The Evolution Of Computers

Perhaps the most significant date in the history of computers is the year 1936. It was in this year that the first "computer" was developed. It was created by Konrad Zuse and dubbed the Z1 Computer. This computer stands as the first as it was the first system to be fully programmable. Over the course of the next few years, inventors all over the world began to search more into the study of computers, and how to improve upon them. The ENIAC 1 is perhaps one of the most interesting, as it required 20,000 vacuum tubes to operate. It was a massive machine, and started the revolution to build smaller and faster computers. The 1970s were very important for computers. This is when companies began to develop systems for the average consumer. While expensive, these machines started the trend for computers within common households. As these computers were released, a rivalry formed between Apple and IBM (also know as PCs). With a significant improvement in technology, the computers we use today are faster, efficient, smaller, and cheaper than what they were 50 years ago.

The future of computers and technology seems very bright. Every day producers are working hard to provide something new to the world and impress their consumers. People like Steve Jobs come up with brilliant ideas and leave us wanting to buy his products. I believe the future holds for us computers which will be able to fit into our pockets. They will be so tiny that they will have projectors which will project a keyboard on the surface of a wall. Obviously, this will all be touch screen and so there will be no mice needed. Voice recognition will also be added to computers. If we say "On", the computer will switch on and if we say "Off", it will turn off. These are only a few things that I have predicted from my imagination, but there are many more as technology improves ever so quickly.

My bit.ly Tutorial!

The goal of creating this tutorial was to spread the word about the social media tool that I researched, bit.ly, which targets user groups of all ages. The features that make this tool so helpful and great to its target user group include things such as easier sharing as the URL is shortened and being able to track the amount of people who have clicked on your link by adding a "+" after the URL. For example, if a teachers wants his/her students to copy a link in their web addresses and it is very long, he/she could use bit.ly and decrease the length of the URL making it easier for students to copy the link.

Here's my tutorial and I hope you are inspired to now use this tool!

Facebook Privacy Changes Continue

The article I read on the recent changes Facebook has made to its privacy settings stated the negative reactions of how people felt. It went in depth to explain how scammers and identity thieves are able to easily access your phone number and personal home address. Hearing this news, many users threatened to boycott Facebook to join another social-networking site and delete their account. Two Senators also joined into the debate as they sent a combined letter to Facebook showing their concerns over the new privacy settings and voiced their opinions so that some changes can be made. To counter these concerns and arguments, Facebook replied back saying that users will be more aware of what will be shown to app developers when they want to play a new game or something else. 

At the moment Facebook users are made aware of privacy changes on the top of their news feed. If there are new privacy changes that are going to be implemented soon, Facebook alerts users usually around a week before on the top on their homepage. Many users ignore this, including me, and move on to do whatever they were doing. I believe Facebook should send users an email to their customers when privacy settings are changed. From my perspective, Facebook should not have the right to share my personal information as it puts me in danger as scammers and other thieves now have easy access to where I live and  can impersonate me. From the perspective of Facebook, they would benefit if they gave access of the personal information of users to developers. Millions of app developers want to develop their app on Facebook and are willing to may lots of money to do so.  

I use my Facebook to interact with my family and friends that are not in Kuwait. I use it to see what my friends are up to and interact with them frequently. Privacy settings do concern me and after reading this article, I have changed mine too. Reading this article was shocking and now I wish to be more aware of what is going on in Facebook and if there is anything else that I need to do. If there are more privacy changes, I will make sure to be aware of what they are and use less apps to play games in order to not give out my personal information. 

If you also wish to read the article I am talking about, check it out here:

The Changes Continue

The Market controls Teens

Who's the boss? The market or the teens? While it may be debatable, I am certain that the market has the edge as to who controls whom. Firstly, manipulative advertisements influence many little kids to ask their parents to spend money on them. Last year, $500 million were spend by parents on kids who were younger than 12. Models and bodybuilders are on TV and posters all over cities and seeing such people influences teens to make them their role models as they do not realize that they are not realistic images. Lastly, I believe when children are young, the market distracts them and which ruins their education.

Here is my presentation on the side I supported:

Teen's Use of Media (Analysis)

In our Media and Marketplace Technology class, we were assigned groups in which we were to discuss and analyze the results of the teen's use of media survey. The group work was divided between us and when we were finished, we came together and discussed what we had done and if anything needed corrections. The feedback we gave to another group was also divided and we learned that our results had many similarities. There weren't many mistakes and so it did not take too long to correct their analysis. The overall results of the survey were that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are very popular among the people who took the survey and that access to advanced technology varies in different countries as the people in Africa don't have as much technology the people in Kuwait.

To view my team's analysis of the survey, click the the link below:
Analyzing the Survey Results

Market controlling teens vs. Teens controlling market

There is a big debate nowadays as to who's really in charge. Is the teens or is it the market? With this topic hotly debated, I strongly believe that the market controls the teens. Here are a couple reasons why I believe so:

1. Firstly, the market decides whats fashionably and "in" in today's world which make teens crazy about their product. 

2. Secondly, advertisements for products are now shown glamorously, mostly over-exagerrated, and are targeted towards easy customers such as ourselves. We believe these ridiculous advertisements with a great deal of publicity in our social circle and then end up buying them. A classic example would be the advert for Redbull where it continuously states that it "gives you wings!". 

3. Lastly, with millions of teens able to access the internet daily, advertisers now target the internet in excess as it is very easy to contact teens anywhere at any time. 

Exploring Media

Where do we use/interact with media?

     In today’s modern, globalized economy, we literally see and interact with media any place we go. Whether it’s our house, school, car, gym, or even the movie theater; media is everywhere. I own several of such technological devices. Things such as TVs, mobile phones, laptop computers, Ipods, Ipads, and several other things are very common among people. Logging on to the web has become simpler than ever in today’s world as billions of people surf the web daily. Using the internet, people can share media via social networking sites in order for other people to experience what they just watched. The last two centuries have been a golden age for technological advances in the world just making it easier for people to interact with each other easier than ever. 

What are the various forms of media?

     There are several types of media in the modern world today. Print media is communications that are developed on a paper or canvas. Newspapers and magazines would be perfect examples of a print media today. Web media would be media digitalized on the web. Web media is a very general term for describing the all the media on the web as a whole. News media is media focused on communicating news. Websites such as BBC and Cricinfo are perfect examples as one tells news about the world globally and the other about the latest cricket news. Social media is media disseminated through social interaction. Social networking sites such as Twitter and MySpace are prime examples of social media as millions of people share media via these sites. Advertising media is various media and content on the web that is used to advertise several products a company desires to sell.

What tools are used in creating and sharing media?

     Several tools are used in creating all these different types of media. Tools used by many office workers in print media would be such things as printers and software programs. Software programs such as Photoshop and InDesign are what several professional would be using in order to create their print media such as a layout for the first page of a newspaper. Web media tools could be very general things such as the search engine Google which can help you search the answer to any of your questions. News media tools on a website such as Cricinfo would be the ability for registered users to comment on any of the latest cricket news that has been posted on the website. These users can also then ask questions to special guests on any podcast that takes place. Social media tools vary as there are so many of them. Tools can be things such as wall posts, comments, status updates, and a profile picture on Facebook. A very handy tool for Advertising agencies would be that of advertising on a website which millions of users visit daily. Therefore, advertising their product on YouTube would be very profitable for them as it would be shared my millions of people with their friends and family and would travel onto other websites. 

http://www.dropbox.com/ - Social Media Tool: You can save/share as much content as you want.

http://www.youtube.com/t/advertising_overview - Advertising Media Tool: Several products are advertised on YouTube.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/current/story/500098.html - News Media: Users can post comments below the article.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello!
Hey guys, this is my blog for my computer class at school: Media and Marketplace Technology. On here I will be posting about topics on how media is affecting our lives in today's world and will be reflecting on my progress throughout the 5 units we complete in the course of this semester. I hope you enjoy reading my posts and feel free to comment!