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.