The creation of the smartphone has transformed the
use of cell phones from just being a device to call people from to a device
that can help manage an individual’s entire life regarding communication,
business transactions, and personal decisions. The original smartphone was
created in 1992, which incorporated PDA (personal digital assistant) features. This
gave cell phones the ability store phone numbers in an address book, receive emails,
and browse the web. This phenomenon took the world by storm and gained
popularity quickly. As technology continues to advance, so did the smartphone.
Smartphones of today basically feature everything a computer
can do along with its calling feature. Smartphones account for nearly 50% of cellphone usage in the United States and is projected to hit 70% in the near future. With the advancement
of the cell phone, along with came mobile social networking applications.
People no longer have to access social networking from their computer and can
now do it from their phones. Mobile social networking applications can range
from social gaming to dating services. These applications give people the
opportunity to interact with each other on the move without physically being
together.
Dating
service applications gives users the ability to establish relationships with
others people in different areas
Dating services have continued to grow as the
internet has gotten bigger and more interactive. These applications allow
people to find people that have similar interest as them, so a potential
relationship may form in the future. There are many social networking dating
services available but a new application called Tinder has emerged and has
gained some steam.
Tinder, a dating service application, was launched
in September of 2012. Tinder was designed exclusively for smartphones, so there
is no website for this program. Tinder accounts are setup through Facebook accounts,
another social network. There are nearly half a million users using the app. Users are able to like or dislike pictures
and rate profiles on the Tinder browser, within the designated mile radius that
they have set. Users are able to see who likes and dislikes their photos, which
shows the people who are interested in them and potentially sparking a
relationship. If two people like each other’s photo, they can talk via private
messaging on the app and go on from there.
This app helps avoid awkward physical communication.
Most of Tinder’s audience tends to be of
college age, with 27 being the actual average age of users. The
designated audience prevents a large age discrepancy among the users.
Tinder has had a large effect, in some cases, leading to marriages. This app allows people
to make the effort to find a person who share similar interests, which helps
with finding the right one.
Media
sharing applications provides users the opportunity to entertain people with
different kinds of media, including video sharing
The video-sharing has already been
addressed as seen in the creation of YouTube and many others. Recently, Vine, a mobile video-sharing app that
contains postings of 6 second video clips, has taken off. Vine was introduced
to the public in early 2013. There are 13 million people that are using Vine.
This app shown to be an excellent source for entertainment and advertising, as
Vine users share up to 1 million videos a day.
The time limitation on the videos forces people to
be creative and get their point made quickly. Videos cover a wide variety of
material ranging from the comedy to daily news. Users have the ability to
interact with millions of people by creating short video clips with their
mobile devices.
Media share applications such as Vine, have allowed
people to express themselves to large population of people. A few people have emerged as Vine celebrities due to the popular
videos they posted. There are video clips of these “Vine famous” people with
Hollywood Celebrities such as Marcus Johns, a popular Viner, has a video clip
of him Jerry Seinfeld participating in 6 second comedy skit on his Vine
profile.
The target audience of Vine seems to be aimed
towards young people as there are mostly young people on the app making and
sharing videos. Vine continues to grow every day and other mobile social apps
are adding this type of media share to repertoire, as Instagram has recently incorporated
videos in their app.
Mobile social networking has opened new doors for
society as a whole as it has provided with us new methods of interacting with
other members of society without physically seeing each other. People are
always updated on what others are doing in their lives by viewing their
profiles on various applications. A lot can be learned about a person via
social networking, which can help determine whether or not a person wants to
meet the other individual in real life.
From reading Asubuike’s post, I was able to gain a strong understanding of how mobile social networking applications, including Tinder and Vine, allow users to share media as well as effectively communicate with one another.
ReplyDeleteAsubuike’s initial headline is informative and causes myself as the viewer to feel interested in understanding the role of the two applications, Vine and Tinder, and also leads me to want to learn more about what they have to offer. The structure of Asubuike’s post is effective in how he begins by explaining the history and the evolution of the smartphone, which has lead to the advancement of communicative applications. He then discusses the use of Tinder and how this application has served as a form of dating service and has given people the opportunity to establish romantic relationships. Afterwards, he efficiently explores how Vine serves as a source of entertainment and what this means for communication among its users.
In order to improve or strengthen Asubuike’s post, I believe it would be beneficial to provide information that details what exactly this means for our society other than that it allows us to interact with other people without physically being together. Is this a beneficial thing or is it ultimately damaging communication among our society? I also think it would be helpful to provide an image or diagram, which reveals how Tinder operates, similar to the image that is presented regarding Vine.