Today many TV shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional prodution values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get better over time? WHY??

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Today, a new style of commercials, TV shows and movies has emerged. This style seems to be a deliberate effort to relate to the new aspects of Web 2.0. The Web 2.0 revolves around user-generated content. Users can easily create and upload their own web blogs, web cam videos, pictures, articles, music, music videos, and all sorts of media. They have gained a personal connection with the web because of their involvement. Hence, a new style in commercials, TV shows and movies which involves these Web 2.0 aspects is now being used by some professionals to make their content more relatable to the audience.

An example of this style is used for Windows' recent "I'm a PC" commercials. Not only does it personalize PCs with the "I am a PC" slogan, but it also connects to modern consumers by appealing to the user-generated style commonly used on the web. Another example would be the movies My Suicide, which revolves around the use of a personal webcam and the whole concept that even an amateur can produce something for a large audience to view. However, My Suicide does not appear as a low-quality or amateur-level film; it also contains high-quality editing and advanced techniques.

This specific style will continue to be used by some professional commercials, TV shows and movies so long as this Web 2.0 craze remains a dominant component of our culture. However, it will only remain one of many professional styles; the overall quality and approach of all commercials, TV shows and movies will not lower. In fact, they may become even more high-tech, high-quality and professional as more and more high-tech software and technology are developed, and more people are educated on how to use them. This increase in quality and professionalism will most likely carry over to user-generated content on the web as well. As more and more high-tech software and technology are developed, and more people are educated on how to use them, the quality of user-generated content on the web will increase.

Find a news article and write down tags you would use to define what the article is about. Now goto Digg or another tagging site and see how others have tagged it. What did you learn from the differences or similarities in tagging?

Article: Seesmic's Web App Now Does Threaded Twitter Conversations
Possible tags: Twitter, Seesmic, web applications, internet, web, social media, new
Given tags: Seesmic, software, trending, twitter, twitter client, web application

They both contain key words. However, the given tags tend to be more specific than the ones we thought of when simply skimming the article. In hindsight, a tag like "internet" probably wouldn't be included because it is assumed that if a person is interested in Twitter, then he or she probably understands that Twitter is an online service.

Why is transparency such an important concept in the Social Media world? Is it MORE or LESS important in the offline world? Why?

The issue of transparency is important in the social media world because it is easy and convenient to lie with the anonymity of the internet. If a writer wants to be taken as a credible source of information, readers have to know if they have alternative motives.

Transparency is more important in the online world than the offline world. When people are using the internet, they generally are using it as a resource for information in some way. This is different than offline media. For example, when people are watching commercials, they already understand that the intention is to advertise. When reading a blog post, though, the reader is more inclined to assume that the writer is being objective to a certain extent. It's just more clear to identify purpose in offline media rather than online media. Expecting a sales-pitch versus expecting general information will cause variation in one's ability to sense transparency: one is more susceptible to the dangers of transparency online rather than offline.

The Persuaders

The Persuaders begins by questioning the increase in the amount of advertising we typically encounter in our daily lives. How would you assess the amount of advertising you see? Too much? Too little? Just right? In your view, what difference does it make to know that people today see much more advertising in their daily lives than people 20 or 30 years ago?

I think that I see a very large amount of advertising on a daily basis. There is too much but I think that, because there is so much, we tend to not even notice it's presence in many cases. It makes sense that people today are exposed to much more advertising than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Today companies have a large number of more potent advertising resources at their disposal. 30 years ago they were limited to tv, radio, and traditional signs and newspapers. The Internet has given ad companies a near unlimited medium through which they can reach their potential customers. I think that the internet is the worst in terms of the sheer quantity of advertisements. Nearly every website online has some form of advertisement on the side. The Internet also enables companies to target their ads to a specific audience. For example, anytime I do a Google search I receive a list of "Sponsored Links" in addition to my actual search results. Those links are based off of my search and previous searches. I think, for the most part, there are some many ads online that they often are just ignored. I tune them out in a way.

Where are things headed in the future? What are some possible scenarios that could play out as far as the direction that future persuaders may take their marketing techniques?

I think that in the future we can expect to see even more targeted advertising like we see on sites like Facebook and Google but in other contexts as well.

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I think that as televisions become more connected to the internet, viewers can expect to see commercials targeted specifically towards them while they watch tv. The Persuaders discusses how television and marketing companies are worried about how to advertise because fewer and fewer viewers are actually watching the commercials, as DVRs allow them to fast forward through the commercials and people begin video streaming off of sites like Hulu or buying tv episodes from services such as Apple's iTunes Store. As more and more advanced information technology systems find their way into every aspect of our lives the opportunities for ad companies to target individual users will grow exponentially.

Digital Nation Part II

In the second poration of Digital Nation dealt more with the issue of video games and their effect on children. They interviewed a boy from Asia who attended a computer addiction class because his mother worried about him playing games for 8 hours a day. He said that while he was there all he could think about was getting back to the game.

The documentary also took a look at technology from a more positive stand point. They interviewed teachers at schools who have integrated state of the art technology into their classrooms. One principal manage to completely turn around the academic performance in his middle school in New York City by giving every student a laptop to be integrated into every part of their education. Of course the argument can still be made that giving kids laptops in class only reinforces the multitasking which emerging research suggests negatively impacts their academic abilities.

Personally, I feel that technology should play a large part in education. Technology is a huge part of modern life and I think it would be a mistake to exclude it from education. I do, however, think that there are things which cannot be properly taught on the computer. It cannot do everything. At least for me, something like reading can never be the same on a computer. I also don't think that an online class can take the place of physically being in the classroom with the teacher.

I think that one thing Digital Nation is how social media has affected our privacy. It is very easy to find information on someone on the Internet. That can be good and bad.

The information might be there for someone who you don't want to have it. There are countless stories about people getting fired or facing negative consequences from information posted on their facebook profiles.

At the closing of Digital Nation, Douglas Rushkoff said that his favorite part of technology is that he is able to turn it off. I think I have to agree with him on that count. As much as I love having my cell phone and my laptop there are times when you just need to turn them off.

Digital Nation

So far Digital Nation has focused on our complete immersion in technology and electronic multitasking, which has become so prevalent among college students. Students are constantly connected all the time. They study while texting, listening to music, checking email, browsing Facebook, etc. Many of the students are convinced that they are good multitaskers, but a study at Stanford University has so far that this is not the case.

Personally, I would like to think that I don't multitask that much. I may not be the worst, but even now I'm writing a blog post, listening to Pandora, texting two friends, and it's quite probable that within the next three minutes I will check my email. There's almost no escaping it. I think I do about 75% of my schoolwork on the computer and when I'm on the computer there are any number of distractions.

The documentary seems to be leaning towards video games next. I know that in some Asian countries the governments recognize video game addiction as national epidemics. I can't see video games as as much of a problem though because turning on an xbox is a conscious choice where as receiving a text is not. Yes I could shut my phone off entirely, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having it right?

I think the most important issue with the rapid expansion of social media is its public nature. My online life is there for all to see. I don't see any reason to post a tweet every three minutes to let all of my followers know that I've moved from sitting on my bed reading to sitting at my desk also reading. I like to have at least some semblance of privacy but many people seem to have no reservations about sharing their lives online. I hope Digital Nation discusses the possible consequences of the open nature of social media.

Web 2.0 Terms

user-generated content: This term refers to different kinds of media, which are produces by the end-use; for example, on YouTube.com users post their own videos.

long tail: This is a retail concept of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities, as opposed to a large quantity of only popular items

network as the platform: The concept of moving features normally run on the operating system to the network where they can be access quickly from anywhere.

folksonomy: A system of classification which comes from the use of collaborative tagging to to annotate and categorize content.

syndication: A method of making website material available on many other sites. The most common form of syndication is RSS feeds.

mass collaboration: This action results from large groups of people working independently of one another on a single project (i.e. wiki technology).

computer supported collaboration: Technology that effects affects groups, organizations, communities and societies such as text messaging or social networking.

hosted services: Services like Google's Gmail or Google Docs, which are "hosted" on Google's servers but may be accessed by users from anywhere in the world.

web applications: Any application which is accessed online through a web browser as opposed to an application that runs on the operating system.

social software: Any software systems which allow users to interact and share data from social networking sites like Facebook to online auctions from eBay.

video-sharing sites: Websites like YouTube.com which allow users to upload and share their own digital video content with other users of the site.

wikis: This is a website which allows users to easily and collaboratively edit and produce online content via a web browser (i.e. Wikipedia.org).

blogs: A blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual, to articles, commentary or other forms of media are regularly posted to be viewed by other users.

mashup: Digital media which takes preexisting content from other sources and compiles it together to convey a new or modified meaning.

Final McLuhan Collage

The iPhone:

The iPhone bring near limitless content into the palm of the users hand. Phone calls, emails, Facebook, music, video, and the Internet are just the start. The iPhone, and other similar devices, have changed the way everyday people communicate by giving them access to content which they were previously only able to acces from their home computers. Now they have access to that information anywhere in the world. The collage represents how the iPhone has broke down some of the boundaries of geography and time, bring users content anywhere in the world in the form of thousands of applications.

McLuhan Collage

The iPhone: