Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Long Tail
You know its interesting with the boom of the internet age and how early it is in its evolution and yet there is an exponential amount of information that continues to be uploaded every single day. With websites like Netflix or Amazon, there is a countless number of materials from specific mediums that they have in stock that seems to get lost in the pop culture spotlight. As times and trends change over time these popular materials (movies, songs, books, video games) get lost in the dust and as the new generations develop their own trends, there is still a small population that digs up the past and looks for those lost iconic materials. This interest in the past continues to keep this notion of The Long Tail, developed by Chris Anderson editor of Wired Magazine, running and making a ton of money. I really believe that all The Long Tail idea is, is about the resurgence of trends and how those trends carry over into future generations. It is all about the random purchases of the 1994 mediocre Nintendo game that no one really cared about. Those are the purchases by a bunch of people that create a large amount of income that sustains itself over a long period of time.
To me personally, I believe that this will always relatively sustain itself over time especially since the internet is only getting larger and more information is being downloaded onto it every single day. We, as a culture, have a short attention span and new trends run in and out of our lives every single day. We don't always notice what we are going to hold onto and what we are going to forget about. I know that I always look back at things from when I was a kid that was poplar and try to find it again. My girlfriend got me a Super Nintendo for my birthday last year. This is an example of The Long Tail and how it will slowly sustain itself over a long period of time and will be able to create a ton of money. But what keeps it alive is the accessibility of these materials through the websites that have been developed. Without the internet it would be much more difficult to maintain this interest and accessibility.
To me personally, I believe that this will always relatively sustain itself over time especially since the internet is only getting larger and more information is being downloaded onto it every single day. We, as a culture, have a short attention span and new trends run in and out of our lives every single day. We don't always notice what we are going to hold onto and what we are going to forget about. I know that I always look back at things from when I was a kid that was poplar and try to find it again. My girlfriend got me a Super Nintendo for my birthday last year. This is an example of The Long Tail and how it will slowly sustain itself over a long period of time and will be able to create a ton of money. But what keeps it alive is the accessibility of these materials through the websites that have been developed. Without the internet it would be much more difficult to maintain this interest and accessibility.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Convergence Culture
I don't know about you, but for me the Super Bowl was probably the biggest event going on for me this month. I'm sure for a lot of America's men watched the game yesterday and the thrilling performance that the Green Bay Packers displayed over the much more experienced Steelers. I sat in a room sitting on a couch staring at an HD television with probably 15 other people around me doing the exact same thing, the only difference was me and a few others were watching the game for the sake of the game. If you would have asked my best friend's high school sister what she thought about the game, she probably would have responded to the extent of, "I don't really know who's playing, I just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials". If you're a die hard football fan that might piss you off, but to anyone else, that might be a very practical reasonable thing to say. Why? Because our country has become a media monster where things like football give piggyback rides to advertisers and they make a fortune off of it. I'm not blaming them, I'm just suggesting that as big as the Super Bowl is, the commercials might be a bigger deal in the grand scheme of things. The answer to why is because of the increase in convergence culture that Henry Jenkins describes is taking over one step at a time.
When you go to the front page of Yahoo.com, you'll see a few articles on the chaos in Egypt, the outcome of the Super Bowl, and the best and worst Super Bowl commercials. The Super Bowl commercials have taken a life of its own and have become a sort of American tradition to watch all the amazing commercials. Due to the extent and rate of this convergence culture, these commercials stood up and walked right into my iphone, my computer, and my ipad. Every single medium of information, these ads will continue to perpetuate themselves and I see more about the commercials then I do about the game. The brand advertised grows exponentially as these commercials cross mediums and into our brains. Its almost as if you can't run away from them; their following you. But don't be afraid just yet because it hasn't completely taken over our agendas. But at the rate that technology is going, its going to be hard to keep these advertisements at the reach of my entertainment and not thrown in my face any more than it is now.
Advertisers are looking at the technology fronteir with wide eyes because its a phenomenon that no one can predict. Billions of dollars are waiting to be made but no one can directly tell you how that is all going to go down. For the longest time it was simply newspapers and we had the choice to read what we want when we wanted. I think that those times are drifting away from us at a much more rampit pace than ever before. Will advertising across every media medium in the future still give us the opportunity to turn off the tv or put down the paper? I doubt it. The convergence is too fast and we are not prepared for it. Sooner or later the remote will no longer be in your hands.
When you go to the front page of Yahoo.com, you'll see a few articles on the chaos in Egypt, the outcome of the Super Bowl, and the best and worst Super Bowl commercials. The Super Bowl commercials have taken a life of its own and have become a sort of American tradition to watch all the amazing commercials. Due to the extent and rate of this convergence culture, these commercials stood up and walked right into my iphone, my computer, and my ipad. Every single medium of information, these ads will continue to perpetuate themselves and I see more about the commercials then I do about the game. The brand advertised grows exponentially as these commercials cross mediums and into our brains. Its almost as if you can't run away from them; their following you. But don't be afraid just yet because it hasn't completely taken over our agendas. But at the rate that technology is going, its going to be hard to keep these advertisements at the reach of my entertainment and not thrown in my face any more than it is now.
Advertisers are looking at the technology fronteir with wide eyes because its a phenomenon that no one can predict. Billions of dollars are waiting to be made but no one can directly tell you how that is all going to go down. For the longest time it was simply newspapers and we had the choice to read what we want when we wanted. I think that those times are drifting away from us at a much more rampit pace than ever before. Will advertising across every media medium in the future still give us the opportunity to turn off the tv or put down the paper? I doubt it. The convergence is too fast and we are not prepared for it. Sooner or later the remote will no longer be in your hands.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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