Media Convergence Essay

What is meant by the term media convergence with regard to technology, and how has it affected everyday life? For technology, media convergence is when different media come together to do a similar task. The poster child for this is the smart phone. Smart phones are used to talk, text, email, social network, school, business, web browsing, and take picture and video. There are things that I’m sure I missed, but the smart phone has become the epicenter of technological convergence. I spend a lot of my time on my phone posting and promoting for my business. I make jewelry, cat pads, and blankets so I make my items, take a picture, post it to my Etsy page, and promote my store with my phone. When I get an order, I get an email to my phone I contact the buyer for details, and take payments all with my phone. With going to school, I need to check up on the forums to read and respond per class requirements. It makes it easy to do my schoolwork when I’m not home at my laptop. I can pull up the reading for the class on my document reader on my phone and catch up while I’m out and about. I have a six month old and I love taking his picture! I take his picture and post it on Facebook, Instagram, and send it to my family. My family lives in another state so I use my phone to do FaceTime with them so we can see each other all the time. The smartphone has made productivity so much easier because it’s all in one place and instant gratification is satisfied. For some people, the smartphone has become a big distraction and a burden. I think that cell phones, in general, have done damage to people’s grammar and spelling. They use shorthand and abbreviations for words and have forgotten the rule of your and you’re because they are using the shorthand ur. It’s sad.