Blue Store or Redbox

Blockbuster vs Netflix interesting concept.....like the newspapers, Blockbuster has seen its market share plummet thanks to the introduction of Netflix.  I personally have never used Netflix but my kids do all the time.  They love the idea of getting a movie and being able to return it.  

I'm old school though.  If I get a movie, it's because I want to own it and all the special features that come all with it.  I have over 730 DVDs in my collection.  Yes the idea of Netflix is that of convenience and Blockbuster has always been on the mind set of getting the most money they possibly can.  But customer service is the key to a successful business strategy and without that Blockbuster will never be able to compete with Netflix.

 

Old Time Radio Shows

Recently for my Gerontology class, I had to interview my 94 year old Grandma.  It was ironic that part of the interview also related to this course.  During the course of the interview we discussed the innovations that have occurred during her lifetime.  Radio and television came up.

As a young girl on a farm in Ottawa, Illinois, every evening was spent in the family living room listening to the radio.  That was their connection to the world outside of their farming community.  When Lindbergh was a young mail carrier, he would fly over their farm regularly and wave to the kids.  When he made his trip across the Atlantic, her family was glued to the radio.  So that is the radio show I choose to listen to.

This show was my way of connecting to my Grandma's past.  In today's standards, a trip across the Atlantic is no big deal but 80 years ago it was a heroing adventure.
  

Napster vs. iTunes

Okay, I admit it.  I was one of "those guys" when Napster first came out over a decade ago, I had an account and over 20,000 songs in my library.  It took me months to build that library.  Then at the peak, Napster got into some serious hot water with copyrights, stolen merchandise, etc. and my account became locked.

Fast forward a decade, I am now an iTune junkie.  I have somewhere close to 60,000 songs, TV shows, movies, etc. in my iPod because of my iTune account.  Except for the periods of my deployments (iTunes doesn't work in Iraq or Afghanistan because of piracy issues) I have lovely built my portfolio.

Today with Napster you pay a monthly fee but the variety is very limited.  Many artists refuse to allow their works to be available on Napster even after they started making you pay.  iTunes is limitless.  You can find just about everything.  Download a whole album or just your favorite song and better yet throw it on your iCloud and it will go everywhere with you.  

I guess you could say that I am a convert.  My iPod goes everywhere.  It is the soundtrack of my life.  I vote for Team iTunes! 

Death of the Newspaper

This morning there was a piece on CBS Sunday Morning about "Variety".  Variety Pens Boffo Script For Future Biz   Variety made many stars in the golden age of movies.  It started in New York in 1905 as a daily about the vaudeville scene, Broadway, and then during the birth of motion pictures moved out to California during the 1930's.  Today, it is considered a dinosaur because of the age of internet and sites like The Wrap or Deadline.com.

Variety has launched its own website http://www.variety.com/ but this site can't compete with the others because it is charging its readers for access.  Which has prompted the owners to re-vamp the site.
 

Variety has over 24 slang words in the dictionary because of the language or shorthand they used in the dailies.  Words like striptease, punchline, and sitcom are part of our normal vernacular. 

Translation : Farmers don't like movies about themselves

Call me old school, but I enjoy holding a paper in my hands and that mentality will keep some papers going even if in the virtual world.  I enjoy doing the Sudoku with my cup of coffee.  But now a days, I have to go to Stars & Stripes on the internet and print it off.

Let's Ban Books

I remember as a young girl at Mobile Christian School a group of parents were trying to ban a couple of books.  I was seven and I don't remember the books but I do remember how angry my mother was.  She told me about the time this happened to her.  She made it her mission to allow my brother and I to read whatever books we wanted.  She wanted us to be exposed to the written word.

As my children were growing up, I made sure that if they want a book to read I would give it to them....even if there wasn't money for them.  I never denied them those.  My daughter is a huge fan of the Harry Potter series and the Hunger Games series.  I was surprised to learn that the Hunger Games was one of the books that the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) received requests to remove.  These books encourage on young people to read.  They teach them a wider vocabulary, strengthen knowledge, promote growth.  

Now I appreciate the premise of wanting to protect our children from adult subjects (sex, vulgar language, graphic violence, etc.).  However, these same subjects are readily available on the internet and television.  So that is a relatively futile endeavor.  But back in the 30's and 40's people were banning books that were American classics like To Kill A Mockingbird.  Hitler enforced book burning as a form of control.  

Grow-up people!  Let's remove this antiquated idea and embrace the fact that YOUR child wants to pick up something that is bond in leather and smells like a library.  A place seldom visited these days.

Fish and Visitors Stink After Three Days

Funny, I have heard that saying all my life.  All the women (on either side of the family) would say this.  I never realized that it was a quote from Poor Richard's Almanack until this class.  
There is a ring of truth to it.  Having company is great but after about three or four days, it tends to get a little old and uncomfortable.  And having worked in the Army's dining facilities I can assure you that fish definitely smell before the third day.

There are many quotations drawn from the humor and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin.  Something I will never live down is when I was homeschooling my daughter for her 8th grade year, I had her read the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin in conjunction with her studies of the American Revolution.  It was the worst read!  He is a very egotistical gentleman who thought that he was God's gift.  She has never let me live that down.

    

Social Interaction

I remember growing up my mother would say “Go play in 5 o’clock traffic”.  This was my cue to grab my bike and go play outside until the street lights came on.  All the neighborhood kids would be there.  We’d play fort, tag, hide and seek, and all the other kid games.  Life was good.  Today, you can do all that stuff virtually with people not only in your backyard but half a world away as well. 

"Does the internet isolate people from real social interaction?" asks the textbook.  It is a matter of interpretation.  There are arguments for both sides.  The internet has made this a very small world where we can purchase goods and services from the farthest reaches of the planet.  You can sit in front of your webcam and speak to your family while being deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Or log into Facebook, Twitter, Google, or any other social media outlet and have your ideas and voice heard.  For those who are socially shy and get that feeling of stage fright, you no longer have to worry about that in front of the keyboard because you’re not confronting anyone personally.

The counter argument is that people have lost the ability to communicate effectively through the numerous shortcuts, emo-icons, slangs, and other nuisances of today’s technical language.  The art of conversation and fluid balance of the written word is lost on today’s generation.  Gone are the vivid, luxurious sentences of Jane Austin, James Fennimore Cooper or Nathanial Hawthorne describing the simplest gesture, article of clothing, or emotion.  And yet, those same individuals were quiet individuals in society who wouldn’t have had a voice if they had not become authors.  What would they be like with today’s technology?  Would Jane Austin be a hash-tagging addict?  Would Nathanial Hawthorne be on Pinterest?

Just a little food for thought……

Media Convergence

After watching Jeff Greenfield's CBS Sunday Morning commentary on media convergence, it made me reflect on all the changes that have occurred during my lifetime.  I remember growing up, my mother made my brother and I sit down and write thank you notes after every birthday and Christmas.  We would be at the dining room table with paper, envelopes, and stamps handwriting each card.  Today that seems so old-fashioned to most.  All you have to do now I jump onto Facebook and make a quick post.

Sad that children in elementary school no longer have to practice writing, they submit their papers as word documents.  I blew my mind when my son didn't make a “true signature”.  He block signed his name on something which immediately brought on an impromptu lesson on the importance of a signature and the history behind it.  Lost is the art of communication.  Just look at the letters from our fore fathers and any literary great, the language used two centuries ago doesn't even resemble the language of today full of hash tags and emo-icons.

 My son is a prime example of this generation and how the stay connected with society.  Everything he does is via computer.  He talks to people all over the world via the internet.  He will be in his room watching Netflix, playing an interactive computer game, texting on his cell phone, and if I’m lucky answering the questions that I have for him.  In this global world, one would think it would be better but I miss the days of sitting down with a cup of coffee and doing the crossword in the daily newspaper like my Grandmommy did.

Media Convergence