The New Age of Music Festivals

  Sites such as YouTube have changed the way producers view music.  It is a force that cannot be ignored by talent agencies, book publishers, and TV networks who are hurrying to capitalize on the movement.  It is about "bringing the internet to life" -Rojas- DigiTour Media.  Teens have begun to focus a large amount of their time on finding artists on sites such as YouTube, Instagram, and Vine instead of looking for professionally produced music.  These fans want to see their internet idols in RL and as a result have prompted a series of music festivals that cater to this desire.  An explanation of how this works is in the article Performing Without Net: Stars of YouTube Take to the Stage.
  I think that this is an excellent way to accommodate for those people who have built up a real followings on these sites.  This allows for a larger group of people to do what they love and receive recognition for it.  The music business is hard to make it big in, but if some can build a following on their own and get to play for those fans, I think it's great.  It is nice that people are paying attention to the shifts in culture that these sharing sites foster.

Life is always picture perfect.

On Instagram that is...

Instagram has been famous since its culmination in 2010 for the ability to glam any photo with a flaw hiding, perfecting filter.  With this simple tool the world has been subject to what is known as "Instagram Envy" which is the result of everyone's lives appearing so perfect on the site.  Now Instagram has taken the perfecting a step further by adding a variety of photo editing tools.  These are designed with care and consideration to be easy to use and effective. The new tools will allow for subtle adjustments such as brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights among others, read more about the tools in the article- Instagram Goes Beyond Its Gauzy Filters.  

Now this seems like it is making a lot more work for users of Instagram...however a large amount of users have been requesting more editing options.  According to developers, Instagram is considered a type of stage for most people thus the services must put their best foot forward in order to give consumers what they want.  "In other words, if my feed makes my life look amazing, that's because it is"  -Manjoo.  People want their photos to reflect what they actually see.  Often times we see an amazing scene, snap a photo of it, and it isn't the same when we look at it.  With these photo edits it makes greatness possible.

Stay Safe on Public Wi-Fi Networks

Keeping Safe on Public Wi-Fi

With all of the new mobile devices and strict data limits more and more people are relying on free Wi-Fi in public places.  However, what most people don't think about is the risk that is involved.  It is not well advertised that these Wi-Fi networks may allow for hackers to easily pray on shared information while connected.  So the next time you decide to hit the coffee shop for some work make sure to take precautions.  The New York Times article How Not to Pray the Price for Free Wi-Fi provides some helpful tips for staying safe while navigating these free networks.  

These tips include:

1. Make sure the sites that you visit have "https" in front of the URL.  This means that the page is encrypted and that other people on the network cannot see what you are doing on your device.  

2. Use a virtual private network (VPN).  This will encrypt all of your online traffic.

3. Sign-up for two step verification.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and others have begun to offer this option.  This is when a site will often ask for a password as well as a specific code that was sent only to you.  The problem with this can be if you use the same password for multiple sites, hackers could figure this out and thus access other accounts that aren't set up with this two-step verification process.

4. Bring only what you need and turn off what you are not using.  This means to not have all of your sites up and running while on public networks.

In addition to these four tips it is also important to worry about the safety of your actual devices in public.  Do not underestimate the ability of someone to snatch your device and take off with it.  So remember to keep your online traffic safe as well as your device in your sight at all times.