Internet Influences 4/? NSFW

This blog has already established that we are on the internet for an inordinate amount of time. Possibly an unhealthy amount. But I still always thought of the internet as something you use in your free time, even at school is iffy. But I see people on their laptops during classes, checking their emails and Facebook and whatnot. And depending on the class it may not matter, also, the students are the ones paying for the class so they can choose how to spend that time however they like. But, at work? A friend of mine asked the other day for suggestions of "work-safe" sites she can scroll through while at work.

What? Work-safe? And then I remembered another related acronym: NSFW or Not Safe For Work. So there seems to be a whole culture of people who surf the net while at work, and need warnings on whether a site is appropriate or not in case a supervisor comes walking by and sees. In theory, the best work-safe activity is not going on the internet, but I suppose nowadays the cubicle type jobs or receptionists jobs are not stimulating enough for workers anymore, so these workers have created an acronym for themselves that will help them have fun at their job while being safe. Pictures that may be inappropriate for work will have a simple NSFW warning for these workers to stay away. Or perhaps you are just the squeamish type in general, regardless of if you are at work or not you may decide not to risk it. The internet can be a dangerous and disgusting place, so I for one and grateful for the existence this warning. Whenever there is a service needed on the internet, even one as simple as this, it will be created by its users.

In any case, are there any suggestions for my friend here? What are your favorite "work-safe" sites? News sites, web comics, etc. Do you even go on the internet during work? Is using the internet for non-related business at work appropriate, even when there is nothing going on at work?

Thor

I love it when media is transformed into movies. Comic book into movies, novels into movies, television shows into movies. Movies remade into NEW movies! Lucky for me it happens almost constantly in this day and age. Though I think it says something about the movie industry that almost all movies are based on something else. There are not a lot of original movies these days. Perhaps digital media is draining all of our creativity away? Or perhaps the movie industry realizes their audience is full of people like me who don't need creativity and will gladly pay for movie versions of old stories. Why bother taking a risk on a creative idea when everyone knows that movies like Thor and Captain America will kill at the box office? Always best to go with the sure thing.

Anyway, this blog entry's focus will be on the comic-book-turned-movie Thor. From a popular media point of view, it was a brilliant movie. We start with a very attractive and muscular male lead. And then add Natalie Portman, an extremely popular choice lately, to the point that she is losing the ability to NOT be Natalie Portman. She is saturating the market at this point and it may end up hurting her art as an actress (though it is not hurting her bank account...). It is hard for audiences to see past her fame to the characters she plays. Especially given the very one-dimensional character she was given in Thor. But another key to a successful movie translated from other media is to dumb down the story and characters as much as possible to make it accessible to as many viewers as possible. Thor did indeed have flat characters and a cliche storyline, as well as editing problems. It's understandable when one has to condense such a long running series into a 2-hour movie to have some editing problems. Everything seems to happen so fast, like speed reading through the story.

That's why these types of movies are perfect for the attention deficit youth of today. They don't have time to check out an entire series. Two hours is the limit and it doesn't matter how poorly the movie is put together sometimes, as long as the effects are amazing. The final and most important element to putting together a blockbuster, especially one translated from other media, is the special effects. The fans of the story want to be able to see everything they imagined from the story to be on the big screen, no matter how fantastical. And in order to attract audience members unfamiliar to the original work to read/see the original, they need to be wow'd.

So there you have it, the key to successful blockbuster movies based off a different media. The more people love it, the more that will be made. We already have Captain America coming up, I wonder how that will be?

~Royal Wedding~

Did you watch the Royal Wedding? Man, aren't you sick of hearing about the Royal Wedding? What did you think of the Royal Wedding?

Is this what you've been hearing from friends and co-workers lately? The internet is no different from the real world. No matter where you go, there's no escape. The television was full of coverage of the wedding, and every internet news site or blog was all over it as well. How did another country's major event become our big event? Thanks to social media and digital media in general, another country's news and events can spread to our country like wildfire. Even the fact that the ceremony itself took place at around 3am for us, this did not deter people. If it is possible to watch it, then people are going to watch. Just so they can say that they did.

Digital media has the ability to make us all more worldly. We can witness events around the world live on television or streaming on our computers, or watch it later on Youtube or read about it on various websites, whichever appeals to you more. There is so many choices that international affairs can appeal to anyone!

And of course, big events such as these always inevitably lead to internet shenaningans. While I was searching through article after article of the Royal Wedding, I happened upon this fun one: http://mashable.com/2011/04/30/frowning-flower-girl/ Ah internet, I can always trust you to focus on the smallest, most unimportant part of an event and make them hilarious. Long live Frowning Flower Girl!

What is Digital Media?

So, I came to this blog at a loss of what to write. What kind of digital media should I write about? What IS considered "digital media"? I subsequently took a break and started chatting with a friend online. The person sent me this article: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/us-turkey-police-idUSTRE73Q56I20110427 which I found entertaining enough. I decided I would try to do my blog entry on this article, but was at a loss as to how. An international story, not at all related to technology, what is there to discuss digital media wise? That's when I took another look at the article and it hit me: I am reading this article on the internet. I received this article through an instant-messaging service. Honestly, is there a day that goes by that does not involve digital media?

What struck me most about this article is how many ways a person can share it and how easy it is to do so. I think of myself as fairly knowledgeable of the internet but I still thought it was a little overwhelming. This website gives the users a myriad of ways of sharing this article, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, or just plain Email or Print. Now, I don't even really know what Digg is, something about counting readers? Of the other three, I was rather surprised to see LinkedIn paired with Facebook and Twitter. I have a Facebook, Twitter, and a LinkedIn profile, but I always thought LinkedIn was a bit more professional than the other two, not a place you shared articles and such. But perhaps if they are business related articles? It made me rethink the importance of sharing media over social networking sites. Even sharing on LinkedIn is important? Could sharing an article help a person get a job? Something to think about.

I also couldn't help but recall my last blog entry while reading this. The article is almost engulfed by side-bars, appealing to our attention-deficit society. Click on the link and look to see what I mean. Ads, options to share, related news articles, requests to log in, Most Popular list, related videos, comments and more!! It's overwhelming! There is even a section called Social Stream where you can see who has linked this article elsewhere on the internet, mostly through Twitter. Why would anyone need to know who's sending what to who? This is a confusing, public world we live in.

Now I know if I am ever at a loss in discussing Digital Media Literacy, I only need to open my eyes.

ATTENTION!

I'm definitely blaming digital media for my inability to just FOCUS. The sheer amount of possibilities it gives is mind boggling. And the scary thing is, my mind has somehow gotten used to this, to the point where I need it all the time, to the point where I HAVE to multitask. It's not even enough to just watch TV anymore, I'm usually on my laptop on the internet WHILE watching TV! Even when I'm out doing something, hanging out with friends, I have that urge to check my email or see something online. It's horrible. In this modern age, digital media has delivered so much information overload that it has now become the norm to be overloaded. If I'm not overloaded on digital media, I feel like I am wasting time or doing something wrong.

How often are you online everyday? The answer for me is definitely more often that I'd like. Sometimes I would like to think I could break this habit. Surely there are people out there who don't have the internet and they live perfectly healthy lives! Possibly healthier even! Why can't that be me? And then I realize just how much our lives are dependent on the internet. Even now, I have to be on the internet just to complete this assignment!! And once I get on, I have no will-power to keep myself from checking email, watching Youtube videos or any number of internet activities. People, including myself, are certainly developing an addiction to the internet, and I fear how far this addiction can go. Possibly soon there will be rehab centers for internet users. I wouldn't be surprised, hell I'll check myself in.

Internet Influences 3/? Online journals

Why is it that we now want everyone to know everything going on in our lives? Facebook, Twitter, even this blogger site is because we want as many people as possible to know our thoughts and activities. When did that start happening? I like to think of myself as a private person, but how can I say that when I have a Facebook? However, in comparison to many of my peers, I AM a private person because I don't write a status every single day or tweet whenever I do or see anything remotely interesting. This blatant sharing of personal information has become so popular thanks to the internet and social media websites and I don't know if I like it or not. Sure, I think Facebook is a great way of keeping in touch with acquaintances or making friends or networking. But it can easily become addicting and ties into our self-esteem more than it should. People try to gauge how "social" or "popular" they are based on the number of Facebook friends they have, no matter how shallow the connection. I fear that the younger generation will rely too heavily on these sites and fail to make meaningful relationships.
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Saying that, I also see the positive side to online interactions. I am apart of a site called Livejournal, which is basically a site for people to keep their online journals, much like Blogger.com. I don't know much about Blogger.com and perhaps it also has this feature, but the aspect of Livejournal I most appreciate is the addition of communities. Along with creating a personal journal, it is possible to create a "community" which is set up like a journal, and other people can interact and post on this community using their own journals as identification. Some of the unique aspects of Livejournal is that there are thousands of communities on the site but they are all connected due to a certain language and a certain type of user. It is a place where people can comfortable share their interests and their fandoms with others. I mention this site because I see many positive interactions and friendships created. Livejournal communities have even contributed to charities, currently there is a community called help_japan: that has already raised almost $50,000 by auctioning off art and services by their users for their users. A similar community was created for the disaster in Haiti, among other international crises.

So in short, I'm rather conflicted about these social media sites. In some instances, prevent people from making deep, real-life connections. At the same time there are other sites that can have very positive influences on people and even society. It's all a matter of how you use them.

Advertising Strategies

Finding the right advertising strategy is obviously an important part of running any successful business. Beyond logos, companies may have to create billboard designs, a clever magazine ad or a compelling commercial, among other options. In this entry I'd like to focus on the importance of finding the right spokesperson for one's product by using a piece of digital media from another country.

The Japanese company Nintendo is known world-wide as one of the three main superpowers in the video game world. So for them, marketing is no longer a huge issue because they already have a huge fanbase wanting to buy their products. Still, every company wants to expand and Nintendo is no different. I was quite impressed with Nintendo's new choice in spokesperson for their products in Japan.

Arashi, pictured here, is an insanely popular boy band in Japan, known for their huge body of extremely loyal fangirls. Most video game companies know that their main market is largely male and they naturally create advertising campaigns geared toward them. However, Nintendo decided to go a different route. Confident that males would buy their products regardless, they decided to target a completely different audience: pre-teen to teenage girls. It started out with two Arashi members playing a new Mario game. The ads quickly became a huge success as fangirls jumped at the chance to support their idols and play the same games that they play. Nintendo began using this boy band to advertise all of their major new products and watched the raise in sales.

Eventually, Nintendo got to the point where they could release ads like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJSRdrJg4WU Basically, these are a series of 15 second ads, showing each member's reaction to playing the 3DS. Again, Nintendo knew what they needed and what they didn't need. Why bother spending money and time making a complicated commercial? The hype the 3DS had created already ensured that the video game community was aware of the 3DS and didn't need a commercial telling them to buy it. Arashi fangirls may not know about the 3DS, but all they really need is to see the members of the band in a commercial using it and they are sold. No need to get fancy, Arashi's presence does all the work for Nintendo. It's a case of work smart not hard and Nintendo has definitely learned how to work smart in Japan.