Discussion Question

Convergence is the term often used to describe technical devices that evolve and adopt the functionality of other devices. For instance, television adopted recording functions, once owned by the VCR, with the advent of digital video recorders such as TIVO. Computers are now adopting the functionality of television with streaming video broadcasts. Cellular phones with Internet and video capabilities are an example of a convergent device.

As technology continues to converge how will our emotional connection and perceptions of media change? Will this be good thing? How will convergence change business' approach to media? Explain.

Respond to this...I think that we are very reliant on technology and the advances that have been made and there is no way to turn around now. This topic makes me think about when I was a kid. We did not have cable, the phones we attached to the wall, or we walked to the corner store to use the pay phone, and we went to the library and used the Dewey Decimal System to find a book that we needed to write a report. I could not imagine doing that now. I remember walking into a bar a few years ago that still had a pay phone and I about died laughing. I think as time, and technology, continues so will our emotional connection to the things that have made our lives so much easier. When I see the commercials for the new refrigerators that you can make a shopping list from and connect it to the cell phone, I think about how incredible that would be. I do not think that the advances in technology is a bad thing, but I can see how the older (ok, older than me) might have a problem with it. I have many associates that do not trust paying bills on line or setting up auto pay. But I can understand why. You see, when technology and computers were in three early stages of development it was so easy for the computer whizzes to gain access to our personal information and steal from us or assume our identity. I know that the baby boomers are set in their ways, and we cannot change their minds, and the Millennials are far more advanced than us Gen X, but as technology evolves, so do we.

Now when switching to the business aspect of the topic, I will start by saying that the first time I did a physical inventory of the restaurant I was working at, it was much different that the way things are done now. Back then we did weekly inventories and the manager physically counted every item in the restaurant and recorded it on the inventory sheet. Now, when I was 18, we needed to know math, at least the basics. Each week we were sent inventory sheets that we had to fill in our beginning inventory (which was our ending count from the prior week) then add in all deliveries to get a beginning count. But then we needed a unit per measure cost, and once again, it was calculate by hand. So, think about a restaurant and all the items used, an average inventory sheets were at least 20 pages long and all deliveries and unit costs and beginning inventories were figured by hand. It took a lot of time and a lot of math skills.

But now our children need a calculator in the third grade to do math. Kids today cannot do basic math and without computers, companies would lose so much money. I must say that I wished people were taught the basic skills that we learned in my generation, but without technology, I believe that we would be worse off than we are now.