What is in the future for apps?

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

Today we live in a technology dependent world. In this world, faster is always better. Every technological cycle puts new, smaller, faster and sleeker products into consumer’s hands. In order to keep up with this technological turnover, companies are continuously creating applications that make life easier.

Photo via TeamTreeHouse.com

I’m sure that everyone has heard the saying, “There’s an app for that” because it is probably said about a million times a day. The thing about it is that it is true. Back in October of 2013 Apple announced that there were over 1 million apps on the app store. These apps range from your casual game like Candy Crush Saga, to the $250 Bizjet Mobile app that allows you to connect to an airplanes phone and data link.

                                                   Photo via BizJetMobileEurope.com

One app that has recently been all over my Twitter feed is WhatsApp. None other than Facebook recently purchased WhatsApp, a cross-platform mobile messaging application. While the fact alone that Facebook purchased this application might not come as a huge shock, I am sure the price paid will. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a whopping 19 billion dollars. Yes I said billion with a capital B.

Photo Via Forbes.com

Why did Facebook pay so much? Obviously because they see WhatsApp as a huge moneymaker, and what does Facebook want to do? Make money, lots of money, as we have seen over the past year. The most noticeable and irritating way Facebook is making loads of money is through Facebook ads.

While I am somewhat bothered by the ads, as long as I am not being charged to use Facebook I will more than likely continue to use it. I wonder what their next big acquisition will be.

Has Social Media Gone Too Far?

By James Mendez

University of North Texas

Mayborn School of Journalism

Today, we live in an Internet driven world.  This means that anything, and everything, is only a click away. We are able to order food, buy cars and even meet future partners via the Internet. “The Web”, is the life source of not only many individuals, but a ton of companies as well.  Over the past 2 decades, social media has risen up as one of the most influential Internet medias, but has it gone too far?

Graphic via Mashable.com

Since its humble beginnings in 2006, Twitter has become one of the most prominent social media websites, if not the most prominent. You can almost say that, “everyone is on Twitter”. While I feel like the majority of “twitters” use the social media platform in order to gain up-to-date information about close friends, family and celebrities, Twitter has proven that it is much more than that.

Graphic Via SocailMediaFrontiers.com

Twitter is used for much more than just “social media”. Campaigns have been won, laws have been changed, businesses have grown and hundreds of thousands of customers have been won over due to Twitters versatility. However, with that said, there are countries out there trying to shut this social media mogul down.

Graphic Via Vice.com

The 2013 Super Bowl is one many will not soon forget. While the game was close and very entertaining, many viewers only remember Super Bowl XLVII due to the “blackout” that occurred in the Mercedes-Benz Super Dome in New Orleans.

Photo Via NoToTheQuo.com

While this does seem to be the overall pitfall of the 2013 Super Bowl, Oreo made the best of situation with a very well placed tweet.

Graphic Via NoToTheQuo.com

The quickly thought up advertisement was not only retweeted thousands of times, but the company was hailed as having one of the best Super Bowl campaigns of the year.

The Oreo example shows how amazing Twitter can be. However, as I mentioned earlier there are still countries out there, such as Turkey, who are hoping to shut the services Twitter provides down. While this does come after recent criticisms, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodogan has announced that he hopes to eradicate Twitter ASAP. According to Vice.com, "more than 2.4 million messages were tweeted from the country within three hours of the blackout taking effect."

I hope the prime minister has a lot of social media interns.