The Decade’s Most Memorable Events

Many things have happened over these last 10 years. All big or small are influential someway to someone. There are a few that stand out to me though. The IPod was extremely memorable. The device allowed anyone to hold hundred's of songs instead of carrying around 15 CD's. This also gave way to sites like Limewire. To avoid paying the 99 cents a song people went onto file sharing sites and got their songs illegally. That is one big technological memory one that affected me emotionally though like most American's the tragic events of 9/11 are still something I remember vividly. We were attacked and soon after lied to that led us to multiple wars under the banner of "The War on Terror". This is still a painful memory to this day as we continue to lose American soldiers overseas. One other thing would be my most recent the election of President Barak Obama. Although not my first choice (this was Hillary the clear best choice at least she had foreign policy credentials) I am happy about this. He has been working hard if you have the facts and don't listen to the "only interested in ratings and we will get them by exploiting dumb scared people" Fox news channel then you will clearly see he is facing opposition on both sides. Hopefully congress will stop proving that they are nothing but over-paid children who only care about themselves and actually work for the American people even though they won't. I can still be hopeful can't I? My last thing is the fact that the Supreme Court decided (obviously paid off no rational person would allow this) that corporations are people and as such they can donate sponsorship to any candidate they wish. I can't wait for Presidential candidate Mitt Romney sponsored by Doritos and Axe body spray. Hopefully soon this is repealed overall this is a very scary time in America.

Decade in Review

The past decade has lead to many technological advancements ranging all sorts of mediums. One of the most prevalent is the coming of various social media, including cell phones and social websites. Not only have these things affected individual, everyday people, but it has also lead to a new level of gossip which I believe has widely impacted the popular culture of this decade.

Without these advancements I believe many aspects of the decade would have been quite different. Much of the gossip and daily news would not have been the same, or possibly not even have happened. Everyday people wouldn't be able to keep in touch in the same way, or even interact with celebrities the same way. Perhaps the focus on celebrity figures wouldn't have been as strong without all these outlets to keep tabs on them. The Internet is another big example, and without its own advancements life would most definitely be completely different. Even practical things, like online banking and other things which has defined this decade so well, would not be possible.

In all, I believe this decade was truly a decade of technology.

The decade in my eyes – Cameron Richards

"The Past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift – that's why they call it the present" ---Elvis Stojko

When I find myself looking back at this decade I wonder how things might have been if certain events never happened. How would the world be going right now if 9/11 never happened? Would we be in this recession right now? There is a lot of "what could have been" when it comes to these events but no matter how much you think about what could have been it will never be because you can't change the past only look forward towards the future. Let us look at some of the events that have changed my life and probably more than likely also affected your life.

We'll start in the year 2001 and talk about 9/11 one of the biggest disasters to happen in America while I've been alive. I was in fourth grade feeling sick and in the nurse's office waiting to go home because they said I should. Then I heard one of the nurses come in and start saying "The towers have been hit! They have no idea what's going on!". Just like them I had no clue what was going on but for different reasons such as I was too young to understand that someone would want to harm others. My dad came to pick me up and told me that something big had happened and it was going to change the face of America forever. It was no use to me at the time because I wasn't even sure what was going on so I just sat there clueless wondering what I should say or do. Looking back on that day, seeing how many people died, it's hard to think back on that because you just want to move on but it's hard to deny two planes flying into the towers and killing over three thousand people wasn't one of the biggest things to happen in our decade.

Now let's switch it up from something depressing to something that lifted the spirits of many, well at least most of us who cheer for the Boston sports teams. This decade was great for the Boston sports fan, just look at how many championships we won in this decade. The Red Sox in 2004 broke the curse and won their first title since 1918 and then came back in 2007 and decided to win another one. The Celtics won a championship in 2008 after trading away most of their team to put together the "Big Three" consisting of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Finally we have the Patriots who won three championships this decade behind one of the best QB's in the game Tom Brady and a lot of key players such as Kevin Faulk, Troy Brown, Tedy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison and many others. The teams of Boston provided the people with one of the best decades this city has had for a long time and for that I thank them.

Alright so we went on two events so far that had actually happened but like I said at the start what if you think about something that didn't happen? Well let's imagine that we are in 2005 a month before the Xbox 360 is supposed to be announced to the public. This time though the people instead of being hyped for the next generation of games they are complaining about the cost of games. The people refuse to buy a new console unless the prices of these games come down but if this happens then companies will start to lose money. The companies refuse to do this and the people become enraged and refuse to buy anymore games which cause games to go into a crash. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have already thrown so much money into these new consoles that if they release them and if they don't sell a lot of the company's future plans could come into jeopardy. Microsoft releases the 360 in hopes that all the money they have spent on this machine pays off and the product actually sells. One big problem arrives out of this though because the people were already enraged about the cost of gaming that a new console which will cost a lot doesn't seem to be something they would want to purchase. Microsoft launches the consoles at $400 and people refuse to spend that much on a console when they are already angered about the cost before. Microsoft fails so badly with this product they decide to leave the gaming market all together and just stick with software but they can't go crazy with anything at the moment because of the big hit they took with the failing of the 360. Things don't look bright for the PS3 or Wii and they decide to drop the consoles all together and just get into handheld market because it is a lot cheaper than a full console. Gaming starts to die out and after time there is a period where it seems no one in the world is playing games. This is until people find that PC gaming is starting to become really cheap. PC gaming takes off and starts a revolution and gaming starts to get big again and people want to start paying for games again. See how much one event can change something like gaming that right now is one of the biggest forms of entertainment available at the moment.

Really though is any decade complete without its really big disease coming through and scaring everyone? Of course not! That's why in this decade we had the Swine Flu which was doing that job really well. So well that some people started to wear masks to try and keep themselves healthy which actually became a fashion trend for about a week with new masks that had special patterns and pictures on them. Some people were so worried about the Swine Flu they actually started to close down schools and other public places like that which I found to be an overreaction. They created a shot for it and people flocked to get it and then a giant news story broke out because of this shot. Someone got this shot and became very ill because of it and it hit the news like a tornado. A lot of people felt bad for her and swore to never get the shot while others called it fake and said she was doing it for attention and money. There was a giant debate over this disease for a long time, everyone talking about how bad it was how much damage it was going to cause. Then we hit the end of the decade and now barley anyone still talks about it and it's like it never happened.

In my eyes that is how the decade played out and I wouldn't have it any other way. Well even if I wanted it to happen another way I wouldn't be able to make it happen so I better just be happy with it and move on to the next decade. That's the thing about life everything happens so fast that you have to take time to look back on what happened and when you see what actually happened and wish that you could change it in some way but you never can. We don't have a time machine at the moment so we have to live life the way it is now and just try and make every day better.

 

YouTube Videos A Scam? Or Not?

Tim, Hayley and McKayla's blog post mentions that people might think the video one watches advertising a product on YouTube could be seen as a scam. Good point. How do you determine whether or not a video that you see is a scam or not? Isn't that sort of the same when we see information online every day? How do we know that what we see is legit? Remember when we watched the Blendtec videos? Do you think some people thought that was a scam? Thoughts?

Numbies

When a new technology is developed it’s “easier” for a smaller company to test it out. If the technology flops the smaller company will have had less to lose but in the case of the technology making a hit the smaller company also has more to gain. YouTube gives a smaller company the ability to broaden its horizons. Like the bigger company, YouTube allows the smaller company to broadcast to more areas with little or no ease. Technology such as that levels the playing field. Benefits for using YouTube to advertise would be a larger amount of viewers for a cheap or no price. Everyone with a computer can access YouTube and then access your videos for free. Drawbacks would be the fact not everyone does have a computer. A drawback yet benefit at the same time are the options of search. You can search any video, find any video but that’s the only way to actually view a video; where as a commercial just pops up and you’re “forced” to watch, with YouTube you can easily just click onto another video.

YouTube

• Why are small companies often the first to adopt new technology?

Small companies are often the first to adopt new technology because they need to get the word out about them as quickly and as inexpensive as possible. Everyone uses the internet so it’s a sure-fire way to get customers.

• How is technology, such as YouTube, an equalizer for small businesses?

Technology is like an equalizer for small business because it gets their word out just as fast on YouTube as bigger companies will pay millions to get their word out.

• What are the benefits and drawbacks of using YouTube to advertise?

1. Benefits
   Tons of users= tons of content meaning that there is a lot more content there is on any other website.
   Ton of users= tons of views. If you making your videos so unique or interesting will put your video at the top.
   Easy to use interface.
   Embed player that allow you to put it almost anywhere.
   It's great place to get noticed
2. Drawbacks
   Crappy Content
   Fake Content
   Low Quality
   No Revenue Options
   Annoying tag in video

Questions – Ethan and Joe

1. Why are small companies often the first to adopt new technology?
   
   1. Small companies are often the first to adopt new technologies because if the new technology is successful, their company will become successful too. Also new technologies are cheap ways of adverting to many people. For example almost every company has a Facebook page or Twitter account to advertise their products.
      

 

1. How is technology, such as YouTube, an equalizer for small businesses?
   
   1. Technology such as YouTube are equalizers for small businesses because it doesn't matter how much money a company has, the company with the best commercial will get the most amount of attention, and the most amount of views.
      

   
    

2. What are the benefits and drawbacks of using YouTube to advertise?
   
   1. There are many benefits of using YouTube to advertise. The benefits are that there is an infinite amount of people that can possibly view your video and that it free. The bad things about is that there is a good chance no one will see your video and you are more than likely going to get less viewers than you would than with a TV commercial.
      

      
      
       

Small Companies and Technology

We believe that small companies are the first to adopt new technology because they are more desperate for business. They are more willing to try new things, take a risk, and possibly market the next big thing in the hopes of generating business. Many forms of technology can serve as an equalizer for small businesses because it will allow them to do things they may not be able to do. A small company probably cannot afford to run a commercial on television, but they should be able to upload the commercial to YouTube where it could get a lot of views and have the same effect. Unfortunately, the Internets anonymity may cause more liberal feedback, and you’re not guaranteed that your video will be seen, but it is still a great alternative for small companies to get an edge.

Questions - Cameron Richards and Austin Soares

1. Why are small companies often the first to adopt new technology? Smaller Companies are often the first to adopt new technology because they are trying to reach a larger audience because of their small size. With this tech the smaller companies can reach out to more people than they would be able to normally and that’s why they take advantage of it as fast as they can.

2. How is technology, such as YouTube, an equalizer for small businesses? This technology is an equalizer because the small companies have just as much as a chance of making a great ad or video that gets a lot of hits and there is no cost of putting these videos up so they don’t have to spend money to show their ad which puts them on the same playing field when it comes to that sort of thing.


3. What are the benefits and drawbacks of using YouTube to advertise? The main benefit of this is that YouTube is free to use so putting up your video is free and others can view it for free. Another benefit of using YouTube to advertise is that everyone who uses YouTube can look at your video and watch it and if they enjoy it they can go out and buy the product but with this benefit comes a drawback. This drawback is that since everyone can view, rate and comment this allows people who don’t enjoy your product to comment on it and down rate the video which may turn others into thinking your product may not be what they thought it was.

YouTube in the Business World

Now-a-days business will do anything to get the word of their product or service out there. With social networking sites their job has been made a little easier. Small companies are often the first to adopt new technology because it’s an easier way to keep in touch with their employees, customers, and clients. Technology such as YouTube is an equalizer for small businesses because with big companies paying for all sorts of advertising is easy for them, but small companies have more of an issue with that. YouTube is free, and gets just as many, if not more, views than a larger companies advertising would. Advertising on YouTube can be good in many ways. It would cost little or no money, and get out to the public quicker than ordinary print advertising would. However, there are drawbacks of using YouTube as well. It’s not as professional and consumers might not take it as seriously if it’s advertised on YouTube; some might think it’s a scam. But in my opinion, YouTube can be a very good way to advertise for your company, just so long as you venture out and use other types of advertising, funding permitting of course.