Ultimate Control

Growing up when it came to the media you either conformed to the schedules of others or, "oops, sorry you're out of luck." Present day that way of life is almost mocked, you see groups on Facebook, become a fan of "When you were little having a reason to wake up early on a Saturday morning to watch cartoons", who does that anymore? Even young kids understand the concept of DVR, they don't have to wake up at 7AM, they can wake up at 10 play Wii Sports and then watch Spongebob. Society is not conforming to the media anymore we are taking control and the media is conforming to society. Most people these days, even kids are running around with a million things to do and don't have time to be restricted to the schedules of television shows but don't want to be without them either.

We control the media, you can gain internet access on almost any cell phone and now even your ipod. Someone has a question, no you don't have to wait until you get home to figure out the answer you can Google on your phone or your laptop. You don't want to wait in line to buy movie tickets log on to fandango and print out your ticket online, same thing with concert tickets just go to Ticketmaster.com. This society is a mobile community, always on the run but more connected to the media than ever. Even grocery shopping, something people years ago would have said there is no way that the internet and grocery shopping can be connected, wrong. Now we have Peapod.com, you can grocery shop online and someone from your nearest store will deliver it to you.

The phone in present day is even being used less and less, you can order clothes online, you can order food online. Infomercials, "call now and we'll take ten dollars off your purchase," they now have websites too. Even though the actual calling process isn't being used so much you still can't be without a cell phone, but now our cell phones are being used more than ever but not for calling but for texting and internet.

Ashton Kutcher not too long ago did a little experiment on the television v.s. the web through Twitter, he talks about the television and the web becoming one. Ashton took on CNN to see who could reach one million followers on twitter first, to show the power of social media that we create the content that we want to see. As years go by society wants more and more at their fingertips, we decide, we control what we see and when we see it.

Below is one of Ashton Kutcher's Ustream videos about his Twitter Duel:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1393560

Just Google It

Have you ever noticed how much time you actually spend on the computer when all you went to do was get an answer to what had seemed like a very simple question? I fall victim to it pretty much every single day. Don't know the lyrics to a song? Google it and being that driving takes up a lot of my time traveling Monday through Thursday from Merrick to Oakdale I am always wondering who sings that song? Or what was that second verse? Lyrics and a name that's all you can be looking for but three hours later not only do you know the answers you went in searching for but you also know they live in Studio City with two kids and a dog. Google is for lack of a better word "hypnotizing", you started out on google but ended up on itunes buying all their latest hits, so now not only did this take up three hours of your time but at least a $1.29. It gets better when your trying to write a psychology paper and just wanted to know the name of a theorist and come out of your google frenzy a psychologist yourself diagnosing yourself with about fifteen different diseases. Google has a great power over its users, myself being one of them, but why? Why isn't it simple to go in with one question and come out with one answer? Google it.