Justin Bieber, Youtube and Accelerating Media

Let's look at Justin Bieber, to some an annoying 16 year old singer with legions and legions of young female fans. However, more importantly, two years ago he became the blue-print for the modern day rise to fame. His talents were discovered via youtube and next thing you knew he was selling millions of albums. It is incredible to think that he rose to fame so quickly thanks to a couple of uploads onto youtube. However, I think we will find that this will become a legitimate avenue for people to travel to become famous and to promote themselves. Trends such as the viral nature of YouTube videos, the ability for memes to spread rapidly through social networking, and the self-referencing and amplifying attention of the major media are all going to help this process.

Accelerating media has brung about viral marketing, self propagating news cycles, internet memes and allows for the free exchange of information via the internet which allows people to spark each other's interests at a speed which has never been seen. This in turn helps the rise to fame by people such as Justin Bieber.

So be on the look out, as the internet and accelerating media trends are only going to get stronger and are going to begin to fund multibillionaire industries and make musicians millionaires over night!
Reference:http://singularityhub.com/2010/03/16/justin-bieber-and-the-rising-importance-of-accelerating-media/

Privacy and the Social Media realm

The notion of privacy and what people keep private and what should be discussed in an open forum such as the internet and social media has changed dramatically as of recent times. People now discuss the different issues in their lives and share intimate knowledge and situations, whether it is via their facebook statuses or blogs.


Updating facebook and twitter statuses and feeds, or blogging or commenting on message boards is a way for people to express themselves to others and a way to share their lives with others. Often people will choose to hide their true identities via nicknames and alias as a way of staying anonymous to avoid being caught out. The internet can be seen as an escape, a place where people are able to let out their true feelings without having to do it in front of others, or they may just want to talk about themselves and share information they may feel is entertaining. 

Updating statuses on social media sites like facebook or twitter,  and commenting and talking on message boards has now become a way for people to express their true feelings and talk about things that they may not feel comfortable discussing in public or face to face. It's almost as if privacy has shifted and that due to this, blogging or expressing feelings over statuses has become almost more private than talking to people face to face.