The Changing Media and The New Digital Age

What will your future life in the information society be like?

From 1995 until nowadays, technology as well as social media communication has been advancing at a fast pacing, especially in the past few years. Glasses and watches will no longer accessories that people use to look good in a day-to-day bases; now those accessories have become channels of communication. Microsoft and Samsung are innovating every time they launch a new product; let’s not forget about Apple that blows people mind every launching season. In my opinion, the future is not tomorrow, it is now due to the amount of new technologies and digital devices the companies are presenting to the market.

Are social media a fundamentally new type of communication or not? Justify.

Social media is not a new type of communication in my opinion; it has been developing since 1995 (the year people could use the Internet). Followed that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has been passed so that mass communication could be passed to more people. Nowadays, we can see how the old generation is using the social media to communicate; they tend to use Facebook to contact older friends, other from that generation are starting to use Instagram mostly because their sons and daughters use it all the time so that they get curious to know what is this new channel of communication. The newest generation uses all type of social media (Instagram, Facebook, MySpace, and so on), this generation use it mostly to get “likes” and get popular in their environment.

 

What is Moore’s Law and how does it impact business?

Gordon Moore created the Moore’s Law after a series of studies and observations on how integrated circuits were doubling every two years. This Law shows us how the technology field is updating every two years, which makes business create more gadgets and products every two years. However, nowadays all the technological companies (Apple, Microsoft, and so on) have been coming to the market with new products every 12 months (1 year), which means that consumers will buy new products every 12 months, making the research and production of new products, accelerating the grow of the industry as well as giving a burst in the economy.

How does new technology impact global emerging economies?

People that leave on those countries where the economy is emerging (BRICS) have been increasing their purchasing power per capita, which means that products that only developed countries citizen could afford years ago are available at a fair price for the consumer in those countries cited above. Since I live in a country where the economy is growing (Brazil), I have experience many of those technological products change. When the first iPhone came in the market, only a few people could have it – also because the cellphone service could not sustain such a powerful phone that can access the Internet. However, times have changed and now people can have smartphones, not only iPhones but also BlackBerries, Samsung and Nokia.

What is big data? – its implications

Big data can have many different meanings depending on its context and what the issue is about. When the context is technology, big data is a set of data so large and complex that it is difficult to process using on-hand management tools. According to Gallagher, big data is “a general term used to describe massive amount of data available to today’s managers”. It costs and size makes tough to work since it is unstructured. All those factors stated before makes difficult to work through a conventional database; however, new measures and ways are being discovered to make those big databases available for analysis. Many examples of companies that achieved success after making their data and database better can be brought up. For instance, Harrah’s Casino Hotels grew twice as profitable as its rival Caesars after mastering data; later Harrah’s would buy Caesars but keep the name. Another example is Capital One bank, who’s data helped create more value as well as profit. Capital One bank rely on data that its competitors were ignoring. According to Gallagher, “data-driven decision making is even credited with helping the Red Sox win their first World Series in eighteen years and with helping the New England Patriots win three Super Bowls in four years”. All those examples show us that, if used properly and wisely, big data will give you a sustainable business advantage.

What about privacy and the invasion of privacy?

Privacy has been an issue that expertise and governments have been arguing more intensely since Edward Snowden revealed secret information that the big companies that control our data were watching people. Before we used to think that the text message that we send to our friend or to our parents just to say that we were okay was just another regular text that nobody could access because we put a “password” in our phones. Now every move we make in and out of the Internet is being watched. Just by searching on the Web for new clothes, automatically on your email and your Facebook page many clothes companies will show up for you. The question that comes to my mind is: This privacy invasion is okay because we have in our face ads for the things we want or should we be concern for something bigger than the Snowden leak that can come?

How are digital tools used for survival? How does digital media accelerate political movements?

Digital tools can be used for survival in many ways. For instance, someone got lost in the woods and has no one to help him/her right away and his/her regular cellphone is out of service, however, this person remembers that he/she is carrying a satellite cellphone, which will connect to the closest satellite above Earth and complete the phone call to the rescue team.

The most recent happening that can gives us an example of how digital media accelerate political movements was the President of the USA addressing the people on the Syria issue. About 30 minutes before his speech at the White House on Saturday, I received more than 10 notifications from newspapers and news channel that he was about to speak and also telling me that he was late for his speech. I almost felt that I was on the White House waiting for him to speak with all that information that was coming to me.

Discuss the internet’s impact on the future of education:

Internet as well as technology has an important role for the future of education. We cannot be thinking only about ourselves that has an easier access to those features to study and learn. We need to think on those that do not have the access that we have to study. Amazon is trying to make that easier by distributing Kindles to kids on areas where education is barely zero. Everybody should have access to education but that’s not how things work, so that technology will help people that want to learn but cannot, get in touch with what we have nowadays. Even though it may take years to all people have access to education, a little push to start is better than nothing.