“The Long Tail,” “Cloud Computing,” and “Social Media”

 How has “The Long Tail,” “Cloud Computing,” and “Social Media” influenced your life?

I grew up during the “discovery” of The Long Tail. I was entering middle school in 2004, when Chris Anderson published his long tail article on Wired. As a late millennial in a relatively tech savvy household, I was introduced to niche genres from an early age; my parents loved that they could get DVDs in the mail of the shows they grew up with. Then, we had high speed internet before many of our friends because my dad needed it for work, so we got Netflix’s streaming service as soon as it was available.

Now I’m a mom, and streaming services are an integral part of my kids’ lives. It’s how we listen to music and watch shows and movies. They don’t hear their parents listening to talk radio, they hear podcasts. Advertising is different too; they don’t want toys because they see them on commercials, they don’t see commercials, they want toys because their favorite YouTube content creators have them.

Speaking of YouTube; social media is another thing that didn’t exist when I was a kid, at least, not the way it does now. Keeping in touch with friends and family involved phone calls and pictures sent in the mail, maybe email if both parties had it and knew how to use it. Now I post pictures and updates on Facebook or in a chat group in Messenger. Social media has also had a drastic impact on the way many millennials parent their children. Over the past several generations, we have lost the sense of community that allowed groups of people (villages) to raise children together. Millennials, and some late Gen Xers, have found new villages within social media. It’s not the same, not even close, but it makes us feel a lot less alone.

 

Why do I need to know about these things in my field?

              I work in the funeral industry and, at first glance, it doesn’t seem like the long tail would apply here because it is a physical service. But if you dig a little deeper, you can see the effects in a number of ways. First, both the funeral director and the families have a wide variety of options for urns, caskets, keepsakes, and more. In the past, the options were limited to what the funeral director had in stock, and sometimes what fit in a catalog. Now a family can order an urn or keepsake jewelry online, at a significantly lower cost, but there is a risk of the products being a much lower quality. The internet also makes it easier to shop around for a funeral home that fits your needs.

              Cloud computing also has a big impact on the funeral industry. Most funeral home websites you see are hosted by one of two or three major companies. The home I work at uses Consolidated Funeral Services with Tribute Archive. Almost any obituary can be found online at little to no cost to the funeral homes that post them. This is a major change from all obituaries being physically printed in newspapers. Most obituaries in our area are also published in newspapers, but a good number are online only.

              Social media has played an especially large role in this industry since the start of the pandemic. The ability to live-stream funerals and gravesides means that family and friends who can’t attend the services are still given the opportunity to grieve. Live-streaming seems to be sticking around, even when the reasons for missing services are unrelated to COVID-19. People who wouldn’t normally travel to attend a service for an acquaintance are able to attend virtually. Social media can also be used as a strong advertising tool.

 

Why might Karen have chosen to use the cloud for our blogs?

              One reason to use the cloud for blogs is the ability to access them from anywhere. I store all of my work on Google Drive. It prevents me from losing my work if my computer crashes, and it allows me to work from just about anywhere there is internet. I can even access my work on my phone if I need to.

              Another reason could just be to get us used to using more online tools that will help us move forward with school, careers, and other aspects of life.

 

Are there threats for using blogs on the web and how might you mitigate the risks?

              Blogs on the web are never truly private. Almost nothing on the web is truly private; it can all be accessed in one way or another. The information can be stolen from the companies that store it. One way to reduce risk of identity theft, or having someone drain your bank account, is to make sure you never post private information online, unless you are absolutely sure it is a secure location, such as Amazon check-out. It’s also important to use, whenever possible, a credit or debit card that is protected, so even if your money is stolen, you can get it back.

              Internet risks can only be avoided 100% by not using the internet at all. This is an unreasonable expectation in the current day and age. So we need to be smart in our use, monitor all our accounts, and accept the modicum of risk that comes with internet usage.