Sep 13 2010
Week 2 Framing Questions (Chapters 5-8)
Why is it when we learn that marketing was viral, some almost feel cheated by the company who created it? Does word of mouth marketing only work if it comes from somebody we trust or is it just another form of propaganda?
Popular media seems to be replacing thought-provoking works of literature, music, art, movies.Is the Commodification of Culture making us, on the whole, less intelligent?
Looking at McLuahan’s Technological Determinism Theory, even as we become more easily and globally connected, are we as a society becoming more detached due to our lack of physical involvement or more attached because we can learn more information and become more personal with a person or a cause, even if it’s halfway around the world?
Tags: commodification of culture, technological determinism, viral marketing, word of mouth marketing
September 14th, 2010 at 3:28 am
(In response to 3rd question)
Jackie, I think you bring up a great point and I too have thought about that. Somehow I don’t think we are becoming detached to the world, but actually becoming more attached to the intangible things in life. To a certain extent, I actually think technology has brought us closer together and made us love humanity more than tangible objects that don’t necessarily matter. For instance, twitter and facebook are social networking sites and although some argue that popularity means a heck of a lot on these sites- there is another side that values just getting to know an individual better. Technology makes halfway around the world not that far. In some odd way, technology strives for open lines of communication and interestingly enough achieves them through frequent status updates, tweets, etc.
We learn so much about people through these forms of freedom of expression. It’s obvious that we keep up with people in our intimate circle, but how many times do we learn about what’s going on with people in our outer circle. And truthfully, we even find out new information about the individuals within our intimate circle through the information they post. I think it’s a very interesting transition and directly shows that humanity is still alive and people do care. We see this by the sincere comments we post when a status informs us that one of our friends are sad or by the ridiculous number of ‘happy birthday’ wall posts that ends up on our page when celebrating birthdays or other important dates. Hence, being globally connected has brought up together more mentally.
Evaluating this argument form a different perspective, how can we not be more attached when our private lives are made public and we become so vulnerable? Our private’s lives are made public and we aren’t even physically involved, how does that happen? It very well proves that physicality may not be as powerful as we think. For example, for years the only way we learned about different cultures was traveling. However, today interactivity provides us with these opportunities and they aren’t once in a lifetime- we can refer back as many times as we choose. We’re drawn closer to victims of natural disasters through technology and we’re not physically there, but we become attached to this cause. I can’t help but to think of 9/11/2001 and how different that day would have been if the interactive technology we now use was readily available and more accessible. I wonder how many smartphone’s with video capabilities would have captured the moment and posted it on facebook, twitter or online somewhere to share. Photographs were strong enough visuals, but how would video have made us feel. Technology has given us the opportunity to understand with not only our eyes, but with use of our other senses.
With all of this being said, again I do not believe that it detaches us. I can see perhaps some of the negative assumptions that it may starting with individuals constantly being on there phones, but there is so much more positivity surrounding interactive media. We’re no longer passive individuals, but rather individuals with an opportunity to choose how private or open we want to be.