Stream of Consciousness

As this course comes to close and graduation approaches I look back on the four years with satisfaction. I luckily spent all four years at North Central College and was able to build up a close friendship with many peers and professors along the way.

It is strange to think that the end is quickly approaching (thank goodness because I have been diagnosed with senioritus since the first day, fall term). It is extremely excising to think that within just a few weeks I will be entering the ‘real world’ with a full time job, a bachelor’s degree and aspirations waiting to make progress on. If you couldn’t tell already – I have no fear going into the ‘real world’.

I feel like I have learned so much within these last three terms at NCC. Personally and academically. Being that I have been working in a full time position in the graphic design field (the same field my degree is in) I have been fortunate enough to have a new viewpoint on the classes I take. I have begun to grasp what is important to learn and what I might not need to know after walking across the stage. Don’t take this the wrong way – I truly appreciate learning the less important things because it makes me a more educated person – a blessing robed from many. What I am trying to get at is that I have gained a sense of clarity for my life.

I highly doubt that this makes me as enlightened as a Tibetan monk but I do have to admit that it makes me feel like one every once in a while.

If this is the only thing I have grown to develop for myself after these four years then I consider my time here very accomplished. I think everything we experience in life teaches us something about ourselves and I thank NCC for teaching me the idea of clarity. I may not have my next five years planned out but that is okay. I know what I want at the beginning of everyday and I strive for it. And, that is all we have to do – just work to improve who we are and grow to be a valuable person in our communities.

I sign off on my last blog post here a very eager college senior. Where I may find myself a year from now – who knows – but I know that with the past four years in my book, I will grow to become an ambitious young adult … with student loans.

Slack

Throughout the course we have been discussing various social media outlets. In previous blog posts I have motioned how I am a frequent user of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. These platforms have buildt up reputations over the years as they continue to grow and evolve; however using these platforms while at work has been considered taboo. More traditional businesses normally frown down on their employees using social media while working, however there are many business that are starting to thrive on social media.

When I was taking this into consideration with my job, I reflected on how I fall under the category of the traditional business atmosphere. Funny enough though, the people I work – a team of 10 individuals – all fall under 40 years of age and all of us are very familiar with social media outlets. We tried to find a professional platform that we would all easily be able to communicate, share files and connect all on one application. Being that three of us, myself included, work in the Chicago land region and the other work out of Battle Creek, MI we needed to find a platform where we could all easily communicate at the convenience of our phones.

This is when we found Slack.

Slack was just the program we were looking for. It is accessible on all devices, it is able to connect all 10 of us on one platform and it is a professional app that was used across various fortune 500 companies – so it was definitely viewed as a professional.

Slack works like your basic messaging app, however you are able to make specific groups to talk privately between a few other teammates, you are able to ‘@’ people directly to address who you are talking to, and you can easily make calls and video chats will other teammates right from the convenience of the app.

Not only that but we are able to share files quickly to one another – even the occasional meme or gif makes it way into our newsfeed. It is the perfect mix of social media capabilities as well as a professional platform for us to connect on.

If you find yourself looking for a similar app for your work, I strongly suggest checking out Slack. Take a glance at all Slack has to offer here!

Taking a Look at Tidal

As mentioned in a previous blog, Tidal is a new music-streaming platform introduced by artist Jay-Z. Tidal’s capabilities consist of high quality music, music videos, artist profile and promotions of upcoming artists. I became very curios of the platforms when I heard that its launch was not well-received and resulted in negative feedback. So, I began my research.

At a face level, what are some of the Pros:

+ Great Sound Quality

+ HD Videos

+ Available on all Operating Systems

and the Cons:

- HI FI Membership Costs $19.99 Per Month

- Music Library Gaps

- Competition with Spotify

As I continued my browsing of article about user reviews and feedback, I began to pull the conclusion that Tidal is the perfect platform for those who value high quality sound and video. The suburb quality of the music files that Tidal offers is a gold mine for the user who really values quality audio. This high quality music and video is only accessible through a Tidal Hi Fi membership, which will put you back nearly $20 every month.

This is really where Tidal stands out from the competition. However, this is what caused the extreme back lash when Tidal was first launched. Since then, the standard Tidal membership, $9.99 a month, has been added to Tidal’s platform. This matches the membership price for Tidal’s main competitor, Spotify. What is different about Tidal’s two memberships is that the standard membership reduces the sound and video quality to standard 320kbps bitrate. This is the exact same quality that Spotify offers their music at which then makes the playing field pretty even between the two.

During my research I came across this Buzzfeed article that collected a series of tweets from Jay-Z shortly after the rough Tidal launch. His tweets explain how Tidal continues to develop and that many groundbreaking programs didn’t experience over night success. Read Jay’s tweets here.

Overall, I’m not yet sold on getting either a Spotify or Tidal account. I personally like to buy full albums on the occasion on iTunes or just listen to music off of Pandora or YouTube. I  am really interested to see how Tidal tries to come back from the rough start and to how it plans to develop and differentiate itself from other music streaming services.

The New Music Industry

Very few industries have as rich of a timeline than the music industry. Everything from radio, vinyl records, live performances to cassettes, compact discs and digital platforms, the music industry has been an ever growing entity through history.

Being a 90s child, cassettes were just starting to go out of style as the new compact disc was beginning to be the new wave of technology. I remember how I would always have my CD player on me with my CD album holder that could hold up to 20 CDs. Crazy, right?! Back in these days I’m sure it was much easier for artists to get their share of income as everyone was buying CDs left and right. Although CDs, cassettes and vinyls are still around, it appears that many artists feel short handed with the music sharing capabilities of the Internet.

With platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud and the new Tidal, users can pay a monthly fee to have complete access to a vast array of music. Platforms like YouTube can do the same but for no cost at all. It is too familiar that people can easily pull the audio from a free YouTube music video and upload it to his or her’s iTunes with no expenses. This is where many artist are becoming frustrated with.

Tidal, a music-sharing platform created by Jay Z, is in attempt to stop this. Various artists have joined up with Jay Z in his attempt to create a Spotify like music platform that offers high quality music and videos for users to enjoy. Users pay a monthly price, which will eventually make its way to the artists who are participating in Tidal. What may seem like the perfect solution has unfortunately fallen short. With an incredible amount of negative review and backlash, Tidal has turned into a mere ripple.

I do not have a Spotify account nor do I ever plan on getting a Tidal account. As one of my previous blogs mentions, I mainly listen to my music off of YouTube, and occasionally buy an album off of iTunes. I completely understand why musical artists are becoming concerned with what they perceive as low income, and I’m not sure how this problem can be solved.

Social Media and Politics

I’ve never been one to be too interested in politics. I’ve never been good at keeping up with “who’s running for what” or “what chairman has been accused of something” – it’s just never been my cup of tea.

That doesn’t mean that I’m completely clueless as to what is going on in our world, I am very fascinated by current events, however, when things get too political I find myself just skimming through to the next article.

For a few years now I have slowly watched political events make their way into the social media platforms I am on. I distinctly remember the last presidential election when everyone who voted would quickly post and “I VOTED” pin as their main status. This is when I realized that politics has made its way right onto our screens.

With the new presidential election coming up, I am slowly beginning to see a distinct rise in political posts and articles that are finding their way onto my newsfeed. One presidential candidate, Hilary Clinton, has even focused a decent amount of her campaign to social media promotion. Most notably when she created her own YouTube Account. From this she launched her announcement video, that received a wide spread of positive and negative feedback:

I feel that many political figures have created twitter accounts and various other social media accounts mainly to try and reach the younger generation of Americans. Personally I believe, when used effectively, reaching out on social media can be a great advantage to communicating to, but not limited to, the younger generation. This can be a great way to keep your followers informed of what your political goals are.

The next couple of months will be pretty interesting I’m sure as the presidential race takes over the trending movements. ­