Communication according to someone who has no idea what they're talking about

so this is the last post I will be writing for Media Industries. Basically most of what was discussed in class today was what is going to be on the exam. Apparently cable cutting is important, so keep that in mind. Also Strangelove broke the computer.

not quite like this

Anyways, while he was discussing cable-cutting I realized I haven’t written a blog about cable-cutting, and what better time than right now to discuss it. Saving the best for last I suppose you could  say. Cable Cutting is the idea of individuals unsubscribing from their Cable providers because of services like Netflix and other internet television providers. Basically people are streaming their computers to their televisions for free (or the price their ISPs charge them for internet. Therefore, rather than paying for both cable and internet people are choosing to only pay for internet and watch TV shows and events over the internet.

the internet on your TV

Cutting Cable is something that I feel will potentially one day replace cable providers. The reason I can see the internet becoming the new TV is because the internet does not force you to pay for packages of content like the cable providers do. On the internet, as I mentioned in the last post, one can merely watch, subscribe or pirate whatever they want, whenever they want.

this is ought to get me some 'views'

So this is it I suppose, the last post for Media Industries. Hopefully I will find time to write during the summer, because usually I always get out of ‘writing shape’ over the summer and then my first essay of the year (come September) is just awful. I have enjoyed writing this blog, it has really kept me on my toes and has made me think about the internet and how the TV will probably never be fully replaced by the internet but rather the cable companies be replaced, or forced to become more user friendly and internet  based. And on that note it’s exactly two weeks until I leave fore Cuba.

thank you, it's been a pleasure. Have a nice Summer

I’m sitting in DMS at the end of the second floor hallway, in what I assume is the greatest writing/study location on campus. Seriously, the chairs are comfortable and the view is great, I can see the Mackenzie King Bridge and it’s Laurier or Nicholas (I can’t remember what the street is actually considered) intersection. Although it is not a particularly nice day, it is still a great view, I am very entertained. Seriously, if you ever get the opportunity to sit up here, go for it.

Anyways onto something more important. I have started reading the article Strangelove posted entitled ‘It’s (not) the end of TV as we know it’ and from what I’ve read so far, it appears that TV is in fact, contrary to popular speculation, not coming to an end. Seles writes about how even with the internet people are still watching more television than ever. The argument is that although people are not paying for TV as much, they are still watching their shows, pirated or not, on TV sets. The television will probably never become  completely extinct, it will just be integrated or upgraded in order to become more internet friendly. Because as Strangelove has the computer monitor and the Television are almost the same thing. they’re both made of LCD or plasma, and they both allow users to view whatever they want. That is four hundred words in my books, and that means this is the end of this post.

A lot of TVs these days are coming equip with internet access as well. For example I recently bought a new Television and as soon as I plugged it in it asked me to hook it up to my wireless internet. Strangelove mentioned in his class the other day about Apple and their Apple TV. My father recently bought an Apple TV box, and I have to say it’s  a pretty cool idea. As Strangelove put it however, it’s not that Apple is creating something genuinely new, but rather they are creating new relationships. I think what Dr. Strangelove means by this is that Apple is not trying to recreate the Television with their new Apple TV, but rather they are trying to change the way you and your TV interact, and the relationship between the TV and it’s audience. Because on Apple TV and on televisions that are internet friendly, the audience is constantly in control, the audience can choose exactly what they want to watch, and they can watch it whenever they want.

it's coming

Today marks the half way point of my total blogs for this class, so that’s exciting. Anyways, Strangelove has been talking about internet usage lately, or at least he showed a few videos that related to how today’s generation is growing up naturally understanding how technology functions, as opposed to the previous generation who had to suffer through learning the technology similarly to learning a new language.

the LOL edition

anyways we watched a movie about American kids and how they are becoming more and more involved on the internet, and about how the kids using the internet are becoming younger and younger. Most schools these days are teaching and incorporating internet and computer usage into their curriculum, some as early as kindergarten or grade one. The video really made me think about how learning to use technologies such as computers and the internet always came natural to me, and it made me think about my parents and how they are not on or have heard of half of the websites I use everyday.

this is a little gem they have yet to discover

The video then proceeded to show Korean children who have beenn forced to go to a form of rehab in order to get over their ‘internet addiction’, this I found a little disturbing but it kind of made sense that people would become addicted to something as amazing as the internet. I suffer from a similar addiction to my  iPhone.

 

ghost vibrate is a bitch

What really disturbed me was the fact that in Korea children as young as seven were learning songs about how the internet community works and they almost seemed brainwashed. It’s as though the internet was something that the kids at one time feared, but were now singing about. I’m no expert but I have been told countless times (especially as a child) that the internet is a dangerous place for children. I approve of children being taught how to use the internet at a young age, I just hope that they were not becoming too comfortable with the idea of the internet being a ‘friendly place’ to meet new friends.

not a place for seven year olds

Anyways that’s my two cents about the internet and Korea and how the two co-exist.

In Other news, this makes me happy:

#boom