E-Commerce vs. Brick and Mortar

     E-Commerce is an industry model that is booming right now with more and more people leaning towards it as their main shopping medium based on the convenience it offers. This model is becoming an increasing challenge to the typical brick and mortar model that has been used for countless years in this country as a means of purchasing all kinds of merchandise. A lot of people do not like dealing with other people so any chance to avoid salespeople is a win for a lot of consumers. However, this does not mean the brick and mortar companies are out of luck. Numerous people still enjoy going to the store to actually physically see the product they are thinking about buying. The expertise of the salespeople can help the less knowledgeable audience make a decision on a product. The problem nowadays is people will go to the store see what they want and walk out to buy it online. Price is usually a big factor when deciding, and online retailers have been offering up the cheapest prices for most items. The advantage brick and mortar stores need to take advantage of is the availability to have the item right away. Furthermore, the online store for most of these brick and mortars now offer a "pick up in store" option which allow the convenience of online with the instant gratification consumers look for.

     E-Commerce lacks in this area due to the shipping of items they have to deal with. People often don't like to wait for things so retailers like Amazon need to find out ways to encourage customers to stick with them over the competition. Amazon is in the works of developing new strategies to reduce the wait time using drone delivery and anticipatory shipping. Anticipatory shipping is when Amazon will ship new items to distribution facilities closest to people that are most likely to buy them based on past purchases. Shipping is an expensive task that online retailers have to deal with and finding an affordable solution has been difficult. 

     When brick and mortar companies get customers to come back to their stores, they are building stronger brand loyalty with the customers. If a customer really likes a particular store, he or she will be more likely to come back rather than find the product else where. Additionally, once the customer is in the store, they have a better chance of purchasing more than they originally intended to. Online retailers, on the other hand, do not get as many people to do the same. Overall, this battle between shopping mediums has yet to come to an end, and it will be interesting to see who ends up winning. 

Finding the Answer to Online Bullying

     Online bullying is becoming an increasing problem in a world of continued technological advancements of communication. People are able to interact with one another online and create friendships solely online. The problem with communicating online is people think they are anonymous, and they can say whatever they want to others. Numerous people are struggling with their own personal problems everyday, and some of those people turn to the internet to extend their burdens onto other people in the form of cyber-bullying. Most of these online bullies are being punished on a zero tolerance basis nowadays. The problem I have with this format is the people that punish the bully don't ever look into the underlying causes for the bully's actions. Usually there are things that happened in the past of the bully that make them have negative feelings towards others causing the bullying to occur. Danah Boyd claims a punishment-oriented approach is not the right solution to the cyber-bullying problem. I kind of agree with her in the sense that punishment should not be the sole answer to the problem; however, unlike Boyd, I think punishment should still take place on bullies, otherwise the bully is going to think it is okay for him or her to be conducting this act again in the future. Furthermore, I think authorities should look deeper into the background of the offender to try and help the prevent them from doing any further bullying. Additionally, advisers at high schools should get trained in cyber-bullying so they can offer an avenue for students to go if they are ever getting harassed repeatedly. Steps should be provided to the student into how the problem can be solved. I believe the only way to solve this problem is for other parties to getting involved because it can be overwhelming for the victim to get out of the situation they have gotten stuck in.

What is Addiction?

     With so many people especially teens spending a large part of there time on social media websites, some would consider that we are becoming addicted to it. Danah Boyd would argue that there are many constraints placed on teenager that cause a large consumption of social media. One of these constraints would be their parents over scheduling them to the point where 95% of there day would already be planned leaving no time for hanging out with friends and doing what they want. This situation then causes them to use their phones and computers in order to compensate with the communication avenues consisting of social media. I believe it is not an addiction because once the user joins in on a real life social event, usually social media is pushed to the back burner and used to a lesser extent. The user is most likely with the people he or she is looking up on the web so it is unnecessary.If you were truly addicted, you would be struggling every minute you didn't have it out.
      It appears to me that the main culprit is convenience that is causing the massive overuse. I don't think addiction is the answer. People are finding numerous different ways to communicate with people, and it is technology that is providing more pathways to fulfill the need. I agree with Boyd about there being many different conflicting factors that lead to the large usage in today's society. Boyd also mentions how having a productive talk about the priorities a teenager should have will be more beneficial than calling all social media devilish. Furthermore Boyd mentions how parents are become less trustworthy with other children just based on the content children are growing up with so they isolate their children from the rest of society. In order to fill this void in their life, they are forced to turn to social media. Society is the main driving force to massive social media consumption; therefore, I don't necessarily agree that social media is a terrible problem that all parents should have their kids avoiding. Addiction is out to the question for me. Critics should first look at the underlying problems before they make judgement on social media.

The Termination of Net Neutrality

     F.C.C. has come to a conclusion on allowing fast lanes to the companies willing to pay more money to the internet service providers. Net neutrality allows for any company providing legal content on the internet to allow consumers to have equal access to the content. I believe this action by the F.C.C. will be a disaster for all consumers on the internet. Small businesses will stand no chance in an environment consisting on humongous companies like Google who can easily afford the extra price tag. The way the internet would be set up would allow the big companies to continue to be in charge with the start up companies being left in the dust. Where would company's like Facebook when they were starting up be if they were not able to afford the fast lane? Internet speed discrimination discourages innovation of new companies and business models. People in today's society lack the patience of waiting for the content they request to arrive on their screens. Once they get tired of waiting, they might choose to go to a different website to get their content.

LinkedIn: Mostly Acquaintances

     After now spending more time in business classes this term to complete my minor in business administration, I decided to revisit my measly looking LinkedIn page that I created last year. When I created it originally, I only put in a few basic things in and lost interest pretty quick. What got me hooked back on was when I got an email from LinkedIn saying that the guy next door to me wanted to add me as a connection. A couple days later I began talking to him about LinkedIn, and he convinced me to go back on and add more relevant information that I haven't yet posted. I then spent a few hours adding info and looking for connections to add to my collection of people. Next thing I knew, I saw it as a competitive game of who could gather the most connections. This scenario relates to what we discussed in class about adding friends on Facebook just to get more online friends than your other real life friends. I found myself just adding people to add them on LinkedIn. Some of the people I didn't even now very well at all, but I wanted to continue adding them because I felt that the more people I am connected to the better the chance they might be able to help me in the future. It made me feel like a dirty person for basically using them for their This concept continues on LinkedIn via the endorsement section. In this section, you basically just give kudos to be on different skills they have listed. The person endorsing you may not even have seen or experienced work done by you. Overall, my experience on LinkedIn has left me to question the direction social media websites are going, but I still plan to continue using it in the future in order to make those connections that lead to a future job I might want.

The End of Privacy

     There has been much debate over the use of social media sources to gather information about perspective students and employees on deciding whether to accept or hire this person. The question arises of whether or not this form of information can and should be used as a resource. In my opinion, I have no problem with them looking at social media profiles to gather information. Some would argue that this would invade privacy, but I beg to differ. First off, the user's information that they are accessing is something the user wrote and posted online without being forced to do so. Ultimately, it was the user's decision. You would be foolish to think the stuff posted on these social media sites would remain private. With people sharing other people's posts and pictures constantly online, someone you don't want is bound to find out.by accident. I would agree with items on the user's profile should not be seen by outsiders; however, as our class discussed, the user may, without realizing it, accept a perspective college of theirs Facebook request. This then gives the college access to the user's entire profile and pictures.
     Another reason people get mad about this so called "cybervetting" is some people on these social media networks try to put on a filter or mask of who they are online. I believe that if people or going to perform this act, they should just use an alias name to prevent the people they don't want to see their profile from seeing it. Why not keep all personal information to yourself?
     In the end, I believe Andrews goes to far in her Social Network Constitution. She claims, "social networks are private spaces and that employers, schools and other institutions are prohibited from accessing social network pages or taking adverse actions against a person based on anything they post on a social network." I don't believe social networks should be the sole reason for choosing one candidate over another; however, if there are two candidates that are closely matched in credentials, I think using a social media website to see how they present themselves is a great way for the company to see what type of person the candidate is without completely knowing them.

Google: Always Increasing Market Share

     Google is becoming an incredibly powerful player with the vast number of online services that people use in their everyday lives. As I am writing this article, I am using Blogger, Google Chrome, Google Search, and my Android phone. All of which are products of Google. Besides the popular Google products like Youtube, Gmail, Hangouts, and Maps, Google is now developing a broadband fiber optic internet service, and they mentioned in a conference that they want to develop themselves as a wireless cell phone carrier. Essentially, if this were to happen, someone could have their Android powered cell phone that uses Gmail, Youtube, Google Chrome, Hangouts, Google+, Drive, Maps, and many more Google apps. Then they could potentially be using Google's cell phone service or WiFi with their fiber optic network. This raises the question: Is Google becoming to powerful in our everyday lives? Is it getting to the point of addiction? In my opinion, Google is becoming a little bit too powerful: however, I don't currently see this as a bad thing. From my experience of exploring multiple platforms and services, Google by far offers the best on the market. Sometimes its the simple things like in Chrome where the URL bar is also the Google Search bar making it simple and easy to navigate. Sometimes its the detailed customization like add-ons and themes that enhance the experience for the user. Google makes it simple and easy to use their services while also offering the customization and complexity many advanced users want to access. As far as Google becoming an addiction, I see it more as a means for getting the information we seek on a day to day basis. So I see it as an addiction to obtaining information and less of an addiction to Google. People want to achieve their online goals in a fast and simple manner, and Google is the one offering the best solution. Privacy and independence can also be an issue when Google is the one-stop-shop for all services. I definitely believe privacy can be a big concern. If something happened to Google, they would have all the information the consumer has been giving them from search queries to when you are going to yoga class next week. If the consumer used a bunch of different, at least the amount of information given would be dispersed widely across the internet with less risk involved. It is the same concept as investing all your money in one stock versus putting it in a mutual fund. People ultimately have a choice on where to go for their services. It is not any harder to type in bing.com vs google.com to make a search. I believe that, until a company comes along and offers up a worthy challenge, Google will continue to dominate the realm of the internet.