for more innovation and discretion. People are free to look up what they want, and not limited. If cable companies were to take over, then it would be a money game, and if you do not pay the fee that they charge, then you might get blocked out. The internet needs to stay open and free, as that would benefit a lot of people, and recently more than 5 million open letters were written to the FCC, asking for an open internet. I think people pay enough for internet as it is, and if the cable companies were to take over, it would get even worse. In the end, I feel the people should decide whether to have a free internet and not the cable companies.

                                                        Reference:

   1. Fung, Brian. "Obama’s call for an open Internet puts him at odds with regulators." The Washington Post. N.p., 11 Nov 2014. Web. 11 Dec 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/11/11/the-fcc-weighs-breaking-with-obama-over-the-future-of-the-internet/>.