Introduction to NDM: reading and blog task

Article summaries
The first article was focused on the idea how both school life and home life for students are completely different. This was also done and shown through a series of research and studying by paying close attention to how students use media and technology. This was then used to see how the students interacted in school, with their class mates and at home. The article also aims to show some faults in the the school system as schools are interested more in teaching about popular culture rather than important cultural or social issues and the effects of the media. This is a very crucial aspect to teaching and essentially affects students in many different ways, both positive and negative.

The second article is about the live video streaming app called Periscope and discusses it's advantages as well as it's disadvantages.The article begins by explaining what the app actually is and it's features. The article then talks about one of the main aspects of the app that would be considered controversial. Firstly, the article talks about how the app creates various issues for privacy of the people streaming as the viewers are able to instantly find out personal information of the streamers in real time which could be problematic. Also, it creates an issue for piracy as many streamers would begin to stream things such as films, TV shows or music gigs live to their viewers who would be able to watch everything for free. Finally, the article ends with the potential of the app and how it can be used for various good things such as in a lesson a student who is sick could watch the class in real time from home.

A2 A* Exam essay
I personally think that the A2 A* exam essay is very successful due to the fact that it creates a very fluent debate consistently throughout the essay by both the pros and cons for the topic but most importantly talking about their own opinions or perspective which are then backed by theories. This effectively creates an argumentative and evaluative tone for the entire of the essay which easily help it to get the top marks.

How has digital media changed your life in the last 5 years?
It's very clear that in the space of half a decade, technology and digital media has advanced very rapidly to the extent that social networking sites and platforms have risen and fallen. Five years ago, I would probably have been wasting my time chatting online with my friends over MSN or getting super excited at the thought of someone actually bothering to send me an email. However, what was clear was that at the time the best way to communicate was with the peers that you knew in real life and by sharing your personal email address in order to do so. Through the rapid succession of digital media, it is a lot more easier to make new friends all over the world due to an increase in inter connectivity across the globe. Of course this does come with its disadvantages, such as catfishing or grooming or most commonly cyberbullying. This does mean however that a lot of people are more educated in the perspectives of other people which help young people to create opinions and essentially become more educated within themselves. 

I also think that the rapid succession of digital media has had a huge impact on the way media is consumed on a daily basis amongst young people. New apps are constantly being made every day and these are all coming up with new and creative ways to get the youth hooked into their own app. Who would have thought in 2011 that in just 5 years, teenagers will communicate mostly through 140 characters or less and most importantly through pictures such as snaps or emojis. This essentially could be argued that the youth has evidently become less and less intelligent but it can also be argued that this has made socialising a lot more fast paced which would explain why it has left many adults unable to keep up and confused at the sight of a microwave. Media such as films or TV shows are also consumed differently and a lot more through the use of on demand services such as Netflix which give the users a lot more control and power over what to watch and when to watch it.

Due to these rapid changes not many people know what the future of digital media actually looks like. Five years ago I was procrastinating and wasting time on social media, five years have passed and I still am. One thing I can be certain about is that five years from now I'll still be procrastinating and wasting my time.