Essay 4 - World - Actual or Imagined

A few months back, I visited my aunt who was under a lot of stress due to her twelve year old son. He was observed to have psychological disturbance of the new sort called online gaming addiction where the patient is called ‘internet freak’. The apparently normal child spent approximately of five to six hours daily and if not stopped than even more on internet. The only difference in attitude of this internet freak was that he was restless, impatient and uncomfortable in even the most enjoyable company of his own age group, he did not seem to smile at any joke and his thoughts were always wondering on the next levels of game. It was like that as if throwing a party for him was similar to confining him in a gathering, because all he wanted was his computer, internet and peace from the real world. Aunt shared with me that she wants to consult a psychologist for his son. A few years back my aunt was proud of his 6 years old child as he knew so much about computers and internet, he was considered cool among his fellow being but now he has caused a tense environment in the vicinity. The child lack physical exercise and was not interested to do any which was making him less active in ‘real world’.

I automatically started analyzing me if I was a ‘internet freak’ as well, I have to admit that not checking my facebook, chatting with friends, my emails, my online music, my flickr etc etc gives me a sense of incompletion. It is also true that the voice of my computer running gives me a sense of peace as if I am available to the world even if I am actively not working on it. But is it only that I wanted to be updated or does it make me internet addicted.

I guess to some extent everyone in our generation is internet addicted, in some the problem is so extended that their parents are concerned, and in others it is still to be identified. Logging onto the Internet is like a kid taken to a toy store; there is so much to do and explore that once you get in, you never want to leave. People also go online because the Internet offers freedom to do whatever they want, to say whatever they want and to be whoever they want. As a result of information and freedom, the Internet has become an addiction for individuals and society. The so-called computer age has a conflict between virtual self and social self. These two entirely different terms are now used in replacements of one another. A virtual world where by Neil Postman, nothing is unbelievable, nothing is predictable and therefore nothing comes as a surprise while then there is this real social world which is total opposite, which has the respect of individual being.

Essay 4 – Negative Effects of Social Media

Every coin has two sides. Every new technology also has two sides of effects, including the positive and negative effects. Social media has many negative effects too, for example, the overload of unorganized information is a big problem to deal with, and it drives me to distraction.

The development of social media provides lots of ways to search the information and contact with other people. And increased usage of social media and the overload of information lead to less time and less concentration on each work. According to my own experience, when I open my computer connected to the Internet, I always log in to my MSN, QQ and Gmail account first, then I stat to study and surf the Internet, etc. Because of the long geographical distance between Sweden and China, I can only contact my parents and friends who are in China now by MSN and QQ. If I log in and show my state to be online, then they will send message to me or send audio and video request to me, and I have to chat with them for a while. Of course the Internet helps me to contact them conveniently and cheaply, but it causes some new problems. They know that I should be online except when I go to lecture, and I should react to their chatting request. But sometimes I am busy with my studies or other movements, and I have no time to chat with them. Therefore, their chatting request may disturb my schedule and affect my work. Another example is the ads and instant messages. When I focus on the interesting online content, the new email message may announce its arrival and interrupt me, and the floating and blinking ads affect my reading. It is hard for me to concentrate on the specific task. Many online activities divide my time into many small pieces, and my attention is hard to focus. That may lead to less deep thinking and low quality of thoughts. For instance, before the exams, I have to close my computer or shut down the Internet connecting to make me focus on the preparation of my exams, otherwise, the usage of social media will decrease the quality of my preparation.

There is lots of unorganized information on the Internet, and I can use different search engine to find out what I am interested in. Even if I use the proper search engine, I will get lots of results and I have to choose the right one. During the period of choosing, I should view many webpages and skim over many contents, and it may shorten my reading time for each one and decrease my focus time. The process of searching information is new format of thinking and solving problems based upon the use of Internet. It not only decreases my deep thinking, but also wastes my time to look through many ads and lots of useless information.

Lusha Wang

Essay 4 – Negative effects on conversations over the Internet

The ability to choose between different types of communication channels is mainly a good implication of the social media technologies. However, the new ways to interact with people might not always be as good as the classic face-to-face interactions. There is always another side of the coin.

When talking face-to-face to a person it is quite easy to understand what that person is trying to say. Except from the obvious part such as the spoken words, the body language helps the receiver to interpret the message. When changing the communication channel to a phone the situation becomes different; the distortions in the channel increase. It is more difficult to understand when the body language is lost. The receiver has to listen to the tone of voice to understand the message. Using MSN as a communication channel the distortions increases even more. Now the body language is lost, as well as the tone of the voice. All that the sender can use to convey the message is the keyboard. Therefore the sender has to exaggerate and emphasise the words with smileys. My experience is that it is not only the smileys that differs in the language of MSN-chatting. As an example the good-bye-word is often replaced by “kisses” or “hugs”. Some say kiss to friends that they do not kiss in real life. For me the reason must be the distortions in the channel, since you cannot moderate the tone of your voice you have to exaggerate. Using only the word “good bye” might be more uninteresting compared to “kiss”.

Another aspect of using MSN or other computer chatting is that the receiver is waiting for your reply as you write. Therefore you want to write as fast as possible. This phenomenon has a variety of implications.

First of all, the language written becomes very simple and very few nuanced words are used. There is no time to think of what words that could be suitable to express what you want to say and there is no time for long and complex sentences. To express what you really feel smileys are used instead of nuanced words. The smileys can be used to mark that this sentence was ironical, even if I say this I do it with a smile. Because you cannot use all the words that you use when you talk or write without someone waiting for reply all the time the language used becomes fairly simple.

Secondly, the spelling comes in second hand. If you don’t know how to spell a word, there is no time to look it up. You try one way of spelling it and the other person understands you anyway. For me this is quite dangerous. When I see a word spelled in different ways I become unsure about how it is supposed to look. In the end no one knows how to spell the words. Even if you know how a word should be spelled, you might think that you will have to put much effort in writing all the letters and thus you take a shorter way around it. For me, the fact that I use a computer keyboard more than I use a pen results in difficulties to know how to spell words when I write by hand. I cannot see if the words I have written with my own hand are right spelled because I hardly ever write the words by hand.

Lastly, I would like to bring up what implications a simple language can have on your thoughts. I have been to England a couple of times. One summer I was there for two weeks without speaking hardly any Swedish at all. I learnt a lot of English, but I can of course not speak as fluently as I can speak my mother tongue. I experienced that my brain was adjusting itself to only think and speak in English. But since I did not know all the words I used the words that I knew. When I came back to Sweden I was quite bad at speaking Swedish. My brain was thinking in the same way and therefore I did not use all the words I could have used. I believe that using only a few words in conversations over the Internet can affect our vocabulary and therefore how we think. We might not be less intelligent, but I definitely believe that the words we use will form our way of thinking.

Essay 3 – Free service and production

As the development of the internet, all the information gradually became available on the net. It tended to be that we can find all the information we want there, music is also the same. Actually, the music industry has been changing, for example, the carrier of music. Between 1980 and 1990, the major format of music album is magnetic tape; the next decade it changed to CD; although it seems that CD is still the main format of music nowadays, but what about digital music, can you see how much it eat into the music industry? And how it gonna change the way it used to be.

According to research, CD takes the proportion of 90 percent of the revenue of the music selling while digital format shares the rest 10 percent, roughly. However, the thing is, people changed the feeling of physical CDs and the invisible digits. Some people buy the CD they want, but they mainly listen to the digital music on the computer and mp3 player. CD is more and more tend to be function as souvenir or collection. People do listen to digital music more and more.

I think, in the future, the music will be served more through the internet, and will be FREE. Internet users love the things with a tag named ‘free’. Where is a will, there is a way. As people have a need for free music on the net, there will be people fulfill it legally or illegally, and make money there. In the future, this will be legal and based on standard rules. What I said ‘free’ means that, people do not have to pay money for the music, instead, they offer something else, just like all the other free productions, for example, the newspaper Metro. Through the free music, music companies can sell the advertisements, bundle marketing information, branding, get a higher reputation of the singer, producer, composer, and the company themselves, also, word of mouth and so on. Through the free music the companies serve, they get the money back rely on the ‘side affect’ of their free productions and service.

Physical CDs will still exist, I think, because people like the thing they can touch and feel. In the future, CD will be more and more clear to be defined as souvenir and collections, instead of the carrier of the music we gonna listen to. Digital music will dominate our daily need of music; in addition, mostly they will be served free.

Mu Xiwei

Essay 3 – Social Media and the Future of Music

There are many big record companies in the world, and they are proud of their professional music producers and megastars. But they focus on their business ideas and profits, and it means that their music products are based on the popularity and for the most consumers, not everyone. So consumers can only choose the special products which attract them from the popular music. The social media, especially the Internet, can help everyone to produce and choose different kinds of music; and after they produce it, they can share it with their friends through the social media.

Consumers who live in different places have different tastes and habits about the music. Some of them may like the old-fashion music, but the traditional music industry only considers the common taste and habit of most consumers in order to maximize their profits according to the perspective of music business, then the record companies do not want to publish the old-fashion records without business hit. And some of them may want to enjoy their own special music. The minority of consumers with special tastes does not have any other choice. Recently, with the development and acknowledgement of social media, this kind of consumers can create their own music products, and publish them on the websites free, such as YouTube. Because of the relevant property of YouTube, the audience with the same taste about music can find these works and make comments on them easily. Also the social media creates the opportunity to find the old-fashion records without the republication by the record companies. Consumers who have the old-fashion records can share them with others who want to listen to them. The social media is the bridge between the owners and searchers, and it is also the bridge between the creators or producers and consumers.

The development of social media also provides technology and device companies with the channel to enter into the music industry. For example, Nokia published its new cell phones with its new website for sharing and downloading music in China. Of course, the success of iTunes music store is famous, and Apple is not only the technology company to produce computers and hard devices, but also an active entrant of music industry. More and more technology companies become new entrants, and they are new retailers in the music industry in order to promote their products and improve their services. So the actors of modern music industry include not only the traditional publishers, retailers and consumers, but also the new device and technology companies, and lots of individual creators.

In China, there are many websites to provide the service of listening to the music online, such like http://music.sina.com.cn/yueku/, and users can listen to the music online for free, build their music spaces, and create their own favorite records, then they can share them with others and find the music quickly and conveniently next time. But if users want to download the music to own them, they must pay for them. So many record companies promote their new music through these websites before they publish the records to the market. The social media is the channel to test new music by collecting the feedback of audience before it is published.

Lusha Wang

Essay 3 – The Music Industry 10 years from now

Some years ago the performers and artists had to go through the record companies to be able to make a living on their singing. The artists were on one side of the producing chain and the audience or the market was on the other side. The record companies handled everything in between. They had the expensive equipment needed to record music. Furthermore, the record companies were the key to a network with people organizing concerts and other events. Lastly, the record companies worked as marketers, they had the resources to make their artists famous.

Today, the costs of producing music are much lower. This implies that musicians can produce their own music. They are not any longer dependent on the record companies in this part of the chain. With the Internet the possibility to build a fan base without the record companies has also increased. If you already have a fan base, it becomes easier to plan a tour. Looking at it from this perspective it seems as if the record companies has played out their roles. There is no need for these in-between hands.

On the other hand, even if the single musician has got new tools for marketing his/her music it does not necessary mean that he/she can do it. It is possible to take care of the whole chain from the artist to the market, but then you have to know a lot more than how to take a CMaj7#5. Since many artists rather would like to be artists than administrators I believe that there is room for a middleman. Therefore I think that the record companies will have a future, but in another form. The word “record company” might not be used as often as “music company” in the future. The music companies will take care of the marketing and the business side of the chain.

 

So far everything seems to be fine. The industry might change but not that much since the artists would like someone to do the job in-between them and the market. But the new technologies has also resulted in illegal downloading, no one wants to pay anything for the music. Even if you as a customer want to pay and use legal services the illegal services are sometimes easier and have better quality. How should anyone in the music industry earn money now? Sites like iTunes are getting better and the legal alternatives are on their way, but the question is still relevant. How can composers and artists earn money without getting any revenues from the music itself?

I think that the answer is live music and earning money through the artist as a brand. The record companies will have to buy parts of the artists brand and earn money from merchandise etc. The record companies that we have today will have to be a lot smaller and focus on the marketing and administrative parts. I think that a record company (or music company as it might be called more often) will be very similar to an event company today; there must be a closer link to the live performance where the money is.

If the illegal downloading will succeed, and there will be no way that customers will buy music, some actors still has to pay for it. Radio, TV and other companies that use music will still pay the musicians and the composers. Another way to earn money that has been discussed lately, and to some extent practiced is “streaming”. If you pay a monthly fee you will be able to listen as an example all music from one specific artist.

With all the music available on the Internet today, it is difficult to find what music you want to listen to when searching for new music. I believe that it will be possible to earn money by helping customers to choose the right songs based on other songs they like. Not long ago, iTunes came up with “Genius”, an application that will help you to choose similar songs to one playlist in your iTunes library. At the same time you will also get links to iTunes shop with similar songs that you don’t have. This might also make it easier for customers to choose the legal alternative, since the music is well packaged and you will get other services than just the mp3-song.

Comments on Essay 2

Johan Östberg talked about how one difference between social media and old media is that the old media has to think about reputation. If a newspaper should publish something that later turned out to be untrue they are in big trouble. Of course something that turns out to be false is very serious because it can affect the entire company or newspaper. But, does not a person writing something have a reputation to think about? I believe that the reputation-part holds true for social media as well. If you are acting weird on Facebook all of you friends will wonder what you are thinking about. Your reputation will probably change so that you are worse off. In a context where the things you write are connected to you as a person and a network of people can see what you do, I definitely believe that you will think about what you write. The systems that Slashdot, Wikipidea and others have created work in a similar way. Others can verify what you wrote and comment on your statements. In the same way Google uses links. If there are many links to your website the probability that it is good quality increases. I think that these instruments are a very good to increase the quality of the content produced by social media.

I would also like to comment on the anonymous essay with the title “The quality issue”. I agree that social media content actually can be a very good compliment to old media. Social media technologies allow us to create new content that old media could not cover in a broad sense. If we are going to plan our holiday trip to a place we never been to we want to know what hotel we should stay at. A newspaper ad might give us a clue and perhaps ads with testimonials will help us even more. However, a “real” customer, someone who actually writes good things about a hotel because he/she liked the hotel, can give us more objective information than a sponsored magazine. Customer-to-customer interactions can come alive on the Internet. Concerning the agenda that Johan Östberg was talking about, the reason for a single person to write in a forum about a hotel might not be the same as when a magazine writes about this hotel. However, as I wrote in my essay, the most important thing for the reader is to look at the content produced in the light of the context it is presented in. If a blogger has many readers companies might be interested in sponsoring this blog, and in those cases the blogger might not be more true to his/her real feelings than a magazine. But, if someone that you might know through a friend’s friend writes something good about a product you might get a very genuine opinion from that person.

By: Marie Martinson