The Machine is Us/ing Us

It's funny. When I began watching this video, I thought, this looks familiar. I then realized that I had just watched this same video in my Internet Marketing class.

This thought-provoking video explains the marketing term Web 2.0, a term created by Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media. Web 2.0 explains the emergence of user interactivity with the Web. Some examples of these sites include social-networking and video sharing sites, blogs, wikis, etc. These websites allow users the ability to revise or update information, share ideas, create video mashups, edit photos, and much more.

The video provides a great depiction of how a user can employ these interactive techniques. For example, the creator uses a single word to change the meaning of it by linking it or changing its font, etc. These changes can dramatically change the meaning of the word by creating simple edits.

So is the machine using us, or are we using the machine? I believe there is a little bit of both. We use the machine daily to communicate with others. Because we are now so accustomed to using the machine, the machine is using us mainly to gain revenue. Today marketers know using these Web 2.o sites will most likely reach the demographic they want to target. By enticing users to use these sites, marketers gain more and more eyeballs, which they hope in turn will lead to increased sales of their products.