Cognitive Surplus,
By: Clay Shirky
1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?
This book argues that instead of just consuming around the internet, we should share, invest and produce (products, information, help) and that help the world turn into a more involves society since the decrease on television watchers have begun to change the way society prompts media. We are tired of soaking up information without interaction, and the creation of social media has given us the ability to interact, comment, share and learn from the media we chose to see, and not what the TV wants us to see.
2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?
Before I read this book, I agree that watching TV is a waste of time (in my perspective) because we should be interdependent, proactive people that interact with our REAL world instead of passing time sitting in the couch watching TV. This book supports my opinion that we should interact with the world today, and as the media industry shifts towards social media, there is a decrease of TV viewers, and we are beginning to produce, share and interact with the media around us. It connects with ENT3003 because we need to look for our consumers, interact with them and learn their behavior, and social media along with SEO helps us grab and attach our consumers.
3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?
Doing an online poll that estimates how much time you spend on social media or TV, and witness the amount of time that we spend producing, or viewing the feed from the internet. This would help us realize how much time we spend on social media and if it is really worth it to spend the time of our lives just scrolling on, or actually interacting in a positive manner where we learn and at the same time enjoy our experience receiving all the information available in today's internet society.
4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?
The epiphany came to me when I read that instead of being a hater (like I was) with technology, we should embrace its benefits and try not to focus on the disadvantages of technology nowadays. For example; unfollow all of your funny, non-important meme pages on Instagram, and start following pages within your major, your hobbies, news, anything that aports positively to your life and where you should learn.
I learned that in contrast to my thoughts on the internet dependent people being unproductive, now people actually have the power to drive what we see in today's media feed. This connects to the internet giving a more democratic importance worldwide into what we truly think. If you think about it, the most popular feeds are what more people follow, and therefore appears more frequently than any other non popular page.
Hey Sebastian! I think this would have been a very interesting book to read as it is so prevalent in our world for consumers and marketers. I agree that we are all switching from TV to more accessible options like YouTube and streaming services. This can harm businesses that do most of their advertisement on television if they don't see this switch. I think this situation could be a great exercise for us in this class, maybe we have to come up with a gorilla advertisement campaign, like talked about in class, if media sites were no longer available for advertisements. The more creative and out there, the better. This must have been helpful for you and your business to see just how powerful social media is, like getting to connect with potential customers and see their interests and friends to gain more following for your product.
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