?

The important thing that I think people have lost sight of in this whole new tech boom is who stands to benefit most from all this.  Is it the regular people who now feel like they have a platform to contribute their two cents? Or is it businesses who have almost rapped the innocence of our social and networking media and plastered it with pop ups, click here ads, and boxes upon boxes of supplements that can help you lose weight, gain mass, or sites to help you find a friend?  The ads companies and people who sell ad space are the ones cashing is on our public and supposedly free forums, which leads me to pose my question… Is free speech still truly free?

Old advertisments

http://www.plan59.com/main.htm

This link will lead you to old illustration ads when artist like Norman Rockewell would actually create works of art for companies. Most of these ads appeared on posters and in magazines. To me this is what the internet is missing today.  In these works you get a sense of connection and warmth that todays new, new media does not have.  This picture is for Stetson Hats:

 Here is a famous Pepsi ad, thought it was cool!

NEW, NEW, NEW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKQNwqNLLk

Social Media: Corporate profit, marketing, advertising

In the world of advertising and marketing money follows the eyeballs. Meaning companies are going to spend a large majority of their money where the most people will see it. 60 years ago print media was on top. 2/3 of all money spent on advertising went toward newpaper, direct mail and magazines. As we became more technologically advanced and into the 90's tv took over as king and pushed print ads out of the way. Why?  Because, that where the eyes had shifted to.  Tv becamae the center point in American homes and huge budgets went into grand productions on ads.  However, in 2010 it was estimated that tv ads were 33% less effective than in the early 90's. The eyes have once again shifted and media consumption has changed.  In 1995 the internet had 5 million users.  Today there are over 1.2 billion people on the web.  Facebook is not even a decade old and has around 600 million members, Twitter close to 200 million followers and youtube is now the second largest search engine on the planet.  Its no suprise the internet is where the people are spending a majority of their time so of course large amounts of money will be spent on marketing and ads.

Edu

Late last night I had to learn through one of my roommates that my best friend and other roommate will not be going back to school this semester. As much as I hate school and despise going to class the idea of him not taking classes this semester angered me. Although I feel like the education in the U.S. is a huge problem without that piece of paper it's a simple fact that not as many doors are open to you.  I worry for him.

Intro

When posed with the dilema of entering the 21st century of modern technology and creating both this blog and a facebook for my senior capstone class I was less than thrilled.  However, to facilitate the fastest (and smoothest) exit from college I reluctantly now have both.  So, my first post will be short and sweet. My name is Don I am  a senior comm arts major at Reinhardt U (my third and final university). I am the captain of the baseball team and am for the first time in a long time happy.

Tonight I said goodbye to one of the nicest, sweetest and most inspiring young women anyone had the pleasure of ever meeting. Mallory Smith R.I.P. When it happens to someone you know you start to realize how finite our time here really is. What are you doing with your time?