Is Twitter, Foursquare, or Facebook influencing your shopping this holiday season? The following video discusses how some retailers are using social media to get shoppers through their doors: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=7766664
Baran and Davis cite McLuhan for explaining that, “The medium is the message (and the massage). In other words, new forms of media transform (massage) our experience of ourselves and our society, and this influence is ultimately more important than the content that is transmitted in its specific messages-technology determines experience” (220). Do you agree? When we look at the problems of cyberbullying and sexting, I think this is very true. And now retailors are using social media to come into your home and entice you out of it instead of encouraging you to shop online. Has the Internet and now social media changed the way you see yourself or society? Did you ever realize that Facebook, Twitter, and other apps/sites allow you to be "social" with your favorite retailors? How has that changed your shopping experience?
Erik Qualman points out that everything is different because of social media in his Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=related
Qualman and McLuhan have a point, but is there a limit to this transformation that takes place as media shifts? I think there is and so does John Tomlinson who writes that, “Though the media may be analytically separable from other aspects of culture, it is clear that they are intimately connected with these other aspects in terms of people’s ‘lived experience’. People’s experience of television, for example, is very often within the cultural context of the family and this context has a significant mediating effect (224). As someone who grew up without cable television I can attest to this.
How have your ‘lived experiences’ mediated the ways you’ve changed with or adapted to new media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, BBM, Oovoo, and/or even HD? In what ways are these technologies affecting your or your family’s consumption?
Retailers using social networking to advertise their product and entice you to spend your money on them could quite possibly be more annoying than parents on Facebook. From a marketing perspective, it’s genius, but to me it’s overkill. If I want to buy your product, I will. Plastering your brand all over the internet will not convince me to buy your product. To the company, however, they see this new medium as another venue to promote their product; they are efficiently evolving with the times and trends of media usage. Continuing with thoughts from Marshall McLuhan, I find his term ‘global village’ to describe this phenomenon, “He used the term global village to refer to the new form of social organization that would inevitably emerge as instantaneous electronic media tied the entire world into one great social, political, and cultural system… He was more concerned with microscopic issues, with the impact of media on our senses and where this influence might lead.” With advances in technology over the past couple of decades, we are more connected than ever; connected to our friends, families, and now, the companies with shop from. Considering globalization, it is not surprising that our own media sources are saturated with promotions. As Herbert Schiller stated in his article, “This thin and largely expurgated presentation of the national experience is the underside of the daily retailing of corporate images and messages and endless affirmations of commercial culture. In recent years these highly selective accounts no longer are confined within national boundaries… what used to be national in form and content has become transnational or, as some prefer to describe it, global.” It seems as though companies and advertisers have exhausted their space in the American society and have moved on to other parts of the world. I would be willing to bet that within the next few years, an evolved medium will emerge that will provide retailers with a new opportunity to sell their products.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I thought social media/ social networks such as myspace, facebook and twitter, were going to be a teenage girl fad. As the years have gone on, and the chance of social networks demise has seemed to disappear, I take back my first opinion that social networks are fads. As the youtube video that Mera presented has shown, social media has taken over the world. All ages, races, and classes have gotten hooked into social media. What is the reason for this social phenomenon? Is the answer to this question in research from past media phenomenons’? In chapter 8 of Baran and Davis, researcher McLuhan from the 1960’s had theories about the “new media” of that age; medium is the message. “New forms of media transform (message) our experience of ourselves and our society, and this influence is more important than the content that is transmitted in its specific messages-technology determines experience” (220). Because people enjoy the experience of social media technologies, they continue to use the programs. People seem to feel they belong to a community by using networks like facebook, twitter and even by blogging.
ReplyDeleteMcLauhan also came up with the term “global village” to describe how new media’s influence society. Global village is a term “to refer to the new form of social organization that would inevitably emerge as instantaneous electronic media tied the entire world into one great social, political and cultural system” (220). Social media allows people to feel part of a community not only in their local area, but a community around the world. Social networks allow people to connect with others in countries they may never get a chance to travel to. The fact that social network users can communicate and converse from anywhere in the world to anyone in the world is a remarkable feat; as McQuails chapter 20 proves. Chapter 20 describes how in the past, breaking news took quite some time to travel around the world. “…variations in international news coverage are due to simple factors such as the size of population in the country of the event, and geographical distance between the location of the event and the reporting mass media” (237). The slow flow of information is a thing of the past; we can credit this advancement to both the internet and social media.
I have a love-hate relationship with social media. In some ways, I think social media is great because it allows people to interact with others and people can instantly talk to someone who may be in another part of the world. In other ways, I think social media takes away from face-to-face communication and people have become so obsessed with social networking sites such as Facebook and it is all they can think about. Social media is a “newer” form of media, and I think it is a great idea that companies are using this form of media to their advantage. Yes, it can be annoying to see advertisements pop up on the sides of websites and before YouTube videos, but advertisers are just marketing towards what people are using today. The video that was posted is very interesting because I think social media does affect what I consume. As mentioned in other posts, I do have my own opinions, but the media does influence what I do, where I shop, and what I buy.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Baran and Davis, Marshall McLuhan came up with a theory that explains the affect that technology has on society. Baran and Davis state, “…changes in communication technology inevitably produce profound changes in both culture and social order,” (Baran and Davis 219). This relates to the idea that social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have changed “normal” aspects of people’s lives. In today’s society, if college students want to communicate with team members for a group project, it is common for students to simply write on each other’s Facebook walls, rather than call them on the phone or meet with them face to face. The second video that Mera posted was absolutely fascinating and made me realize that social media may be here to stay.
It is very hard to “hide” from social media nowadays. Today, most people have a Facebook page or have at least heard of what a Facebook page is, and the term “Facebook” has become a household term. I am able to contact some of my cousins who live in Italy via Facebook, which was once only a tool for a few colleges in America. There was even a movie about the creator and it was an excellent film. According to Schiller, “People everywhere are consumers of (mostly) American images, sounds, ideas, products, and services” (Schiller 4). This statement proves that the media is extremely effective, especially American media. It is amazing that products in America are popular in all places all over the globe, and their popularity is partly due to social media. Overall, the media plays a role in how people act and what people do.
I personally think that the internet and some other forms of media has influenced my shopping habits, but for shopping online. Whether I am on websites such as perezhilton.com or reading a magazine, I always see advertisements for clothing websites along with coupon codes to get a discount on your order. Clearly with my love of clothing I am going to be suckered into shopping. The Baran and Davis reading talked about the idea that the medium is the message meaning that “new forms of media transform our experience of ourselves and our society, and this influence is ultimately more important than the content of specific messages.” By having advertisements online promoting websites for shopping, it’s very tempting to click on the links when you see things you like. Even if you think to yourself, oh I’ll just look, that usually doesn’t end up happening at least in my case… especially when they offer promo codes for discounts. Having retailers on facebook for instance doesn’t really trigger me to shop in their stores because it’s not as convenient as online shopping. If I see an advertisement for a website, it’s much easier to click on it and look because I can do it right away in the comfort of my own home.
ReplyDeleteThe McQuail reading said “The spread of capitalism is the spread of a culture of consumerism: a culture that involves the commodification of all experience.” The idea of internet shopping is a great example of this because you can experience the feeling of shopping at anytime you want from wherever you want. The internet allows us to do things we need to do from our own homes whenever we want instead of going to these places and dealing with people. It’s also strange to think how antisocial and lazy the internet is making us as well. Part of the shopping experience includes dealing with sales people and spending time walking around assessing the products. In the Baran and Davis reading it talked about the transmissional perspective which argues that “the view of mass communication as merely the process of transmitting messages from a distance for the purpose of control.” This totally goes with my thoughts about online shopping, and I completely agree.
I personally do not shop online but i cant stand seeing advertisements on social networks, yes its smart on the business side but it is so annoying. A lot of my girl friends talk about how they saw an ad on the internet or facebook and it persuade them to buy the product or at least think about buying it. I do have a little bit of a shopping problem because I love clothes and shoes, etc.. but if i want something i will buy it, advertisements are more annoying to me rather then persuasive.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of socail media only because i can keep up with my friends who i have not seen in a long while or skype with someone who's in another country. In Chapter 8, McLuhan said "technology inevitably causes specific changes in how people think, in how society is structured" (219). Whether its the internet or television, media have a way of getting people to do what it want them to do such as going out and buying a product that have been advertised on television or the internet.
Social media is like a community in itself, in the US and international. If some huge event happen people can quickly take a picture of it on their phone and put it on facebook and now the whole world can see it. In chapter 20 in Mcquail it says "most of us get our knowledge about the world outside our home" (232). Im sure most of us in class get a lot of information about whats going on from social media.
As much as we might want to complain that advertisements and marketing campaigns have overtaken our precious daily Facebook intake, I believe that companies are extremely intelligent to take advantage of the increasing popularity of social media. How can you blame them, really? I think the obsession with Facebook that our age group holds (and the increasing obsession among other demographics) has opened a world of possibilities for marketing departments.
ReplyDeleteThe open world of Facebook has provided many companies with FREE advertising through the creation of their own social network fan pages, groups and applications. Of course companies are going to take advantage of such an easy way to get their brand name out. The Baran and Davis text comments on how advertising was traditionally approached. It states, “Advertising packages promotional messages so they will be attended to and acted on by people who often have little interest in and often no real need for most of the advertised products or services” (337). We see advertising everywhere for items that we care little about. Many times, the advertisements are wasted on most of the population and thus, isn’t money being wasted from the marketing budget? But social media could easily be changing the traditional approach to advertisements. Marketers can now create packages that might attract and excite people who are already fans to buy more and share more. Advertisers can now advertise to people who care about the product and must now create ways to inspire fans to share brands with their friends on their social media platforms. Through social media marketing, I can consume information on nearly any brand or company without having to visit a store, or without even having to visit another website! Our generation is all about efficiency and advertising on my social networking sites is making my Christmas shopping this season easier and quicker. I’m constantly killing two birds with one stone—with whatever internet activity I am engaging in.
Mera’s article did remind me about something unnerving (but well deserved) I have been reading about, though. Have you ever really noticed the ads popping up on the sides of your Facebook pages? The ones you don’t necessarily choose to consume? Have you ever noticed that the products being displayed on the sides of the page seem to market directly to your personal interests? Well that’s no coincidence. In an article I just read on a technology website the authors explain that Facebook is using your interests, data from your Facebook page and general search history on facebook (and allegedly, your entire web activity) to post ads that apply directly to you in hopes that you will be more likely to click on them. Facebook is effectively selling this type of technology to companies who are interested in advertising with them.
Scary? A little bit. But I’m sticking with the brilliance of the business model on this one as well. Advertisers are following the traditional model of marketing, but trying it on a new platform. In his article, Schiller states, “They are commercial products designed as bait with which to snare the potential consumer…the American pop cultural product has obviously attractive features that can be attributed to…the rapid utilization of state-of-the-art technologies to achieve compelling special effects” (5). How better to “snare the potential consumer” than to make use of this new technology? What better bait than to advertise products to us that pertain to our interests? Facebook might be “invading our privacy” and using us to sell to advertisers, we really are asking for it. We choose to be a member of this social network and we choose to share this type of information. What we do on the internet is never really private, no matter what our privacy settings are. If we are going to be savvy consumers and users of technology and the media, this is something that we need to understand.
I definitely believe that the media has a big influence on the way many people around the world shop. I personally have become one of those who tends, to look for things in the internet before I go to the store to shop for it. I got into that habit during my time overseas because many of the stores I liked weren’t anywhere hear the places I was in. For me it began as way of getting away from things that stressed me out and then it became a regular habit. Now I am at the point where I purchase things over the internet when I see an ad on a magazine or a social network. As a result, I rarely go to a store without looking at their products online. Based on the readings for the week I agree that the medium changes the way people see things around them. McLuhan states, “…new forms of media transform (massage) our experience of ourselves and our society, and the this influence is more important than the content that is transmitted in its specific messages-technology determines experience” (Baran and Davis). Not only has the media become an influence in the US but it has also changed the way many view things around the world. Shriller states, “What is not in doubt in this account is the powerful media-interlock that now characterizes the global corporate dynamic” (Shriller 8). The mass media has taken over the way people socialized and do their normal everyday affairs.
ReplyDeleteI am probably guiltier than anyone for paying attention to advertisements online about clothes and shoes just because it is something I like. I like buying clothes and I like buying shoes. I also think it is extremely smart for advertisers to use social networking sites to advertise their products. Social networking sites are huge so why wouldn’t you want your advertise to be seen on some of the most frequently viewed web sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The Baran and Davis reading says this about McLuhan’s theory, “The most central of these is that changes in communication technology inevitably produce profound changes in both culture and social order” (Baran and Davis 219). Communication technology has definitely changed the way our culture shops. First, it has led to online shopping. You do not even need to leave your house to shop for the holidays. Also we are bombarded with more and more advertisements. Many YouTube videos include a 30 second advertisement before the video starts. This all has an effect on our culture. The McQuail reading states, “….seeing the world as a political-economic system of global capitalization, rather than the more common view of it as a collection of political entities called nation-states” (Tomlinson 227). This statement holds true with social networking sites beginning to skyrocket. More and more advertisements are leading us to buy more online and also in stores.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is something that has a form of power throughout the world. It links a people from around the world in a matter of seconds. I would definitely look at the internet as a form of centralized power. Innis, “as a political economist, he harbored a deep suspicion of centralized power and believed that newer forms of communication technology would make even greater centralization inevitable. He referred to this as the inherent bias of communication. Because of the bias, the people and the resources of outlying regions that he called the periphery are inevitably exploited to serve the interests of elites at the center” (Baran & Davis 219). When considering this excerpt, we can definitely consider the internet a centralized power. With the utilization of ads, it changes the way people work on the computer, or better, the way they don’t work on the computer. People have turned to their computer to order their favorite clothes, shoes, or anything else that they want. There are ads all around us, in magazines, on television, on billboards but now within the past 2 decades, the ads have made their way onto the computer, convincing viewers to buy their product online.
ReplyDeleteNot only is the internet an ad filled media resource, but the ads on television programs have skyrocketed as well. The McQuail reader says: “First, though the media may be analytically separable from the other aspects of culture, it is clear that they are intimately connected with these other aspects in terms of people’s ‘lived experience’. People’s experience of television, for example, is very often within the cultural context of the family and this context has a significant mediating effect” (224). The television is usually within the cultural context of family. A family can bond over their favorite show. But with the rise of ads and the decrease of the time of the show, the experience changes completely. The ads inspire people to go out and buy the product they see, taking away from the television show that a family bonds over and in a way harming the overall experience a family used to all bond over.
Shopping online has become second nature to me. My generations’ addiction to social media has many of my friends actually admitting that when they come to a computer they can’t help but immediately log in to Facebook. It has become a mindless act, to facebook, I’m not sure what it is about us that we constantly want to look at our friends, people our friends are friends with, or people we met once but continue to look at; but we always want to be ‘in the know’. This desire to be constantly in the loop is a part of social media’s success, I mean; we feel like we’re missing an arm if we forget our cell phones at home. Now there are applications for our smart phones that allow us to Facebook, Twitter, Google, check our emails, and more just within our cell phone. Big corporations are very aware of this constant contact and are using it to their advantage. They use Facebook to feature ads so while were looking at all our ‘friends’ we can be tempted at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe business marketplace has controlled society and the division of classes for centuries. It is accepted that certain brands reflect on a person’s status and products are classified from necessity items to luxury items. Necessity items are those that society is needs to buy and will accept a substitute brand. Social media sites has created this new ability for us to look at celebrities and the luxury items that there have, and now at the click of a button we can recreate those luxury looks, for a fraction of the price. Media has created whole television series based around the fact that we want to look, act, and dress, like celebrities and even if we didn’t originally want to mimic celebrities, the constant push of their face from every media angle gives us very little chance to escape from this spread of capitalism and culture. The McQuail reading states: “The spread of capitalism is the spread of a culture of consumerism: a culture that involves the commodification of all experience.” This consumer culture is a realitively new concept, but it is creating a new culture among the younger generation. If you think about children today, they know more about the newest gadgets and toys and trends than many adults, so what does this say about their consumer habits? Everything, they use social media in every way since they do not know anything but that, atleast people my age and older can remember life before social media, these younger kids don’t stand a chance and are becoming the largest target demographic. Which is interesting since they really shouldn’t be able to consume anything since they don’t have any money right? Wrong. The kids are actually the ones marketers are targeting more often, so it will definitely be a thing to watch over the next 10 years as these kids get jobs. One thing is for sure; social media is only getting bigger.