Windows and Mirrors Chapter 4-5-6

Chapter 4 has brought to light and aspect that many of us may not be familiar with and that is the fact that we are so used to doing things one way that in order for a new idea to be successful it must be either a copy or follow the steps of what it is replacing.  An example of this is nytimes.com  This website is the virtual version of one of the most successful newspapers in the world.  However if we look at this website we can see that it looks almost exactly the same as the printed version of the newspaper.  This clearly defeats the purpose of those web developers that surely have spent countless hours trying to make the website look identical to the printed version.  This is a clear example of how we must continue to follow old ideas in order for new ideas to be successful.

Chapter 5 has some very concise points in that Media is now present everywhere.  It is present throughout our houses, cars and even our pockets with the plethora of smart phones that are available.  We have now come to the point were some of the smart refrigerators are capable of being set up to send the user a text message when the milk and eggs are running low.  This is clear example of a media escape.  Most of us now have more computational power on our cellphones then did any computer a decade ago.  Convergence in media is the reality.  Youtube, vimeo and hulu are clear examples of how television shows are now available online.

Chapter 6 goes on about the importance of how websites are ever so present in out lives in the 21st century.  There is no better example to see this then with the recent events of hurricane Sandy.  We as a nation showed that we are so dependent on technology that if we don't have it, we can't function the same as if we did.  I too was one of the ones affected by this tragedy and while standing on a line to get gas, many of the comments were how can we continue to live without the internet; never-mind the fact that we had no power nor heat, but internet?  How much can we really do with the internet when we don't have some necessary things like heat and power?