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Ignighter.com: Indian dating website

For Americans seeking a relationship, whether just casual dating or looking for the love of their life, there are various dating sites to offer. The main ones are eHarmony.com, match.com, etc. However, the article I read called "Jilted in the U.S.,a Site Find Love in India" discusses three twenty-something year old men from Manhattan, who created Ignighter.com to help provide and set up members on group dates. Over time, they noticed, most of their viewers were not from America, rather areas such as Asia and India in particular. These guys noticed, although it was unplanned, members in India were growing the fastest on the site, so they decided this site would be known as an Indian dating site. Since according to this article, "Ignighter is considered India's fastest-growing dating Web site." These three determined young men would have never guessed their idea would have turned into a happy ending just for a different group of individuals. They are very happy of their success and are expanding their offices.

This article stood out to me because it shows communication in different cultures are still similar to the American culture, by singles of ages from 20-even 50's, even in India are seeking love through online sites, and not just relying on face-to face interaction. It starts with finding a potential match and then leads to that face-to-face interaction. The sites serve to help those find a potential match, however it is up to the two individuals after that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/business/20ignite.html?_r=1&ref=technology

The Medium is the Message

I have heard the phrase/term "the medium is the message" quite often over the years, however I never really knew what its' true logic of reasoning was. This article by Marshall McLuhan, in definitely gave some in depth analogies and purpose as to what the "medium" is. I felt the electric light was one of the main ideas I got out of the text. For example, when stated, "The electric light escapes attention as a communication medium just because it has no "content." And this makes it an invaluable instance of how people fail to study media at all" (McLuhan, 203). This shows how the medium in this case, it is not the content that shapes how the electric light is used, however it is medium that "shapes and controls the form of human association" (203). It is how as individuals, we choose to use the electric light and go about it. I also thought it was fascinating how McLuhan used familar lines from Shakespeare's various plays such as, "Romeo and Juliet", "Othello", etc.

An example I can think of from my personal experience is how the infamous FML site is a fan forum for people to post brief stories on how their day went horrible, or terribly wrong. This site is used for others to get a laugh, and to be entertained, as well so we all feel we can relate that, some days, are just not our days. Everyone's story being shared are different, however at the end of the day, their all pretty embarrassing, some more than others.

Consequences of Online Social Networking

Anything we do in life has its' consequences, whether it is done in face to face interaction or online and especially online. Why online especially? Once we put something online, it is no longer part of our territory, anyone and everyone can have access to it on the web. Even if we set our settings to private, there are people on the internet, who specialize in "hacking" into computers and finding information through databases. This then leads into the article on the "Consequences of Online Social Networking" that primarily the title speaks for itself. I learned how it discusses researches and measures conducted on those associated with topics such as anxiety, self-esteem, body image, gender and the statistics and preliminary results found from these studies. Social networks such as Facebook was used as a compare and contrast on how young adults view themselves in body image and self-esteem and how that is linked to how they portray themselves online.

What I found interesting and useful about this article was how under self-esteem, how hypotheses were conducted as followed, such as for example, "people with lower self-esteem will have fewer social contacts in their networks" versus "people with higher self-esteem will have more strangers (contacts who were not previously met face-to-face) in their social networks" (Acar, 68). I never really thought about Facebook and how individuals may be portrayed as to the possibility of having not too many friends may be part of self-esteem issues. I thought this whole time those who do not have many contacts/networks on their profiles are because they are only talking to people they know personally, to reconnect and they feel they do not need that networking aspect to feel better about themselves. This article gave me a new outlook and perspective that I am now more aware of.

More Convenient Made IPhones

Just when we thought we got the newest and latest edition of a type of cell phone such as the IPhone, or Blackberry, corporate beats the consumers to the chase and before we know it, there's a new, better, and more convenient product. The article I read which is called "Apple Is Said to Work on Cheaper, Smaller IPhones" discusses how Apple Inc is working on making the IPhone to be cheaper, smaller, and more convenient for patrons. Their target in consumers is for most of the public to want to use the IPhone so they will be able to beat out other Android technologies.

I found this article to actually not be surprising because our generation is all about the rapid technological growth and how one week there's something and in a heartbeat, right before our eyes, the next best thing is out. This affects our media and the consumers because we buy it. Our generation is based off living in a technological and media driven society. I think for those who like the IPhone and touch screen, this is a perfect idea and hope it follows through and sells more than ever before.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-11/apple-is-said-to-work-on-cheaper-smaller-iphones.html

Quality of Online Social Relationships

Living in the 21st century, I have felt personally for some reason over the years, it is easier to communicate with people online rather than face to face interaction or over phone because virtually communicating with individuals means not having to deal with any awkwardness we might encounter in person, we do not talk over the individual, our overall presence does not matter, there are many factors as well. However, talking to individuals online also poses risk on not really getting to see how that individual interacts around other individuals; we may be given a false hope or acquisition on the person. One of the key points I got from this article was that we all do not realize how much we rely on interpersonal communication while using the Internet. That being said, this also leads into the second main point mentioned in the article which was the study from 1991 conducted on employees of a multi-national bank that they reported the most recent communication they had participated in, over several types of media. Overall, the study shows the respondents felt face-to-face communication was most effective for "sustaining work relationships." Phone communication came second helpful and e-mail came in third for being helpful.

Overall, I can understand the main point(s) made in this article which were, online communication was not as effective in relationships with groups, or in the work force, as face-to-face and phone communication are. I feel, and look at it, it also depends who we are talking to and getting to know and in what context. I do believe face-to-face communication gives you the feeling and sense of how the person we are conversing with acts, looks, feels. However, online, we cannot usually see and sense that unless that individual we are talking to states it or does not say anything at all. This article taught me that I should not take for granted that face-to-face interaction I used to have when I was younger before all these media devices evolved. It opened my eyes more.

Man-Computer Symbiosis

I must say I learned a lot from “Man-Computer Symbiosis”, to the point I had a little hard time following everything that was being expressed. However, I found this article very helpful and useful because it answered one of my questions I have always thought of and never got answered; “how does mankind put all this information into a computer and have millions of people being able to access millions of databases?”

Going back to what I learned from this article, I learned what the name of this article was being referred to which is, “Man-computer symbiosis is a subclass of man-machine systems. There are many man-machine systems. At present, however, there are no man-computer symbioses”(1). I also learned that there are 5 Prerequisites for Realization of Man-Computer Symbiosis, which are speed mismatch between men and computers, memory hardware requirements, memory organization requirements, the language problem, and input and output equipment. I found these 5 prerequisites interesting because I never really knew about what they were before, or how they were important and relevant until after I read this article. Now I can say I know a little information on what man-computer symbiosis is in comparison to before I read this article.

6 Pages For Viewing Super Bowl Commercials

As part of another one of my upper division classes (KIN 101-Sport in America), our Professor encouraged us to watch the Super Bowl because he wants us to be aware on how there are more commercials rather than game time each year it plays. When I saw Facebook has 6 pages worth on showing advertisements that are going to be some of the main commercials, I found it fascinating on what each of them were. However I was a little confused on the first page when it stated a lot of the companies are trying to put a stop to their commercials so they are putting them on Facebook to view instead. Even though this site says that, I do not necessarily believe that because on this first page especially it is Bud Light and I know Bud Light is always featured as a commercial in some of the main sporting games throughout different seasons and especially during the Super Bowl one of the most biggest money making events in a year, why would they want to not encourage putting their corporation in the mix? They could lose money that way. Their main claim on this page was that they would be using “social media” through Facebook to advertise their company. Another commercial advertisement on one of the 6 pages which I found hysterical was called “Cooking with Snoop” which is sponsored by Pepsi Max’s Facebook page. The page I found the most ironic and relevant was on the advertisement on Papa John’s pizza and how in this image it shows their logo and motto and how they are the official pizza of the super bowl XLV and how the Papa John’s Founder is on the ad and is throwing a football and has his signature as if he is a sports player. I found these 6 pages and article over fascinating because it shows how powerful advertisements are used as a social media to lure in patrons to want to use or buy that product that is being sold. If it was not for all the commercials in the super bowl, or the World Series, would Bud Light have as much business as it does or Papa John’s as well?

http://www.allfacebook.com/5-pages-previewing-of-super-bowl-commercials-2011-02

The Evolution of Media

Dated back to twenty to one hundred years ago and beyond, the media we know today, was not even in the same ballpark in comparison to the 20th century media. There were no computers, there was no internet, cell phones, any social networking site. If you wanted to hang out with a friend or needed to meet someone, or wanted to find out information on celebrities, everything was done by in person(hanging out with someone) and done by print(newspapers). The only way of communicating over the phone were the ones that have a knob and you have to dial it that way.

A few main ideas that I came across in the article we read was, one being on typewriters. Although those are pretty much outdated now, close to ten to twenty years ago, the typewriter was a lifesaver on being used on the "written and printed word." My mom actually still uses a typewriter for my dad's business for certain documents and labels and it is still affective. Another main idea I found was on bulletin boards. I forgot and did not realize until the read "The Written Word", that in the work place especially, bulletin boards are used as a communication device to get a message across to either a small group of individuals or large group even. The last point I wanted to highlight from the article is, on the internet and how that too has also evolved over time. From the invention of HTML to Microsoft to e-mail, to all the information we are able to access through all the databases. I am just curious what's going to be the next form of communication.