Who Wants Pizza?

Ordering food has never been easier. It seems the future of delivery lies in online apps that are available at the touch of a button, especially now that mobile apps are teaming up with one another. Foursquare and GrubHub recently merged so that when you're on Foursquare, you can see participating delivery restaurants from the GrubHub app as well.

This sounds like a fantastic idea, especially since the majority of what we do is online now. It's smart for restaurants to get on board with integrating themselves with social media. It makes them more accessible, and thus more profitable.

The only problem is that it has to actually work. The Tarheel Takeout system we have here at Chapel Hill is a great consolidation of restaurants that makes it easier to browse through just one site. Hopefully this merger between Foursquare and GrubHub will be successful as well.

Can Pictures Actually Help us Remember Moments?

Katie Schmidt recently blogged about the potential perils of capturing moments with a picture. A Huffington post study shows that pictures do not actually help retain memories; in fact, they make it harder to keep them. The idea behind this is that we are so focused on taking the picture that it takes the focus off of the actual moment. Should we bypass the Kodak moments and choose to just live in them or can we manage to enjoy them just the same if we take the apparent risk of capturing them with a photo?

Although I understand this perspective and can see the validity behind the concern that we are losing touch with reality because of a focus on technology, I personally don't see this as a huge problem.

Maybe it's different for me, but taking pictures actually helps me remember things because I have such a horrible memory. Because it is really bad. Like, forgotten entire family trips kind of bad. So, for me, it helps to look back and try and jog my memory. Katie brings up a valid question, though, about the effect technology has on us. I think sometimes we don't realize how sucked into our phones or technology we are until, for instance, we can't remember a moment that well because we were too busy trying to Instagram it.

I think it goes both ways, though because technology can also connect people. But are we able to find a balance between getting lost in technology and getting lost in a moment?

Personalized News

The social news discovery app Trove sounds a lot like Mark Potts' Newspeg idea. It seems they both have the right idea in creating a social media based outlet for news. They share the same goal to "reduce signal noise and help readers find all the stories they care about." Connecting people who share similar interests is a great idea. I think these companies are really onto something; not only are they allowing a shared experience with users, but they are building a strong customer base while they're at it. But if there are multiple apps and sites like Trove or Newspeg out there, which one(s) will be able to rise above the others?

Who Knew Businesses Could Stalk Us

We are now living in an age that allows businesses to track their customers' movements throughout the day using Wifi signals. Turnstyle Solutions Inc. places sensors in businesses that track shoppers. By keeping tabs on where they are going and what they are doing, businesses can use personalized promotional tactics based on their customers habits.

Call me old fashioned, but this seems like a huge invasion of privacy. It's already enough that we have companies using algorithms to make ad choices for us based on our previous purchasing history, now they are using tracking technology to try and find ways to woo us into patronizing their business. I can see the merits that this new technology would have for a business, but at the same time the information that they are getting is just none of their business. (I didn't even mean for that to be punny). Either way, it seems like this is the new direction our society is headed, so we might just have to get used to a certain amount of privacy invasion.

Newspeg

Apparently, there is now a Pinterest for news. Mark Potts spearheaded the creation of this innovative way to view and share news. Newspeg is a social media-based news platform that allows you to create your own collection of news you find interesting and share it with your friends.

I think one of the best things about this idea is that it is entirely based on what actual people find to be interesting and important as opposed to the mass amount of media outlets that we are bombarded with. You can pick and choose what you like and base your platform on your own interests (aka: Pinterest for news). It sounds like a great new way to personalize and share the news topics that are most important to us.

Connective Social Media

Social media is allowing fans to feel more connected with the events they are attending. One of the most effective ways brands are boosting their fan bases is to Instagram back-stage and behind-the-scenes pictures of stars at their events, making their audiences feel more a part of the event. I think these sort of interactive new developments are going to constitute much of the future of mass media.

Alone Together

Sherry Turkle, in a recent TED Talk, brought up the idea that what constitutes a shared experience has been drastically changed by technology. It's changed the way we communicate and interact with each other, and maybe not for the better. Communicating through technology takes precedence over face-to-face relationships, making shared experiences now only fragments of what they should be.

In my family, we a have a saying; "Be in the moment." Whenever one of us is on their phone during dinner or movie night, it's guaranteed that this phrase will be yelled at them. By texting or using our phones while with others, we aren't just being rude; we are taking away from the experience as a whole because we aren't completely in it.

Although Turkle believes that our reliance on technology has to do with control, I think it's about boredom. We're so used to having all of the distractions that technology offers that they've become natural to us; we get bored doing just one thing now. Being connected to multiple outlets is addicting, and I don't think that is going to change anytime soon.

The Exodus From Facebook

It seems that the hype over Facebook is finally starting to die down. iStrategyLabs claims that teens are leaving Facebook for newer social media sites like Instagram and Snapchat. But the question is: why?

Maybe I'm not technically a teenager anymore, but I can certainly understand their trend toward more recently developed technologies. I've gotten progressively more bored with Facebook over time; it used to be the first thing I checked when I got back home. There was something so exciting about that red notification in the corner, even if it was another infuriating Farmville request. Now, I only get on about twice a week, and it's usually just to upload pictures.  

I think that people are constantly searching for new, exciting ways to interact through media. For example, Snapchat has allowed simple status updates to be replaced by essentially an update with your face on it, which, let's be honest, is way more fun. Facebook has taken the back-burner to make room for these kind of innovative social media outlets.