Is Digital Entertainment Overtaking Traditional Toys?

Movies and video games have become so widespread in recent years that they are practically becoming one of the most dominant forms of entertainment. Does this compliment the toy industry, or spell danger for it?

Hasbro, one of the largest and well-known toy companies, announced in a statement that they were to divert funding and focus onto their entertainment division of the company. With other toy-influenced films such as Battleship, Candyland and a G.I. Joe sequel set to be released, Hasbro for one seems intent on establishing an enterprise in digital entertainment, particularly after the success of such Hasbro entertainment films as the Transformers film series.

Though a general shift toward pushing digital entertainment may compliment toys themselves, it may also lead to a decline in purchasing and utilizing real, physical toys, particularly amongst children.

This reminded me of a commercial (the product of which I can’t remember) that I had seen recently in which a little girl uses her toy chest as a chair to sit at the computer and play an online video game. It made me realize that perhaps children had averted much of their creative interest from physical, tangible toys to visual stimulation in the form of movies, television and video games.

When I was a kid, my parents often tried to let me expand my creative horizon of my own accord, rather than confining me to common toys or franchises. When thinking of unique gift ideas, they did their best to balance visual entertainment with fun, creative toys that I could physically engage in. Instead of action figures, they bought me sets of assorted Lego pieces, which allowed me to build my own creations and personalize the toys according to what I enjoyed, rather than pushing mainstream, already assembled toys that didn’t expand personal creativity.

I think that although digital forms of entertainment are fun and should flourish on their own, they shouldn’t take the place of conventional toys that allow children and adults to expand their personalization and creativity. A balance should be struck in which both digital entertainment, and classic toys should be allowed to exist harmoniously, without one taking over the other.  

Siri: Is it a Threat to Search Engines?

The tech and social media world was abuzz with the release of Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) for Apple iOS devices last year. Siri is the app for Apple devices such as iPhones, which allows users to ask a question into the speaker of the device and Siri will interpret and answer the question.

This app has proven to be quite a useful one in the short time since its initial release in August, 2011. Apple and Siri inc. have programmed an unprecedented amount of information into this app and thus molded a personal electronic assistant that borders on super intelligent. This allows a nearly limitless range of questions to be correctly answered on the spot. If there is to be a spawning of an intelligent race of sentient machines as portrayed in Terminator or The Matrix, Siri just may well be its precursor.

Though this has become a reliable means of searching for answers, this growing app may pose a future threat to some of the largest social media search engines out there, such as Google and Bing. The ease and accessibility of merely asking a question into your phone and getting a reliable answer can arguably bode ill for the common search engines if Siri becomes more widespread.

Like Google and other search engines, Siri has the ability to adapt and be programmed with even more answers to questions. It will record questions asked and add them to its database so that it grows and becomes an even larger repository for information, questions and answers.

What may stall the rise of Siri and competition against Google and other search engines may be that Siri has only become available on the newest versions of iPhones and iOS devices. Since the app hasn’t been implemented into the older generations, it may not yet threaten the largest search engine databases.

Only time will tell if Siri will come to rival the largest search engines in years to come.

Call to Arms: Social Media Groups Can Rally People to Action

The growing phenomenon of social media, such as Facebook, has done far more than to merely entertain and connect various people. It can be observed that social media also has a way of enlightening people about controversial current events and inspiring scores of users to jump in and take a side on some of these issues and concerns.

Groups on Facebook and Twitter often serve as places for people who have a common interest to chat with each other about their shared interests. These groups can range anywhere from something mundane and satirical, to a group involving a shared interest in a particular movie or TV show.

However, as groundbreaking and ongoing events arise and circulate through social media, groups have subsequently arisen in response to these events. As a result, thousands or even millions of people will join these groups and pledge their support to different sides of these social issues.

A notable example of how Facebook groups have pulled in support from large numbers of users is with the growing support for the Stop Kony 2012 campaign that launched in March. With the release of the viral film, several Facebook groups spawned as a result, with each of them amassing thousands of new group members and “likes” from people who support the attempts to bring war criminal, Joseph Kony, to justice. 

Many people who were previously unaware of similar phenomena are not only informed and enlightened about them, but also inspired to take action and become involved. Though many people believe that there has been growing apathy when it comes to protesting social issues, these social media groups show that people may not be as apathetic as was first thought.

Social media groups are easy ways for people to get involved in pivotal current events without having to physically risk their physical well-being in actual protests. They have become popular motivators for a generation of people previously believed to be apathetic in social phenomena.

Lost in Translation: Digital Conversations Can Give Wrong Impressions

In this day and age, it is commonplace for us to link to and have conversations with friends and acquaintances through texting and social media on a daily basis. Of course, with our rigorous work schedules and fluxing lives, it can be difficult for people to meet with their friends for face-to-face conversations over coffee and breakfast every day. Social media conversations interspersed throughout the day can often be our only means of conversation with our friends.

But, what potential grudges can stem from these digital conversations?

For me, there have been some scenarios in which I was having casual, harmless conversations over Facebook with some of my friends, but this friendly banter somehow escalated into one step short of a blood-feud seemingly out of nowhere.

In one such instance, I was having a Facebook conversation with a friend of mine who had recently broken up with her boyfriend and wanted to talk to me about it. It started off innocent, with both of us talking casually about our personal lives (since we hadn’t seen each other in a couple months). But, once the conversation led into the breakup itself, things started to downwardly spiral.