Smartmobs=Pod People

Reingold’s theory of smartmobs is a booming new creation sprung out of technology that connects many people at one time without the necessarily knowing that they are connected to one another. Just the summary of Reingold’s theory shows enough implications that are provided within these new media worlds we live in. Today everyone and their mom (literally) text messages, and I believe that it is not necessarily seen as a problem within our society, however as Reingold states it is forming a new infrastructure as means for communication. However, one must question what happens when we lose our face to face communication. What happens when we are all connected by microchips and we no longer have to waste time, energy, and resources to interact with each other.

I think that text messaging is a great invention. I use it for it’s discreetness and convenience. I no longer have to have awkward short conversations on the phone to ask a simple question, and I really can ignore just about anyone I don’t want to talk to through text messaging. However I see that new technology can take us over and put us in our own pods so to speak.

This is where my personal experience comes into play. First we had the invention of the walkman, then the diskman and now the ipod. I remember my older sisters getting disk-mans when they first hit the market and I didn’t understand it’s purpose until I saw them constantly using them. Again, when I was in middle school, Ipods hit it big on the scene and I simply didn’t understand why you would want an Ipod when you could have a diskman. But soon enough I came around and realized I just could not live without my very own ipod. With an Ipod I could escape my noisy classmates, my parent terrible choice in radio stations, and the sound the neighbors crying newborn. The point is the ipod allowed me to escape into my own world. Eventually I think this will happen to us all of smartmobs continue. We will become so involved in our virtual lives lived out through new technological devices that we will lose touch with each other.

Blog 13 Week 10

The smartmob concept by Reingold is what we consider to be a description of how we interact with technology today. My own smartmob experience came in two waves. The first was text messaging. For years and years I never had text messages and I never quite understood this face in phone concept. But now that I have finally upgraded to the 22nd century lifestyle, I TOTALLY get it. I realized the convenience and ease that was associated with texting and at this point I am pretty sure I never even use my cell phone as an actual phone. My second wave of this smartmob experience came when I was a freshman in college. I came from a rather technologically slow background where I didn't get the fastest internet and when everyone was using cable and dsl, I was still forced to use dial up. The moment I got to college, it was like Christmas came early this year. The internet so fast and filled with information used to be so hard to navigate because it took 5 minutes to load one page, but now that I was finally up to date with my internet connection I became absorbed. I started online gaming and eventually lived my life online. Overall this smartmob concept is readily applied to many of our technological obsessions such as Facebook, YouTube and so on.

Blog 13

The "smart mob" revolution predicted by Reingold is an accurate description of the times we live in today. Everything has become summarized, mobilized, and accessible, literally right into the palm of our hands. Facebook and the iPhone are prime examples of this "smart mob" culture, as well as mediums through which I have experience in participating in that culture. Facebook started out for me as a place to leave messages to a few friends. Later on, I started finding family, then school events, and then updates, stories, pictures, pictures, and pictures. My everyday life did not seem complete without the over-saturation of information and images of what was going on in other people's lives, as well as my own need to broadcast my every move. Over time, however, I learned that this Facebook presence did not equate to reality. I could tone down my participation and still "exist". Likewise, I had an iPhone my first year of college. Not being a particularly phone talkative person, I was seduced by all the other activities the phone provided - music, note taking, watching TV, finding directions, playing games, and connecting to the internet, from anywhere. A few months ago, I lost the phone. I had to make a choice - pay for another expensive iPhone and its costly data plan, or just go back to a "regular" phone. I ended up making a choice to not buy another iPhone, and then it hit me. No matter how much it seemed impossible before, I could live without constantly being connected and amused all the time. It was just a matter of being practical.

Blog 13_Wk_10_Who_Owns_The_Media

Reingold's "smart mob" concept is extremely relevant to almost anybody living in today's society I believe. For me Facebook was a prime example of when I had a "smart mob" moment. I had always had many friends from LA but I was from Fresno. When Facebook became popular I had realized how easy it would be to stay connected, but I had no idea that I would know these people to an even better extent than I previously had. The texting revolution was another moment of epiphany for me. I was very old school when it came to phones and so I held off learning texting for as long as I possibly could. But incidents of people ignoring my calls, but answering my text messages right after cued me in that cell phones now had an entirely different use. The ability to call people had become secondary in social status, and texting had become primary.

Blog 13_Wk_10_Who_Owns_The_Media

Reingold’s analysis of the mobile technology phenomenon is very fascinating in terms of how he made almost Nostrodamus-like predictions of what the future will be like ten years ago, long before the widespread popularity of smartphones in modern times. He even mentions the “killer apps” that will be on these devices in the then future when we today have the fabled “App Store” on iTunes and other such markets for other smartphones. It is also important to point out that the epiphanies he had were in Japan and Finland, technology hot-spots with companies like Sony and Nokia, respectively.

My connection to the media has definitely changed over the years thanks to the advent of mobile-internet technology in the U.S. Now, I am not as bad as some people when it comes to being attached to technology with an Adamantium chain (X-Men reference :) ). When I got my first cell phone for my 14th birthday, I used it mainly for calling my parents when I needed something from them like to pick me up from school or to call friends occasionally. My current cell phone now has a full keyboard for texting and can access the internet, but not with the power of modern smartphones. The closest thing I have to a smartphone is my iPod touch, which is basically the iPhone without the phone and the 3G network. It does, however, have those “killer apps” that Reingold prophesied a decade ago.

One of Reingold’s statements in his work is that some believe that commerce will become more efficient and businesses on the fringes will make their fortune through this mobile technology, these fringe business possibly being started by a group of amateurs (i.e., facebook). These businesses benefit because of mobile technology and people’s “need” to have their life story known to the entire world. I have a facebook account and I got it to keep in touch with friends but I hardly use it anymore because I realize that I don’t need it, no quotation marks. Mobile technology makes things of this nature convenient but, in the long run, actually makes them even more unnecessary. Maybe it’s because, like the two people in the Japanese group of five who are not in on the joke that the other three are so enthralled by, I am removed from that social group, even though I am of that generation.

Mob

"Can anyone foresee which companies will drive change and detect which businesses will be transformed or rendered obsolete?" (Reingold). I have changed my major three times since I have started college. I first wanted to be a web designer, an environmentalist, and now I want to be an film maker. I just got an internship with a film company Beyond Pix in San Francisco. They make allot of commercials but remain a small business. I will be syndicating videos for them on web platforms. Internship work is not glamorous. Even a company like Beyond Pix realizes that they have to change along with technology and diversity their videos across many different places. I am willing to do the work for the chance to eventually get a job there.

Reingold describes his experiences of living in a technical age as inspiring and he seems almost awestruck with excitement. I don't really feel that way about technology. Over the last five years I spend allot of my day online. I much prefer being outside than constantly be on my lab top. My wrist is bandaged up from being on the computer for over twelve hours today studying for finals and writing essays. I don't share his enthusisium for technology. The more I am online the more my body degrades and my eyes begin to strain.

Blog #13: Who Owns the Media

Reingold’s concept of “smartmobs” is highly relevant in my own life in terms of new forms of communication via advancing technology. As this past year has been my first year away from home, technology has been the link that has helped me stay connected to friends and family from home. There are few days that go by that I do not text or make a phone call to connect with people who are otherwise out of contact. I have grown heavily dependent on the services such smartmobs provide because it is imperative to me to remain up to date with certain contacts. Even more crucial than cell phones, the internet has helped me maintain contact with multiple people through social networking sites and video chatting via skype. Another aspect of the internet that Reingold mentions is the convenience of sharing information regarding reviews of certain services. This aspect has been extremely beneficial to me when deciding upon classes and being able to read reviews of professors for every course on ratemyprofessor.com. Furthermore, Reingold is particularly fascinated with the timeline of such advancing technology and just how quickly these modes of communications have expanded. Like Reingold I find the acceleration of such a technology to be of great interest because it invites intriguing expectations for future technology, which Reingold predicts will be “an entirely new medium.” However, as Reingold also acknowledges, the more advanced the technology, the less privacy can be achieved. Therefore, it is imperative to greet new technology with not only great anticipation, but a just amount of trepidation as well.

Blog #13- Smart mobs

In Howard Reingold's introduction of "How to Recognize the Future When it Lands On You", he reminisces not only upon his first encounters with today's impressive extent of technology, but also with the repercussions, both positive and negative which accompany these hi-tech advancements. Reingold discusses the sudden influx of impersonal communication as well as the commercialization and public availability of previously monumental technology. What before was untouchable to the common citizen is now accessible to nearly everyone. Reingold takes both an admiration-filled and wary approach to the ever-increasing use of technology within our media and culture. I strongly agree with both approaches. Without media and today's advancements, my life would be vastly different. However, I too have anxiety over the speed with which technology increases. I dislike the fact that nearly everyone has access to other's personal information; Total privacy is rarely attainable. Reingold's awe, too, for media reflects my feelings towards technology. Even while reading his work, I received two text messages, an occurrence which would have seemed largely foreign to me only a few years ago. On a daily basis I receive numerous texts, I-m's and emails. Although this has not always been the case, I cannot imagine life without my blackberry. Another change in media which has directly affected me is the increased availability of internet access. My old phone was very simple and lacked most of the newest features of today's wireless providers. With the purchase of a blackberry last summer, a whole new world of opportunity awaited me. I now had instant access to anything I wished to know. In summary, Reingold's awe at technology's rapid morphology relates strongly to my appreciation and nervousness at media's increased influence. What only a few years ago seemed greatly advanced is now shabby in comparison to the constant stream of information and contact which defines my present existence.