Today plenty of people are relying more on their applications rather than on their actual phones. According to “Wired The Rise of Chat Rooms”  in less than two years apps simple messaging services like Whatsapp, Snapchat, Kik, Line, Kakao Talk, and WeChat have grown up from nothing to become social lifelines for millions of users. The thing with these apps that makes them so successful is that they are benefiting their owners by saving them money on text messaging fees. “The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live The App” said that plenty of people are living in their smartphone applications as in they are relying much more on the applications rather than their own browser. Although one will believe that using the application is easier and faster one thing to keep in mind is mobile web promotes access for everyone to everyone, the app model hands the gatekeepers the power of access and discovery, leaving the service providers beholden to their policies, their platform tools, and their rules, which can change with little notice. We have new things for currency such as apple pay or having our physical bank cards connected to our smartphones but in the future Bitcoin will be more frequently used. According to “The Fierce of Bitcoin”  what  makes bitcoin attractive also made it bewildering for non-coders. Using it required balky and hard-to-use software called a wallet. Bitcoins is also a challenge to obtain—mostly you had to purchase them from middlemen who operated in the regulatory shadows and who sometimes turned out to be crooks. Bitcoin is now being used for  to buy or sell items from people and companies across the world.

Apps have changed the way we view money as, since now we can put money in a bitcoin now. Because of this,     apps have changed the digital delivery marketplace. Money can spread faster now. In the text, ” The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin,” by Robert Mcmillan, it says,” Once the domain of hackers, libertarian activists, and drug dealers, bitcoin has been adopted by a growing number of mainstream businesses. You can use it to buy a mattress on Overstock.com or a laptop from electronics seller TigerDirect; Zynga will soon begin accepting it for in-game payments. Last year more than $100 million in bitcoin transactions was processed and the value of bitcoins shot up from $13 to $1,200, despite the fact that regulators in China were cracking down. Even when one of the world’s best-known bitcoin businesses, a Japanese exchange called Mt. Gox, closed after being hacked—customers lost currency worth hundreds of millions of dollars—new exchanges launched, the value climbed back up, and the mainstreaming of bitcoin rolled on. Regulators are taking a hard look at the bitcoin economy, but investors and entrepreneurs keep coming.” Also, bitcoins were created by a global network of computers and protected by the cold rationality of mathematics and the laws of supply and demand. Because of apps, transactions are faster and more people are using it.  Despite a lot of people using bitcoin, I still think that bitcoin will messed up and alot of people will lose their money because. Not alot of people knew what was bitcoin 7 years ago and their is always one person away from making a better app that will put competition on bitcoin. Digital currency in the future will still be relevant, it will be used as actual money though. Because people fear that one day these type of apps will get hacked or shut down, that’s why it wouldn’t be the actual currency. Despite their flaws, bitcoin helps. It is international so anybody can be on it. Since other countries have different currency, and they are worth a different amount then other countries, peope don’t have to trade their money to get different money.

Everyone is always walking around with the noses buried in their phones, it used to be books but there’s an app for that. Internet is a relatively new invention, and browsing the web has become a thing of the past because now most people would rather download an app belonging to a specific website than just go on their website. Ewan Spence, author of “The Mobile Browser is Dead, Long Live the App”, states that “users are turning away from the browser and relying on applications” and “users are living in their smartphone’s applications” implying that the web browser is just an unused app  on most people’s smartphones. One doesn’t have to go on a fashion website to buy a piece of clothing they like, they can just go to their devices app store and download the app to make searching even easier. No need to worry about a page refreshing, because the app will store all of your information and have it saved for next time you go on it. Even now, money isn’t what it used to be. Bitcoin has become extremely popular in the recent years and has reinvented the idea of money and how we, as a society, use it today. Robert McMillan, author of “The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin” discusses the history of bitcoin and why it became popular to begin with- but then he talks about why it crumbled. Bitcoins were created to be a better alternative to traditional banking systems but it didn’t work out because, well, who can actually beat the banks? Apps are truly changing be way the marketplace runs now, and we can thank technological advancements for this.

I bought a phone with 256 gigabytes of storage so that I would have enough space to download any app I want. There are games, fitness apps, social media apps, banking apps, weather apps, and anything you can possibly think of is an app or is being made into an app. If it were not for apps, most people would not spend a lot of time on their phones. You could argue that people still use text messages but even for that many people rely on apps to contact their friends or strangers. According to the article, The Mobile Browser is Dead, Long Live the App, by Ewan Spence, “If you follow the principle that you need to be where users are, then you need to be building and distributing apps, which leaves you no choice but to accept that Google and Apple will always be the third party in any relationship with your customers.” He is referring to the business side of apps. He argues that if you break down the time people spend on their phone’s, they are essentially only using apps. So, if you are trying to reach a certain demographic with a product, apps might be your answer. I confess, I download apps if I see certain advertisements for it but might never use it. I think seeing your phone filled with apps somehow creates a sense of being busy, prepared, or a feeling of enjoyment because you have a lot of apps to choose from. This is great for businesses looking to create apps.

Apart from apps, digital currency has been gaining momentum. Perhaps you have seen the word Bitcoin in newspapers or have heard you friends talking about it. Bitcoin is a form of digital currency (electronic cash) that was released in 2009 . According to the article, The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin by Robert McMillan, “The digital currency may have begun as an experiment for techno-libertarians and geeks, but today it’s growing into something much bigger.” You can go online and buy mattresses or laptops with bitcoin. Perhaps in a decade, bitcoin will be a regular form of payment (if regulation does not kill it first). This means you will be shopping online and could pay with bitcoin. It is still confusing to many people, including myself, so in order for it to become popular and considered a normal way to pay for things, more people need to talk about it. Regulation is still a threat, as governments are cracking down on it and deem it unsecure and as a possible threat to the economy. I believe it can become a normal form of paying for things but I think it is still in its baby stage, so it needs more time to grow. Just as no one thought social media would work and now it is everywhere, bitcoin could be the next big thing.

In “The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live The App”, Forbes it shows how in today’s society many people are stepping away from the mobile browser and heading towards apps. “Looking at breakdown of that time, users are living in their smartphone’s applications. That gaming requires apps is a given, but almost every other area provides the user with a choice – go for an app to access the data or go to the web.” this shows how smartphones have taken over how people get their information, there’s an app for almost everything. It has shifted what we thought from the beginning on what technology has advanced us to do. An example of applications being the go to for many today, according to “The Rise of Chat Apps”, Wired, it mentions the start of the kik app. The app gained most attention from high school and college kids because it offered something other applications don’t, the chance to be secretive. “Kids don’t want to be on a network where there parents can so easily monitor their communications.” apps live these gain the attention of many because of this attractive feature. When it comes to digital currency we see how it has been used. In “The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin” by Wired it speaks about how bitcoin worked, its separation from bank accounts its user had more freedom to do whatever they wanted. “Like the Internet, software developers were free to build things on top of it that they never could with MasterCard or Visa, which carefully control access to their networks.” According to “How Bitcoin Ends”, Douglas Rushkoff, it mentions how Bitcoin’s strategy came to its end. ”Likewise, bitcoin was intended to break the monopoly of the banking system over central currency and credit. But, in the end, it will turn into just another platform for the big banks to do the same old extraction they always have.” this basically speaks about how bitcoin had a plan all along that they believed was going to be successful but instead it was a flop because it’s almost impossible to become bigger than the banking system.

Melanie Beltran

MCS 244

March 23, 2019

Apps have changed the marketplace because transactions have been made through apps and have been monitored from created apps. Browsers have become useless and inconvenient to users which is why the usage of them has decreased. In the article, “The Mobile Browser Is Dead, Long Live The App,” many users go on their phones and indulge in their applications. People connect through various applications in order to speak to one another and meet new people. A small percentage of people use the browser and a large amount use apps. “One of the goals of Firefox OS is to give developers a simple and cost-effective toolset that is readily available, without the need for app store support or complicated SDK’s.” However, the fear is that people will not find this development appealing enough to use. Even though it’s cheap, people do gravitate to apps as oppose to browsers. With the use of applications, browsers have become nonexistent. In the article, “The Rise of Chat Apps,” mobile messaging apps like Whatsapp, Facebook and others have become a main source of communication. Facebook was the main source of communication for college students and then Whatsapp became a competitor. Although both apps are free, there is “…unlimited messaging, and it works on just about every kind of phone you can throw at it…” You can contact people overseas with just the use of your number. Facebook messenger app, you would need to have created an account to use messenger. Facebook would face possible users due to the communication feature. All of these apps were created to do the same thing which is to communicate with each other but just have different features. Essentially, it’s finding cheaper ways to communicate, make purchases even with bitcoin. “The whole point of bitcoin was that it put the person with the bitcoins in control.” Giving companies access to ones bitcoins is like treating the company like a bank. Having someone monitor your money or coins when it’s for your eyes to see. It’s a conversion of currency. One can access their bitcoins with the developed app for it, monitoring their gains of coins. In the article,“The Fierce Battle for the Soul of Bitcoin,” it states, “As less-technically-savvy users flood into the bitcoin marketplace, that fee can seem like a bargain. Simplicity, consistency, legality, and reliability are worth money.” Because so many people have indulged in Bitcoin, many want to profit. Companies are fighting to profit from Bitcoin, the removal of government involvement sparks interest. In the article,“How Bitcoin Ends, Douglas Ruskoff,” states that “Bitcoin is money and maintained by nerds.” The people running Bitcoin are smart. Essentially, it’s a game of how to make money multiply and build. There are many kinds of currencies that exists, euros, pesos, dollars, coins. “…bitcoin is meant to provide an anonymous, decentralized, frictionless, and incorruptible form of transaction–an alternative to the extractive, central, bank-issued currencies now enjoying a virtual monopoly in our economies. Cryptocurrencies aren’t just about increasing efficiency, but taking down an economic elite that has been using its control over currency to maintain its wealth and power. The nerds in charge have power and control in this virtual economy. In the article, “Blockchain Will Disrupt Every Industry,” transactions are made digitally in today’s day and age. Blockchain believes that “…the answer isn’t in the technology, but in how the technology can improve inefficient business processes. The processes that we use to ship goods globally, buy and sell things, determine ownership of things or identify ourselves are typically slow, error-prone, paper-based and heavily people-dependent.” Because blockchain is globalized and technology helps reach to many different businesses that can use this for trade. Apps are helpful when tracking money and making purchases. Bitcoin is a new form of currency that will end because of the digital and technological aspects of our society.

The media industry has made its spread throughout all parts of the world. With this, the connection to different people around the world has never been easier. This form of human interaction through media communication has caused a great amount of advancement in the media world. As stated by Elizabeth Thoman and Tessa Jolls, “Media Literacy: A National Priority for a Changing World” it mentions that past meaning of media literacy. “At first media literacy was seen as teaching children about media — how advertising works or how to analyze the nightly news telecast.” but today its seen as a field that “has matured to a greater understanding of its potential, not just as a new kind of “literacy” but more, as the engine for transforming the very nature of learning in a global multimedia environment.” this change has occurred due to the fact that in todays century, the younger generation will grow up in a life where everything revolves around technology. It also speaks about how information its brought to our attention from things such as images and sound. With this we can connect with many people from all around the world. As mentioned by Henry Jenkins, “Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape” it speaks about the new traits that come with media. The list focuses on how to project ideas and how to fit in to the new technological world. This 2006 article is important because it gave its readers at the time a run down of what to expect with this new wave of technology. In the BBC article, “Does globalization mean we will become one culture?” it speaks about the similarities all parts of the world have and how media brings them all together. As mentioned in the article, Starbucks, Facebook, Coca-Cola all have the same products and feeling in different countries. Because of it, “It is easy to see this homogenization in terms of loss of diversity, identity or the westernization of society.” Overall, globalization has taken over to the point where different countries still connect in the same single way.