Reflection

As I look back on the beginning of the semester compared to now, I consider myself to be way more open minded about social media than I was before. I was that person that go tired of facebook a while ago around the time my mother started making facebook her domain. I automatically deemed it un-cool because now my mother's generation was in my friend request box, but this class opened my eyes a little. It helped me realize that compared to all the other social media websites, everything else is a piece of or duplicate of facebook and it can be used for people of all ages. So it made me get back on it more for the networking aspect. I enjoyed this class also because it showed the different aspects of social media.

Final

Reflection of ICRH meeting

We had present an 8:30 am presentation to the ICRH board at the Immanuel Lutheran Church. Only four people in our group presented to make it less congested and I believe those who did present, did an excellent job. I realized that the ICRH board knew way less than I thought they did. The presentation brought to light why they were unable to give us much instruction because they did not know where to start nor exactly what it took to incorporate social media into ICRH. This help me realize how unaware the older generation are of technology and made me happy that I had the opportunity to part take in educating the board in technology and getting the ICRH on it's feet.

ICRH morning meeting

In every group or project there's always going to be people with set opinions. I found that during the morning ICRH meeting people had their minds made up on the issue of whether to have background checks. They didn't want to start off by making people feel un-welcomed and didn't want to offend them, while one person felt it deemed necessary as a precaution. I understood both sides because you don't want them to think you're coming in with assumptions, but at the same time you have to give everyone a safe environment. It's farther than the people that they're taking in, it is also about the volunteers. As far as the people they're taking in, some might have children so you want to be sure there weren't any sexual assault or pedefilia charges either. Then there's the volunteers safety to consider because you want to be cautious of those with battery charges. I understand the concept that they may have done dirt to survive, but there's certain things that should be considered. They need to find a balance between everyone's safety and allowing everyone to feel comfortable.

Sherry Turkle Interview

I loved her concept of being alone together because as I look around at everyone, it has became the new trend. I have witnessed people falling down stairs trying to walk and text, people sitting across the table from each other more interested in face book than their dinner, and even people who delete pictures/post if they don't get a certain amount of likes. I believe its the idea of wanting others acceptance and even wanting to feel important by staying/remaining consumed in technology. My generation kind of fell into the technological era and never got up. Yes technology progresses, but we remain in a trance where we've lost our social skills and even our manors. Similar to how when someone's doing a presentation and we're so into what's on our computer screen, tablet, or phone that we fail to give people the respect they're due. It's already hard to get in front of a class, but I can imagine it's even harder to get in front of a class where everyone's head is down. It's a part of body language because by not looking at them, we seem uninterested and since we're intrigued by something else, we clearly are. It's not technology's fault, it's how we decide to utilize it.

Change of My Digital Media Habit

Let me begin by saying, I use my phone more at school than I do at home because technically that's how I communicate with people back home. Being a major family person, communication with everyone back home is very important to me. So instead of going 24 hours without digital media. I resulted to keeping my phone on silent. At first I would check it periodically,but as I got use to it, I would simply leave my phone in my backpack or in another room. I have to have my phone basically all day because I am always on the go, and very seldom do I just sit in my room. I believe when it comes to my habits of social media, it all depends on my location because it isn't a daily thing.

Censorship

In chapter 3 of "The New Digital Age", it is discussed how different countries censor their internet or even filter certain websites. I find that important because there are certain videos and websites that should not be able to be accessed because of it's content. For example there was this video put on the internet of this man chopping off his girl friends head with a hunting knife. People say they posted the video because it was the fastest beheading in the world. Of course this occurred in another country, but I don't think that's something that should've been able to be accessed in America. I believe people watched the video out of curiosity on if it was real or not, but that's not something that should've even been able to be accessed in the first place. Long story short, the government removed it from YouTube almost immediately after it was posted. That was censorship at it's finest.

chapter 4 of "who owns the future"

Unfortunately, the farther I get in the book, the more I realize that I really have no clue what Jaron Lanier is talking about. I know I am reading words, but his message simply isn't registering. Possibly because he combines so many different titles in one chapter that it causes my brain to go hey wire. Fortunate for me, I can partially understand his take on being rich. I agree that it's easier to get rich than stay rich. Some gain wealth from what I call old money, then there's the other's that made their way to the top through business ventures. Although one's wealth can come through an investment or venture, I've noticed that not even the rich stay rich. Most file for bankruptcy or even commit tax fraud. Yes money in anyone's situation will help, but I'm a firm believer that where there's more money there's more problems and that's possibly how the rich doesn't stay rich.

The Development of Currency

At the very moment that I spotted the word money in Chapter 3 of "Who Own's the Future", I instantly thought back to how currency is developing. For example, last week an customer paid for their items with the new one hundred dollar bill and at first sight it appeared to look like something someone printed in their basement. The customer instantly recognized the suspension on my face and explained to me it was the new hundred. Not really taking his word for it, I wrote a few lines on it with the counterfeit marker and indeed it was real. So I gave him his change, receipt, and allowed him to proceed. I don't understand why the bill needs a reflector strip on it with a repetition of small 100 stamped on it, or even an even bigger 100 printed on back than in front. Eventually monopoly money will look realer than the real money. I know this might be a drastic conclusion, but in all honesty how can we expect to stop people from printing fake currency when the real currency has an synthetic concept?

The Challenges of ICRH

Everyday I walk to and from class, I see a man collecting cans out of the garbage. Ironically, a great deal of the homeless people in Mount Pleasant are CMU graduates. This community struggles with the ideals of wanting to improve the community, but not wanting the homeless shelter near them. In a way, they defend them, but leave them with no place to stay. I have been thinking of different ways to get the community okay with having a stationary homeless shelter and all I can really come up with is having set guidelines. Honestly there's no way for us to help them if we're constantly worried about helping ourselves. Yes we live in a "dog eat dog" type world, but I'm guessing it takes a little more than feeling bad. It takes the ability to feel sympathetic....maybe if they were aware of the fact that most of the homeless population included CMU graduates, then maybe we'd be on the right step to getting them to open up more and then maybe the homeless shelter can be more tangible than an epiphany. Simply because it's more of a "wow that could've easily been me" reaction rather than a "I'm thankful it's not me". All in all, it's about getting the people to be a tad more selfless than selfish.

Does technology define you?

One thing that I realize is that we've replaced the criticism of peoples clothes to their technology. We judge people based off how up to date they are with technology, by simply noticing whether they have an smartphone or not. Then if they have the iPhone the question is whether they have a 4 or 4s. My best friend is technologically indifferent, so she isn't really into the latest things especially since she doesn't know how to work it. She does have an iPod touch, but her latest phone is the rumor (a slide up phone). I remember when we went into Verizon for her to get some assistance and when she showed the man her phone he stifled a laugh. Since she's use to it, it didn't bother her, but I bring this up because does it really matter if you have the latest gadget? There's so many out and they continue to come out to the point I can't even keep up. It's just silly to me because people know the latest technology, but were unaware of the government shut down. So my question is does technology define you? Are you allowing yourself to be so entrapped in it that you are unaware of your surroundings?

Online Banking with Independent Bank

Let me start off by saying that I wish there was a chase in Mount Pleasant so that I wouldn't have to have an Independent Banking account. Independent Bank is only made convenient by Central Michigan University mainly by making it the main bank on campus, but is it convenient beyond location? I can say from experience that it isn't. For one they charge you per month to have the online app. The app itself is "free", but once you start using it, it's $3-$6/ month. Yeah that's not a lot, but it is when you didn't even know you were being charged to have it. The processing of your account is also slow over the weekend, so even if you checked on a saturday where your account was at, the true balance won't be available until monday. Being that Independent Bank is considered CMU's college bank, it would behoove them to be slightly more convenient so that it is more accessible and accurate for students.

Monitoring Social Interactions

Chapter 8 of "The Social Organization" reminds me of the discussion we carried in class on Thursday about the cons of having a Facebook page where we would have to deal with the customer's comments and complaints. It's important for every business to have a social media connection of some type because we live in a technological era. Similar to anything someone does, there will always be something for people to say whether negative or positive. When it comes to the customers comments it's all in the way you handle it that you'll end up benefiting from it. If you deal with a complaint properly you might end up with proper feed back that'll allow you to improve your business and learn from era in the customers eyes.

Cyber War

When they mentioned cyber war in chapter 3 of "The New Digital Age", it simply reminded me of how powerful and valuable the cyber world is to our world. The fact that our connection is so strong, still surprises me because I know that years ago if Albert Einstein would've predicted cyber warfare, they'd deny him his "genius card". It also reminded me of the season finale of season 2 of Revenge where this cryptic software was released to strip business of their money and the ironic thing was someone did that to their own company. Being that it's obvious less than what other countries will be capable of doing, we have some challenges ahead especially since our day to day routines include technology.

Explore the Participant Experience

In chapter 7 of "The Social Organization", the author explains the importance behind knowing and understanding the customer's/participant's wants and values. You must identify their wants in order to build a successful community and this got me thinking to how in business classes, they give out assignments to conduct surveys. I feel the best way to get a well balanced opinion is to conduct a survey that hits every aspect of what you would like to offer. Of course the main challenge would be getting willing people to participate in the survey, but like any other human they wouldn't mind the opportunity cost of time in order to receive some type of reward. So I guess the best way to appeal to the customers is to reward them for allowing us to know their preferences.

Who Owns the Future Chapter 2

Aristotle believed that technology could not do as humans do and the evolution of it would free humans. I imagine that back then it would be a repulsive idea for a machine to be capable of the same skills as humans, but now it is simply a piece of what is to come. We already ask Seri what something is or how to get to a certain location so it wouldn't be a surprise for robots to be the next step, especially since everyone's generation is becoming the easy and now generation. The only issue is how much easier it would make our lives because I honestly fear that we will get so caught up in things coming easy, that we won't notice that we're slowly being pushed out of our own economy starting with employment. The unemployment rate is already high, so imagine if we do decide to rely on machines to handle the "little jobs" that finances someone's life. I'm not oppose to the idea of continuing to evolve with technology, I just caution us to be careful to not get so caught in taking the easy way out to the point where machines are doing what we do to make a paycheck.

The No Stage for Decision Making in Community Collaboration

Some social organizations make the mistake of ignoring the no stage of community collaboration because they're so infatuated with their own ideas, they forget to account the customers' needs into their decision making. Of course everyone believes that their ideas are good, but sometimes the outcome is bad for the business. For example in 2012 McDonald's had this idea to promote themselves through twitter by starting the trends #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories. Unfortunately, customers took it upon themselves to use that as an opportunity to tweet their bad experiences at McDonald's. I'm sure when they brainstormed this idea, they did not factor in the misuse of a twitter trend. All in all when it comes to being a social organization or even dabbling into the social media bucket, one should carefully consider the no stage.

The Data Revolution

I'm not sure how I feel about the new revolution of data simply because it allows more vulnerability, but I guess it could be a good thing simply by not having to access more than one place for information and to remove the pain of having to fill out information more than once. It possibly will allow more people/communities  to come together, but putting all my information in one place is kind of risky business, but I guess that's something that has to personally grow on me.

Amazon Student

Amazon has several different communities within their website, but the main one that caught my attention was Amazon Student Membership. It allows you to rent electronic textbooks, trade in old text books for new ones, and several other school resources as well. It also gives you an opportunity to be a prime member for free for a certain period of time which allows you to buy things at a cheaper price, ship faster, and even stream cheap movies to your laptop. It was a wonderful idea to expand their market to students because students are always looking for a way to save. Amazon Student is an excellent marketing strategy mainly because students come in different age groups. So while, they're reaching out to a specific community, it is beneficial to people of different age groups.

Being Less Dependent of Technology

My grandmother's generation always questions what would we do without electricity because they believe my generation relies on technology too much. I can honestly agree to her to an extent because I believe people rely on technology so much to the point that they cannot think nor do without it. I don't believe technology nor the people who invented/improved said technology are to blame because that's an issue within us. We lack the independence to be able to do things without our cellphones, music, etc. For example, I can't walk to class without listening to my music nor do I believe anyone else can. I am not saying technology is a horrible thing that was introduced to mankind, I'm simply questioning our independence or even control to do without it.

Mass Collaboration & Amazon

By allowing the users of amazon to have an Amazon account or to sign up to be a part of the Amazon community, they are providing their customers with participation. When they allow members to provide individual contributions such as being able to sale and buy, they are being collective. They encourage transparency by allowing customers to rate and comment on products bought and sold. Amazon also allows anyone to access the website from anywhere at anytime, which persuades persistence. Amazon allows you become an associate by advertising certain products on your website in order to encourage emergence. In conclusion, Amazon has made it a point to include the six principles of mass collaboration in their services.

Amazon

Amazon allows so many people to either buy, sell, or rent a variety of things ranging from books to electronics to clothes. Basically, Amazon maintains a high demand because they want to meet the needs of every potential customer. There are a few kinks that they have to work out with electronic orders such as ebook, apps, etc. If you buy a tangible good from amazon, the return/refund process is easy, but let's say you accidently buy an ebook on the wrong card and want to switch the billed card or simply return/refund it. You actually have to call them and have them refund the book as oppose to clicking the refund button like you would if it was a regular book. In conclusion, as Amazon progresses in the marketing area to meet the ideals of every customer, it wouldn't hinder them to advance in their customer service as well.

"The New Digital Age" vs "You Are Not a Gadget"

In chapter one of "The New Digital Age" Jared Cohen and Eric Schmidt express their beliefs that as technology develops, it will make us more efficient in the business world. Also, as it progresses it will be able to operate on its own, which will provide us with more time to put into other things. On the other hand, in You Are Not a Gadget" , Jaron Lanier explains that as technology evolves, it will decrease the need for humans to work because technology will be capable of doing everything better. I believe that both of their theories are reasonable because the whole point in technology is efficiency and    eventually it will advance to the point of being able to operate on it's own. I personally believe that we depend on technology too much and it will eventually fire back on us. For example, in the past people were able to do everything on their own, but now people have troubles multiplying 12 by 4 without picking up a calculator. Technology already does everything for us now, so the only thing left is for it to become superior.