The law that I found myself agreeing with the most would have to be Sarnoff's Law. This law states that the value of a network increases linearly with the number of people added onto it. When trying to make sense of this law, I imagined it in terms of a television network that broadcasts college sports games. The games with lesser-known teams playing will have far less viewers than a major college program, so more advertisers will be willing to pay more for those big games. The same can be said about the Internet when looking at social media networks. Obviously businesses will be more excited about posting an advertisement on Facebook than MySpace. This law made the most sense to me and I was able to put it into terms I could understand and communicate. I think this law will continue to hold through even with the quick progression of technology these days, and I am excited to see how it is shaped in the future.
I think the way people will get their information five years from now will be similar to today. It's nice to dream about flying cars and robots, but I think there will be little difference. With that said, I do think the way we will communicate will be somewhat different. I believe text messages and social media will still dominate the market, but the way we use them will be different. With the recent surge of wearable technology like glasses and watches, it is becoming more and more clear this trend will not go away. Instead of texting someone on a iPhone, people will communicate through their wearables. Once this technology can be perfected, I believe it will be the end of cell phones and the start of communicating without hands. Beyond that, I do not see much more change since we will already have everything we need to communicate. After a certain point, people will become content with technology as it is and efforts will be focused more towards other technological areas other than communication. One idea that comes to mind is that the medical and environmental fields that could quickly take over our technological efforts and we could see more breakthroughs there. Especially with the Earth changing the way it is with global warming and the growing need to medically treat a expanding population, communication will take a back seat. Of course all of this is just opinion, but from the evidence I've seen, these are very possible outcomes for our future.
I actually agreed the most with Reed's Law. I felt like Sarnoff's Law was good, but not better than Reed's Law. I understand why you picked this law, because of the advertising aspect. However, I feel like Sarnoff's Law is outdated. It deals with traditional television and radio broadcasting. Reed's Law deals more with the internet and social network affiliates. Which I feel is more current. That is why I believe Reed's Law is the best. Five years from now I feel like people will get their information mostly through digital means.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your prediction of how we will communicate in five years, at least in terms of using wearable technologies. I think that watches and glasses will allow us to communicate more easily and even more often that we already do, which is kind of a scary thought, especially if it integrates more with our bodies through medical advances. However, I think that environmental issues will increase the need for digital communication rather than discourage it, because the internet will be even more important for global communications to solve these issues.
ReplyDeleteI most agree with Sarnoff's law also. I feel that that is not only the law that makes the most sense, but is also the most applicable to networks and technology itself. I also agree with your prediction for the future of technology; however, I am not too excited about it. I do not like the idea of technology being everywhere. There is even discussion of making contact lenses that project a computer screen in your eyes, I feel that is way too much and will probably lead to eye cancer.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your statements about wearable technology being the next trend, I mentioned the Apple and Samsung watches too, and they are going to be almost like guinea pigs for the way different companies try to integrate new things like that into the market. I also like how you mentioned the medical field in relation to information. Many doctor's offices have moved away from a paper patient file and are now using iPads and other tablets to store more information, and quickly add and delete notes without having to write it down or waste storage space in the office with cabinets.
ReplyDelete