A Royal Wedding in the Digital Era

As Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot, there is, of course, a lot of excitement going around (on both sides of the pond). For one, they've started a website containing all sorts of information about the blessed event.

What struck me as slightly odd about the website was the fact that you can get Twitter updates about the wedding!! Seriously?

I completely understand the need for the royal family to maintain a website for the wedding in an effort to connect with the public. But a twitter account?

As the planning for this even unfolds it will be interesting to see the role of social media (and digital media in general) plays. Technically speaking, Prince William and Kate are not the first of the British Royals to be assisted by media--consider the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla.

Still, it should be an interesting show as they try to use the media to their advantage in publicizing this joyous event!

Cheers!

Youtube and iTunes

I often listen to music on Youtube--it's free and easy to find.

Recently, I noticed that at the bottom of the video, Youtube is starting to provide a link to iTunes and Amazon.com so that the viewers can find an MP3 of the song to purchase.

Is this an effort to combat the copyright problems?

At least it is helpful to Youtube users not having to search for the songs on their own.

Thoughts?

Helen Keller?

I was browsing Freakonomics, and I came across this article about Helen Keller. Apparently schools don't think it is necessary to teach about Helen Keller anymore.

What?!?

Granted, as the article points out, she was a socialist...but that doesn't seem to stop schools from teaching about other socialists.

Whatever her opinion and philosophy, I still think it is important for children to study her. After all, she was both blind and deaf, and overcame many obstacles to acquire a degree and become a speaker and author. The story of Helen Keller teaches kids about perseverance through overwhelming obstacles. I'm not quite sure what "earth day" teaches them, other than to recycle...which they already know about...

The Fate of the Music Industry

As this article at Freakonomics points out, the music industry is struggling in the face of the digital era. File sharing is rampant, and record companies are losing money to illegal downloading.

But aside from all the illegal stuff, Freadonomics brings up an interesting point about albums vs singles. How many people, when they buy a cd, absolutely love every song? I know that even on the cds that I enjoy the most, there is always at least one song that I feel compelled to skip.

Somehow, the music industry doesn't seem to understand the importance of making more singles available so that their customers are not forced to purchase whole albums, half of which they don't want. We discussed in class about the "long tail," in which people are perhaps more willing to spend money on singles than whole albums--and consequently spend more money in the long run.

As a musician, I totally understand that every song a band produces is not necessarily good--and everyone eventually makes a flop. By producing singles, a band doesn't have to release all its bad songs (as it might with an album) and instead can spend its energy on the good stuff.

While the "delivery technology" of the music industry will continue to change, I don't think that the music industry will die out. After all, people are still buying musical instruments (like the harp...which isn't cheap!)

Where Star Wars music really comes from...

Spanish Nun banished for using Facebook?!?!

According to this article (which I found because of the amazing American Papist!), Sister Maria Jesus Galen of Toledo, Spain was banished from her convent.

Why? According to the article, her sisters said it was because her facebook activity had "made life impossible." Apparently Sister Maria was a whiz at computers, digitizing the convent's archives, online banking, etc, and was even awarded a prize by the local government for her prowess in cyberspace.

However, the trouble came when she had gathered too many facebook friends, and she was ousted from the community.

The article states that the nun had over 600 friends--granted, that isn't an extraordinary number by today's standards, but let me explain.

-First of all, nuns are cloistered, meaning that they have little to no contact with the outside world--in fact, they SOLEMNLY VOW to adhere to the standards of their order--which includes giving up worldly possessions, and frequent contact with family and friends.

-With that in mind, in my opinion, there is no reason a cloistered nun should be using facebook.

American Papist Thomas Peters points out that there is probably more to this story than is mentioned in the article--and I agree with him that this punishment seems a bit harsh, considering the facts that we know. However, I also believe that cloistered nuns shouldn't have a facebook page. It's like an alcoholic-turned-teetotaler owning a liquor store...not good.

Cheers!

A little more respect for Justin Bieber

While I don't like the craze and mania that Justin Bieber is causing, I was slightly encouraged when I read this article.

In the article (which quotes an interview), Justin Bieber gives his views on hot issues:

1) abortion kills a baby. Wow. I think this 16-year-old has more guts and sense on this issue than most politicians! The article points out that the upcoming generation is becoming more and more pro-life. Because of technological advances, ultrasound images, etc, it is becoming harder and harder for the youth of today to believe the lies the abortion industry tells them--that an unborn baby isn't a baby (when an ultrasound clearly shows that the "little one" is alive, beautiful and human).

Before this post turns into a debate, let me be clear about one thing: I am against abortion because it ends the life of a beautiful, innocence, precious human being--abortion not only ends the life of the baby, but does so in the most cruel and violent manner imaginable. Abortion is directly prejudiced against the unborn (simply because they exist), the disabled, the poor, minority groups, and all women (pregnant women, and unborn women in countries like China where gendercide is horribly affecting the gender proportion).

Back to Justin Bieber.

2) waiting for sex. While he doesn't seem to advocate waiting until marriage to have sex, it is encouraging that Justin Bieber believes that sex is special, and should not be wasted on every single person that crosses your path.

For a very long while, I was under the impression that purity, beauty and sense were lost in modern culture--perhaps these revelations by Justin Bieber prove that the youth of today are learning to think outside their own selfish desires and think about the real consequences of their actions.

Hopefully Justin Bieber's words will have an impact on the youth of today, and encourage them to make wise decisions.

Cheers!