TELEVISION!

My childhood consisted of me walking in from school and seeing my dad in front of the television. He was constantly on his island. Even today, when I see him, he is in his chair watching television. I see my sister's husband and he also sits on his couch and puts himself in television mode. Reality shows and even television become part of peoples schedule. Are people living their life through the television set?

The book, DigitalCulture by Glen Creeber and Royston Martin, addresses how television and programming has evolved over the years. In the 1990s, I remember huge wood TVs that took five people to move. We also had a huge satellite in the yard that my dad's friends seemed to be obsessed with. As I grew older, bigger TVs evolved into plasma screens and flat screens. The new big thing to have now is 3D television.

Not only have TVs evolved but also programming has evolved. We started off with tapes and then converted over to DVDs. People started to have satellite and cable with more and more channels. Programs have evolved to have different genres for different people. People can purchase sports packages, movie packages, and even gaming packages.

Digital age has evolved so much that many people live their lives through the TV with Reality shows. I frequently have to quickly do homework in order to watch my scheduled program. My sister's husband had to get HD because it made the television seem more real. Television is not supposed to be real. It is supposed to inform us and help give information faster, but now it has lost its purpose.

Family time now consist of sitting around a TV and watching a movie or a show the family enjoys. We have become inactive in life, and with the people we care most about. Television alone has increased obesity levels because kids are no longer seeking the outdoors for entertainment. Parents allow their children to live their lives on the television instead of giving the attention and physical activity they need.

As television evolves, I can see us sitting around as a bunch of people in the movie Wall-e. We will all be sitting in our own personal island with a television in front of us living out our lives. We need to look back to when television wasn't in our lives and see what we have lost.

Wiki-Wiki

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything is a book by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, first published in December 2006. It explores how some companies in the early 21st century have used mass collaboration.

This is all very interesting to those of us that live every minute of our lives using mass communication but to people who do not know or even care about mass communications, an article or book like this could be easily passed over. Wait! I can tell you about this book in a way that sounds more interesting. I can tell you what the book discusses and my opinions about the book. All of this is what the book refers to as Wikinomics.

First let’s start with the term Wikinomics. Wikinomics includes the sub-word “wiki”. Wikis are typically power by wiki software and are often created collaboratively multiple users. Examples include community websites, corporate intranets, knowledge management systems, and notetaking.

The book talks about peer production, Ideagoras, and prosumers. As an individual who did research on the topic, again a part of wikinomics, I can tell you in laymen terms exactly what the book has to say. I also can give you a review about the book in case you want to research this book. I consider calling this review research, but it now has its own technical term.

In our period of time, which I have referred to often in my blogs, we have changed how we buy and how we look at production. For example, I wanted the kindle fire really bad! When I want something I start to look it up online. I can read reviews about what people are saying about the kindle fire. In my research I learned, even though they had excellent reviews, it did not have 3G. My view of the product changed because of what people had to say.

When I was a child, I remember I wanted toys because I would see my friends on the playground with these toys. I wanted them too! Wikinomics has evolved into its own playground for adults. We can write reviews about jobs we have experienced, teachers who we have had, products we enjoyed, and anyone can read about it. The good thing about this is as adults we seem to have more money to actually get it (or else more credit). It makes me think that we have more control then we actually think about products.

Product information about a product that consumers are not happy about can spread instantly and we can save others from buying a bad product. Products and companies will then either fix the products or take it off the market. This might sound blunt but people who do not use wikinomics will ultimately buy faulty items and later post disgruntled reviews, thus helping those people who use wikinomics.  Money is saved and companies are put on notice to improve poorly manufactured products.

Wikinomics maybe a crazy word to use for something so simple, but it is a word we can learn from. The consumer needs to know we have more control over companies, because we are allowing these companies to rip us off. We are allowing people to treat us unfairly and they are able to do so. Blog about them, write a review, we have the control. TAKE IT!