Legal, Policies, and Ethics

              Often times we do not read everything we agree to when signing up for a particular service. I know I don’t read them fully. Many people don’t even bother looking at it. Just imagine how much information you have given to strangers for signing up for something online. How are they going to protect that information? Or are they? It’s a scary thought. Not only online but to businesses you give a lot of personal information to, such as buying a car/home, banking institution, etc. Those all require a lot of personal information. This caught my attention when I worked full time at Xfinity. People would come in to the local store and sign up for service. When signing up for service I would point out what that means at the bottom of their receipt and then they would simply sign. Not one person would actually read what it says. It simply goes over the 30 day guarantee; customers are liable for all of the equipment issued to them; they are the only ones able to make changes, etc. I worked there for a little over a year, and no one ever took the time to read it. It shocked me that they would just sign a paper without going through and reading everything.

                One day I set this new couple up for service. They seemed like a normal couple that had many things they had to do that day. They were kind of rushed, but at the same time took their time in making sure everything about the order went smoothly. I set them up with cable and internet, and issued them all of the necessary equipment. It was just a typical customer I thought. I then printed off their receipt and mentioned the terms and agreement about the service mentioned at the bottom of their receipt. This is where the typical customer idea changed. The lady read through the agreement before she signed it. She asked me questions about it, and if there was a time frame. These questions caught me off guard. I had never been asked them before. Her husband or her boyfriend I’m not sure their relationship started laughing and said, “Give me the pen I’ll sign it so we can get on to the other things we have to do today.” The lady then got upset with him saying, “You don’t know what you’re signing up for! Did you read the fine print?” I was thinking to myself, oh man this is not how I imagined this interaction to go. The lady then looks at me and explains how in the past she had been “screwed over” for not reading the fine print. I simply smiled and said “Don’t worry about it. You’re the first one that has ever read over these terms in the year that I have worked here. Thank you for asking questions to make me learn more about what it really says.” She was content with what she was agreeing to and signed the paper and was on with her day. That interaction only took an extra few minutes, but she knew what she was getting into.

                After that experience I try and read everything before I sign up for things. To be honest I didn’t read the terms and agreement/ privacy page when signing up for Facebook. I doubt anyone has, besides the people who have written it. Facebook sells your information to businesses. They make money off of you and provide you with personalized ads. Which is kind of cool, but all this information is for the public to see. If you didn’t want that then you should have read the agreement.

                I think we need to be more aware of what we are signing up for. Do you read all of the papers you get when you buy a car? Or buy/lease a home or apartment? I sure hope so. I know it may take a few minutes to read through everything. If you don’t want to read everything read the sections that you think will be important. It will help you know what you’re getting yourself into. Just be more aware, and if it’s new to you take a few extra minutes to go over. Many companies don’t change these very often, and when they do they let you know if you’re already involved with them. It may not always be convenient, but it will benefit you in the long run. Just be careful and know what you’re signing!

Let me know if this blog was helpful in any way. I’d love to see what you thought!

Collaborative and Distance Communication

               When thinking about collaborative and distance communication I came across a very unique app. I have been familiar with Skype for a while now, and how you can keep in contact with friends located far away from you. When it first came out it was just you and another person. Now there is an option where you can have a group Skype. I have not used it for a while so now there are probably more features I’m unaware of. This new app is called Periscope.

                Periscope takes technology to a new level. It started with the idea of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. You can post pictures of places you have been, but would it not be better if you could see a live stream? Instead of taking pictures, Periscope allows viewers to see what is going on as you are broadcasting. They could see the adventures you’re going on, the people and animals you love, special events, etc. You can broadcast pretty much anything, and anyone can join the broadcast. The only way the viewers interact is through comments and tapping the screen making hearts pop up. Similar to Instagram, but there are multiple hearts and not just one. You can “like” the video anytime they provide something that you like. I think this is a great idea. However, I’m not enjoying it all that much right now because I don’t know anyone else that has one. None of my family members, friends, or acquaintances has one. It would be very entertaining if I could share, or even view what they are up to.

                It made me start thinking about snapchat and the video capability on there as well. However, those are only a few seconds long each. Periscope provides a steady stream of video. You are able to interact with the broadcaster. Snapchat does not allow you to do that in such a direct way. Periscope also makes your broadcast global, anyone can access it and the Snapchat story only shows it to your “friends”. It just depends on who you want to see your story. According to the privacy policy of Periscope the videos are only up for 24 hours after the broadcast, unless it is deleted by the broadcaster. You are able to save your videos which would make them viewable by whoever you wanted to share that video with.

               It was interesting watching a few videos earlier today. There were many videos about schools, locations, leadership, and religion. Some of them were interesting and others were pointless in my opinion, just people trying to get people to view their broadcast. I fell into that trap because I’m new to Periscope and wanted to see what people would broadcast about. One of the broadcasts I clicked on was about this college student in California, and how many hot chicks he was around. I’m sure there was much more to the broadcast but that’s the part he was at when I joined.  The broadcast name was “college life” so I clicked on it to see what was going on. It was kind of entertaining to see how “college life” was portrayed at a different University. He did not show any others in the video. It was just him talking about his college life and what he was going to do. So I didn’t stay on that broadcast for very long. I then clicked on a leadership broadcast. That was the complete opposite. It was very educational, and provided good information. I believe that broadcast was out of Austin Texas. Just from the few broadcasts that I watched I think Periscope could be very educational, if used properly.  

                I think it’s a great idea, and hopefully more of my friends read this blog and want to try it out! Let me know what you think and your experiences with Periscope!

               

Location Based Platforms

               Location based platforms are a very convenient tool nowadays. It runs off of a GPS signal that provides your location. This allows the ads to be very specific to you based off things located near you. Any app you download onto your mobile device nowadays asks if it can use your “location” while using the app. They ask so they can gain more knowledge about what you do when you’re in a specific location. They then can share/sell the data to businesses, and send you advertisements through the app.

                One cool thing that about location based platforms is that certain apps can show you what’s going on around you. For example Foursquare can show you fun events/things to do near you. You simply just type in the location and instantly you have a list of ideas of what to do on your weekend or even during the day. You simply just select a category you would like to do and then a list pops up showing you all the activities going on in your area. They then provide ratings by people that attended the event or the store. There are so many different searches you can do. You can always find something to do or somewhere to go. It is a great platform especially if you’re new to an area.

                Nowadays people love posting about what they are doing. Instead of remembering where you were when you were taking the pictures, the pictures know where you were. When you post them, they usually add in the location for you if the GPS is active while you’re taking pictures. This makes it easier for you when you upload them to the internet. It seemed like this was where location based technology was leaning towards. People would post “cool” hang outs on the internet, and then this would show their friends where they were. This would benefit the businesses and the social life of the person posting because more people they knew would show up. However, in my opinion many people who wanted to hang out with these people would already know where they were. They probably wouldn’t just want to show up, unless they received an invite. It is however, a great idea for showing off the “cool” atmosphere for future parties/activities.

                Location based platforms can be very effective and efficient. For example Waze with the traffic knowledge, Foursquare with the “things to do”, and dating sites for meeting new people. All of these are based off of your location so you can meet people you will actually have a chance to get to know. These platforms are only going to improve, and after a little research a lot of them are at the beginning stages or their idea is already being offered by some other program. They are just trying to make them different, better, and special.

Most Used Platforms

              After all of the talk about the most popular social media platforms I was surprised that I haven’t heard of some in the top 15. I thought I was up to date on my social media, but I’m actually pretty far behind. I knew the name, but didn’t know much about them or their functions. Google+ was one that I was not familiar with. Yes, I knew of it, and that I had an account because my email is through google. At first you had to request to get a google+ account, but recently everyone who has some type of google account received a google+ account automatically. I knew of this awhile back because when I signed into my Gmail account I was asked for some more information about google+. I just skipped through the steps and didn’t really take time to explore or understand what it was and how it would benefit me. I still don’t completely understand what it is. However, I do know that it is very similar to Facebook. It is almost exactly the same, with a few different things that may be implemented in the future. According to the Business Insider google+ is “an amalgamation of several services we already use. The idea is to do them better”. This statement made me curious to pay attention to how they are going to keep up with Facebook. I need to pay more attention to the minor details/updates they come out with.

                If they are so similar what gives Facebook the upper hand? It’s been around longer? It does everything google+ does and many other platforms? I guess it is just a personal preference and the majority of the world agrees that Facebook is a better platform at this time. Who knows if they will ever lose the number 1 spot.

                After reading a few articles about the top social media platforms, I was amazed on how much marketing is put into the top 5 platforms. I heard a quote by an invited guest speaker that cleared up the reason why marketers focus on these top platforms. He stated “for every free app or platform you are using, you are not the customer but the product”. That’s exactly why we receive these platforms for free. They (the platforms) see what we like and send the information out to marketers to help sell their products. It didn’t really make sense until after hearing that quote. Facebook holds the majority of marketer’s interest since it is the largest. Social media helps out everyone, and can be very beneficial to whoever is using it. We just need to know that anything we post, like, or view will be information that will be given away as data for businesses. So we need to be aware of what we are getting into before you sign up new platforms. Read the terms, and actually read them before you sign up. Because once you sign up your data could be given away to help marketers find your needs/wants. Doesn’t sound too bad right? Just be aware that these most used platforms could give out a lot of information!