It's a Catalytic Relationship!

Since February is here and Valentine's Day is slowly approaching, I thought that I would talk about a beautiful relationship that has blossomed over the years. We all have read Jenkins, explored the meaning of Web 2.0, and have been using many social media applications for years. Therefore, we are aware of how they have transformed from meaningless applications to much of the population into something that the majority of the population can't live without. Although our relationship with social media has grown over the years, that is not the relationship that I am referring to. In New New Media, Levinson says "Mobile new new media applications and mobile devices spur each other in an obvious, powerful, mutually catalytic relationship: The better the mobile application, the more incentive to have a cool mobile device, and the better the mobile device, the greater the incentive for new new media to develop cool new mobile applications" (Levinson, 187). Think about it, can any of us remember our lives before Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wikipedia, iPhones, or even Google? I try to remember what it was like to have to call someone's house phone to see what they were doing. Now we can get this information from a status update on Facebook or a Twitter post instantly.

When social media applications started to truly make a name for themselves, none of us could have possibly imagined how intertwined our lives would become with social media.  Just think about it. I really want all of you to answer these questions. Have you recently been watching the news or one of your favorite shows and heard this: "Let's check our twitter page to see what our followers have been tweeting." Do you find yourself checking Facebook or Twitter during classes when you're bored? Have you noticed that although social media is on the rise, our real-life interactions are becoming awkward because we are using social media via our mobile devices to avoid contact? Social media has consumed our lives not only because of it's uses, but because it is available everywhere. We've had this discussion in class before. When you publish a new post on your blog, you can have that automatically publish to Facebook and Twitter, send an email blast, and followers can view it on multiple devices. Everyone is benefiting from the catalytic relationship between social media and mobile devices.
Consumers, Advertisers, Web Developers, Phone Manufacturers, and Mobile Carriers are reaping the rewards of this growing relationship. I'll break each category down.

Advertisers: Money. Money. Money. Laptops, Smartphones, iPads, and Tablets are with the consumer at all times. Advertisers are now finding new ways to reach their target audiences. Instead of magazine ads, commercials, and billboards, they can now personalize and tailor the ads to our interests. Also, they can incorporate ads into the games we play and the apps we use. Television shows and movies can further promote their projects by creating mobile applications that get the consumer even more interested and involved.

Web Developers: As stated in the previous blog post, Web 2.0 is YOU. So, anyone can create a mobile application for a smartphone, tablet, or even laptop (Mac App Store). With technology advancing rapidly, there will never be too many web developers in the marketplace. What makes Web 2.0 interesting is that if you want to see something created, you can create it and share it with the world. In turn, you may also receive monetary compensation.

Phone Manufactures: Talk about a hard job. Phone manufacturers must not only be aware of what the latest technology is, but they must also find ways to come up with the next great thing constantly. By staying ahead of the curve, they stand to make a large profit if they can create the next big thing before anybody else does. Remind you of anyone? Apple created the next big thing in 2007 and the competition is just now starting to catch up to them.

Mobile Carriers: Mobile Carriers make money not only from the consumer purchasing the smartphones, but also the other costs that accompany them. Because of the addiction to social media on the go, consumers are willing to spend at least 300 - 400 dollars a year on data plans. That doesn't even include the price of text messaging. Also, certain carriers are now restricting the amount of data that a customer can use, and the overage costs are ridiculous. Let's not even talk about the money that a carrier can receive if they have exclusive rights to a "hot" device.

Consumers: Finally, the consumers experience it all.  We have the latest devices with the hottest apps that the advertisers use to reach us, all via a mobile carrier. There is a price to pay for all this and it can get expensive, but can we live without it? According to Levinson, "Highly unlikely to change is the public's taste for the freedom iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones give them from, on the one hand, conventional places of communication such as the home and the office, and on the other hand, the many other places in our daily lives which prior to cellphones and smartphones, were useless for communication" (Levinson, 189).

Now do you see how everything is connected? Social media has consumed our lives, and I hope that this blog post has given you enough to reflect on. As always, I share articles and links, but the following video was a great summary of social media.

Hope you enjoyed this post.