The Digital Future...Is Now!

Hello loyal fans (laughing to self), and welcome back to everyone’s favorite blog about media convergence (or at least everyone’s favorite blog about media convergence written by me). This week, we are talking about this mobile universe we are living in and how to better organize our digital lives. In a world where we rely on technology for nearly everything, this week’s readings proved to be very interesting.

There was a quote by New York Times writer John Markoff that really stuck out to me. He said, “The cell phone is the world’s most ubiquitous computer.”
And it is quite true. A trend that was brought up in the readings, and a trend that I have noticed as well, is that more and more people are getting cell phones at ages that normally did not have cell phones before. On average, kids are getting cell phones at the age of 8 in the UK and in the United States two thirds of the population owns a cell phone. I received my first cell phone on my 16th birthday. It was a simple phone that could make calls and text messages (although at the time I did not have a texting plan) and it didn’t even have a color screen. As the oldest child in my family, I have seen (with a bit of annoyance) my younger sisters receive phones earlier and earlier in their lives. The youngest, who is only 9, does not have a cell phone yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she got one soon. And this trend is not just for young people. My grandma never had a cell phone for the longest time, but about a year or two ago she went and bought one, and she even uses it!

Cell phones nowadays are not simple devices used for contacting someone else. New cell phones have many capabilities like web browsing, picture/text messaging, camera functions and even GPS. It is no wonder why mobile phones are becoming more and more important in the field of journalism. If a journalist does not happen to have a formal camera with them when they see news happening, they need only to pull out their cell phones and they are set to do some mobile reporting. Cell phones also allow for more people to gather news. If something newsworthy happens and there are no journalists around, an amateur with a cell phone can gather the news if they happen to be on scene.

Another issue that the readings brought up is deciding when mobile journalism is the appropriate choice for covering a story. Many times, it is, but journalists cannot let the technology come before the reporting. As Briggs points out, “new tools change your tactics but not your standards.”

The use of microblogging, namely Twitter, is also a new trend in journalism. It is still mind blowing to me that Twitter is such an important new tool, but it seems that microblogging is here to stay. On my Twitter account, I follow the Minnesota Vikings, and post score updates and big plays throughout the game. In the same way, reporters can post little bits of information as they are covering a story.

Another issue brought up this week was how we can organize our digital data in order to become more productive. Although they talked about using these organizational tools for journalism, I found it more interesting to employ these tools in my own life. According to Clay Shirky, “There is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.” I take this to mean that even though we have tons of information and data at our disposal, and it can sometimes be overwhelming, we can still organize it in a way that will allow us to use it more effectively. I liked all the suggestions of the tools that are available to help in this organization. Zoho was one that seemed to be pretty useful. I looked at the Zoho website and I may have to look into it more and perhaps start using it.

Well there you have it. In a mobile world where we all use technology in our daily lives, the information at hand can be overwhelming. If we learn to organize it correctly, we can become much more productive and efficient.