Although I’m fairly new to social networking I can see its value. A person would have to be blind not to. I realized how lucrative these sites were when I conducted a search and all of a sudden YouTube came up. I didn’t ask for it, but I sure did appreciate the visual. It’s much better than reading text. Not only did I get a video of my search request, but I also got other videos pertaining to similar subjects. That’s a lot for just one search. I can only imagine how many people are reached each day with this type of networking.
It amazes me how people can create all these interactive sites just by indulging in their everyday hobbies. And placing ads on the pages, no wonder Rupert Murdock and Yahoo invested so much in MySpace and Flickr. Now that I think about it, the marketing concept will have no end. It’s only as limited as an idea and from the looks of it, the ideas just keep coming. According to Bradley Horowitz, head of technology development for Yahoo, “For media and Web-portal companies, the new social gadgets can look like a magic money machine. Rather than exhaust yourself producing what you think the kids might want, you sit back and let them show off for one another.” (Anya Kamenetz’s The Network Unbound) These social network sites can pretty much sell themselves.
I missed the speeches of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at the national Democratic Convention. Immediately I went to YouTube and viewed them there. My most recent YouTube searches were photography, braiding and cutting hair, and Beyounce's "Ring the Alarm." A woman took me on a walk-through of her house she has for sale. I also went hiking up a mountain with that same woman. It's like I was really there. "Why watch fake "reality" shows when you can connect with actual reality?" (The Network Unbound)
5 comments:
I saw Obama's speech, and I saw the Clintons' speeches, but I missed Michelle's.
Today, I received a FB notification from the Barack campaign with a link to the YouTube video and a message "from" Obama inviting me to view Michelle's speech. I receive FB notifications quite a bit from the Obama campaign, and the constant FB notifications are the reason I am able to keep up with the campaigns and elections this year.
And why not such a notification from John M.?
It may even be likely that the participatory culture of Web 2.0 may cause an increase in folks' participation in political life in general.
It may be possible that just by the sheer choice of using the medium, the Obama campaign may have garnered votes from folks who are indifferent or who may not have even voted.
"The medium is the message" (Marshall McLuhan)
I first found YouTube through my friends who would hear about funny, gross, or cute videos on the web. Mostly it was idiots acting like they were from the Jackass crew, or something of the like. Probably a year later, after being exposed to "junk" video on YouTube, I was in class and one of my teachers used YouTube to show us an instructional video on a technique for teaching math to students with special needs. That changed by mind about YouTube, and other sites like that, from being just mindless entertainment, to a highly useful tool in the classroom. Now we can almost search for anything online and you are guaranteed some kind of results. *My teacher also showed us a warning when using media in the classroom. It made me always remember to turn on the content filter before searching in front of the class. Our teacher searched for "nurses" in google images. Inevitably, the majority of the pictures happened to be naked or half-naked girls in "skanky" nurses uniforms. (Sorry)...So that brings up another issue. Although these tools are priceless and endless iin their possibilities, we still have to find a way to monitor all this free access children have to inappropriate content.
It may be my skepticism or cynicism (take your pick), but I sometimes wonder how much reality is too much? Whether it's virtual reality via Second Life or the next installation of Tori and Dean on Oxygen, I think our culture is obsessed with living through the eyes of others.
Oh, I love all the points you hit upon from the business perspective. These people have really go to be doing a lot less work coming up with ideas of what they think we want. It really is like they're letting us show off for one another while they sit back and relax as they watch the money flow in. Lol.
Currently, I don't have TV so I love being able to go online to something like YouTube or a TV channels website so I can watch any new episodes of shows I've missed.
I can see why McCains campaign may not be involved with FB very much though. I don't think their target audience is really using that kinda stuff. Obama is definitely trying to reach out to younger people who use a lot of technology. Like when he was supposed to announce his VP running mate through text messages first...but the media caught wind and leaked out his choice first. McCain is definitely after the more conservative and conventional than Obama is. After all, isn't his whole compaign built around the idea of change? He's trying to do politics in a whole different way and I guess the social networking sites is a great place to start.
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