I believe that people create content online as a way for people to showcase their creativity to others. It can help them create or connect to a community that has the same interest  as them.  I think what drives them to tag, post and follow is being given the ability to show your creativity and tagging relevant people that can possible make what you have created viral, Posting pictures or videos allows people to get a sense of what you are trying to do and its also allows people to discover you and your page. Following people that has the same interest as you, creates a community and is also a great way to get new ideas from others. The internet is a place were people discover and explore. The article Is “Google Making Us Stupid?” states “The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded.” When using the Internet and creating content online research is mostly being done to get more information on what it is that you would like to create.

Bintou Jabbi

The ability to last a week without Google or Facebook platforms wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be. Not only has it shown that how much everything has essentially shifted to technological production as well as society’s use for it. For example, Google itself is now out on electronic dictionaries, thus rendering physical books and libraries useless. Using it for school is essential and even out of school, we feel that urge to use it to search up a word or to quickly read an article to pass time. As luck might have, I wouldn’t say I’m addicted or reliant but I’d say the use of technology has become a good fallback option. Even though we’re in a global pandemic and we’ve been staring at computers for the better part of 18 months, I’ve set out time within a to read physical books since I prefer reading physical books instead of online books. When weather allows, go outside and workout. Overall, life wouldn’t be so much difficult but rather an adjustment without the help of Google with any mental logjam as well as opening up a phone and clicking on an app. 

For the better part of the last 10 years, more and more people have ventured into the world of social media and content creation. People’s reasons range from displaying their talents to entertainment and daily blogs. Since essentially the turn of the century, people have had an online presence but it was far and few between until MySpace which wasn’t until the mid to late 2000’s. With that internet exposure, it results in fame, recognition and other famous and non famous people wanting to work with that person. Micro and macro celebrities such as musicians like The Weeknd or Justin Bieber to comedians like DC Young Fly or cardi b. So to a novice, a lot of people look at them and think “if they made it like that, I can to”. But what they all have in common is that they took a platform like YouTube and Instagram and marketed themselves and know they have a massive following 

As far as the business and logistics side of things goes, even they are seeing the benefits to online presence and creation. According to “Is Google Making Making Us Stupid”, author Nicholas Carr writes, ‘The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” The effects that the internet has had on society, has changed the course of history. For instance, every streaming service has an ad as part of its algorithms. Societally everyone can find their purpose online no matter their interests whether it’s news, sports, or even politics. It’s a garden littered with material for everyone. So the more people that use it, the more intuned people are. “The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers.” More viewers means more content which means more ads so it’s somewhat a win-win situation for everyone involved. The audience is satisfied and the creators get paid as well. 

The network humans have not only created but also evolved has benefited us in a big way, we often use networks to help us get by and keep ourselves organized. For starters, we use applications to help us get information . For people like myself that take public transportation the app called “transit” gives you an accurate time on when a train or bus will arrive at the stop closest to you, the app will also notify you of delays and scheduled constructed work being done in the stations and which stops the train will skip. If you are a driver like myself, you will find yourself using “Waze” or “maps” on your iPhone to not only give you the best route to take but also tells you how long it will take and what time you will get there to the point where it tells you about an accident that has occurred and shows how bad the traffic is on the route chosen. this feature by using networks also allows the app to adjust the estimated time of arrival. We use networks like social media to organize meetings and conference calls. the company I work for in fact uses office outlook to host conference calls where all managers in the district are connected and can communicate all at the same time. networks have allowed us to have cellular devices that allow us to make phone calls, check bank accounts, schedule meetings , and even set reminders for important upcoming dates. Elon musk has even used networking to create a car that runs solely on electricity which as mentioned in today’s class is becoming the next big thing as apple has also discussed making an apple car of their own that runs on battery life. Networking has become something we rely on and as we continue to evolve so does the network that we have accepted into our world.

      People are connected in ways that have never been possible before thanks to digital media. You can simply reach out to any demographic by utilizing networking via digital media. It has allowed for new levels of communication, economic development, and social interaction by eliminating time and geographical barriers. New learning techniques have occurred as a result of the increased use of digital media. Digital media can be used as a great marketing tool through the method of viral marketing. This is explored in the article,  “Viral Marketing for the Real World” by authors Duncan Watts and Jonah Peretti. They explain, “what would previously have been the entire audience for the message also becomes the big seed for a viral campaign in which the newly added people can forward the message to their friends, who may forward it to their friends in turn, and so on.” This demonstrates the significance of networks in digital media. Without those media platforms producing and disseminating information to us the consumers who can share it to more audiences, like a domino effect, there wouldn’t be any viral marketing. Many companies, businesses, and networks use methods like these to market information or products to maintain success. This method is more reliable and predictable than traditional ones because it allows a more predictable outcome and is able to reach larger bodies of audiences. This idea of networking is furthermore explored in the article, “Taming Complexity” by the author Albert-Laslo Barabasi. It explains how companies are using information on social networks to help better understand us. Such as analyzing patterns,behaviors, demographics. For example, this can determine what types of ads might be shown to us. The author explains how we must use the method of ethnography to help better understand and observe human interactions in our society. 

Networks are important elements of digital media. Some examples of this include, Maps. Anyone with a phone definitely needs a map to get around, With apps such as Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze, I wouldn’t see how anyone can get around, no one knows where everything is obviously. Anna Nagurney talks about that in the podcast.

Another example of an important network element in digital media is communication. Yes we can text and make phone calls to one another, but take that to the next level and use video chat which includes apps like FaceTime and Skype. Anna insinuates that we never really know how important it is that we have access to these things, unless your looking at it from an outside perspective.

In the article “Taming Complexity“, it states, “Today, more than twenty new companies exploit the increasing knowledge of social networks, with applications from discovering business contacts to dating services.” The important element of network can lead to an abundance of opportunities and inventions. Network should be used to take your inventions or businesses to the next level.