I recently watched a TV show on Hulu when I ran into a surprising ad. It’s a commercial for the new Chevy Cruze and the interesting part is the new technology Chevy has incorporated into the car. Apparently you can now update your status and listen to your news feed from the seat of your car. This new feature, according to an article in Gigaom, is a service provided by OnStar and has been in the works for several months now.
Instead of spending only a few hours on Facebook at home, you now have the capability to lurk your friends while driving through a chaotic intersection. This new feature is almost as dangerous as texting while driving; one minute you may be thinking of a witty comment to post and the next moment your car could be wrapped around a telephone pole. It is hard to believe how widespread Facebook has become; it is in our phones, and now our cars. If this growth continues who knows where else Facebook will end up.
Besides just social networking sites, other types of new media are also beginning to expand into new arenas. Netflix for example is now making its way into our TVs. If you are unfamiliar with Netflix, it is an online rental website that allows you to have movies shipped directly to you or gives you the ability to watch them online. I myself don’t use Netflix, but for those people who enjoy watching movies or like renting full seasons of shows it is a great deal. It used to be only available on your computer, but with today’s advanced technology, viewers are able to access their accounts from their internet connected TV. Some companies have even gone to the extent of putting a Netflix button on the remote control to make watching a movie that much easier. I just wonder what will happen to ticket sales when everyone is watching movies online. Although people may still go to the theaters to see the large budget movies, they might not shell out 12 dollars for an average movie when they could just watch it on Netflix. Each year the price of theater tickets go up and with Netflix costing only 10 dollars a month it doesn’t make sense to pay for a movie ticket anymore.
Hulu is also another giant in the realm of visual entertainment. Unlike Netflix, Hulu is focused on television shows. If you have never used Hulu, it is an online service that allows you to watch a wide variety of television shows for free. Although there is a delay between the time shows are aired on TV and uploaded onto the site, overall Hulu is much more convenient than cable or satellite television, let alone cheaper. Instead of paying 60-100 dollars a month for DirecTV, Hulu allows you to watch shows for free, at any time and you don’t even need to record them. This past January Hulu began its Hulu Plus program which allows people to access Hulu from their TV using a DVR, and it only costs 10 dollars a month. If cable and satellite providers don’t make some needed changes they will soon find themselves struggling to compete with Hulu.
As our technology improves it is only inevitable for new media to take over a larger portion of society. First it was our phones, then TVs, and now cars; soon many of our devices will become connected to the internet and help take part in the rise of new media. But with this rise, older forms of media may be impacted. Hulu might overtake cable companies and Netflix may end the success of the movie theaters; who knows.
As mentioned in our reading for this week, we could possibly consider this as evidence of convergence. Nowadays, EVERYTHING is connected to the internet as we strive to find different ways we can integrate social media and entertainment into our already cluttered lives.
ReplyDeleteAlso in support of your netflix argument, I recently bought a playstation 3 and I was surprised to find netflix integration in this gaming system. I decided to try it out and used my mom's account to log in. Almost instantly, I had access to a giant database of movies and TV shows which I could directly stream with only about 5 seconds of loading time. My mom was amazed with this new function as she is only accustomed to watching streaming netflix from her computer screen.
New media has already found its way into many of our lives, and I think it only makes it more convenient to have it connected to so many other technologies now. It may not be good for their competitors, but companies like Hulu and Netflix are figuring out the best ways for them to reach out to consumers. The only thing that I don't agree with is the whole Facebook-in-your-car thing. As you have just said, it could pose many potential dangers to drivers and passengers. Other than that, I wouldn't look at these companies like monsters; they're only making life easier for lots of people.
ReplyDeleteRelating to the introduction to your post, it concerns me that soon, you'll be able to extensively surf the web and complete other tasks while at the wheel. I think it's silly the extent of processes you have to go through to use your in-car GPS, which for many is necessary for driving, but it could potentially be legal and allowable to do superfluous things like Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that everything is available together with the exception of the facebook in car combination. I have used netflix for the past year or two and during this time we have moved from platform to platform. We have used netflix on the Wii, PS3, Blueray players and we have even a TV with WiFi connection that allows us to use both Netflix and Hulu without an external machine. It's easy and obviously appealing to consumers besides myself and my family. These companies truly are changing the entertainment industries as well as internet services. I read somewhere that movie/tv streaming takes up a more than sizable chunk of internet usage daily.
ReplyDeleteLike I said in the beginning of my comment, the introduction of the on-star facebook program is something I definitely do not support. I think it's unnecessary and potentially dangerous for other drivers. When my friend and I first saw the commercial we thought it was extremely weird and creepy.
All of this convergence is great but, we need to know where to draw the line.