Media Convergence

Media convergence, what is it? How does it work? Is media convergence good or bad? These are all questions that the media world is asking, but what are the answers.
Media convergence is the idea that because of the progress in technology, various different types of media are combining into a single media. An example being, newspapers, magazines, tv, radio, and internet all being combined and accessed on our cellular telephone.
Media Convergence can be both good and bad as it all depends on our view. We may have different in view points if we see it economical, relational, or efficiency. A different stance could be taken on all of them as media convergence has a huge gray area when breaking it down into good and bad.
Economically media convergence is a huge influence of where money is going and who it’s coming from. It is usually more apparent in the buying of new technology, like computers, cell phones, palm pilots, or iphones. This is a process of constantly buying the technology to make life easier; fueling companies to make more advances in technology to constantly grow. Thus, making more opportunities, more places to invest; you know economics 101. But, if we are buying the new more efficient way to get all our media, who is buying the magazines, papers, cable, movie rentals. There really isn’t a need, because it’s all now in the palm of our hand.
Efficiency is a goal in our lives; the more we get done the more successful we are. This is apparent, but how do we accomplish these goals? Media convergence is suddenly making everyone a multi-tasker, we can get everything in one place. Your e-mail, cell phone, calendar, GPS, and another thousand applications are now found inside something called an iphone, which is no bigger than a poptart. Technology has made media so much easier to access and a hell of a lot cheaper to view, all your news papers, articles, videos, and time wasting games are now free.
Does media convergence help our relationships? It brought us facebook, myspace and every dating site know to man. It enables us to communicate by voice or text anywhere at any time. IF we have this much access to communication, we should all be that much closer, right! This does not seem to be the case, we in fact have grown further apart. We can communicate with each other 24/7 but what is the content of that communication. Our motivation has suddenly flipped, instead of caring, encouraging, considering, and affirming, we are looking to just please ourselves. None of us log on to facebook saying “man how can I help someone today.” It’s a selfish motivation to flaunt ourselves, hide our weaknesses, and see the latest gossip. It has corrupted the foundation for healthy relationships, which involves transparency, vulnerability, and sacrifice. None of which can be easily done through our wireless modem.
Media convergence is very gray area, as it all depends on our standpoint, where coming from, and what we’re trying to accomplish.