The Power of Businesses over Consumers (Johnson Liang)
Apple Inc. has been around since 1976. In today’s business world, it’s one of the most powerful and influential companies. A majority of the student population in Baruch College either have an iPhone or a MacBook for their class and personal necessities. The technological recognition it has over our generation is tremendous. Consumers such as students are always looking forward to the next generation iPhone or MacBook product and this has been ingrained into the consumers of Apple over a period of years through effective marketing. Everyone recognizes the simple apple logo for efficiency and knowledge, but it took many years to drive this brand to represent what it is today. When I walk into my lecture class, I can see that a majority of the laptop users are using a Macbook. I am certain Apple will continue to appeal to the public consumers in the future. My definition of “power play” is the control that businesses have over its consumers which is evident in this photo. Super powers of our business world dominate the market through competition and marketing to its consumers. This is my perspective of technological “power play.”
Influence of Technology (Gunin Agarwal)
In today’s modern world everything is influenced by technology, including education. This picture depicts a typical college classroom in the current society. Technology has revolutionized education for students. Instead of handwritten notes, which helps one memorize, students choose to type or take pictures with their phones. Having laptops in class creates a big issue: is the student focused? There is no possible way to ensure all students focus in the classroom environment, but having the internet at their disposal makes it even easier for students to get distracted. Today teens are often addicted to social media and laptops provide a medium to access these such as facebook, twitter, or instagram. That is the negative influence brought by technology, but there are also advantages. We are able to follow along with the professor’s lecture and search anything we need to.
Power of Students over Professor (Ariana Lee)
In general, education is known to be the process of learning and receiving “systematic instructions,” usually by a professor or mentor. Professors set their own standards and rules for the class in exchange for giving students the necessary knowledge and experience to graduate. However, enormous lecture halls like the one in the photograph can reject the system of professors having the authoritative power in the room. It isn’t possible for a professor to manage 100-400 students in one area. The professor will only be able to focus his attention on a select few, approximately 20-50 students while the rest will be preoccupied in their individual activities during class. Nowadays many students bring their electronics into class and are often distracted by it, causing them to neglect their professors. What this photo proves is that professors have no control over what the students do on their electronics and this nullifies society’s perspective that professors have the top authority in a classroom setting.
I enjoyed reading these series of paragraphs because of the relevancy to our audience. I agree with the fact that it is harder for students of our generation to focus in our classes when electronic devices are easily within range. However, I believe that the tendency of the student to pay attention in a class is solely dependent on that student’s work ethic and may not at all be based on their use of electronic devices, but they definitely do correlate with each other. I liked the part that touched on not being able to reach an entire audience of 100-400 students, classes that we may see very often within Baruch, but it does raise the question of how many students are actually being attentive, which was nicely spoken about in the paragraph. This picture, in my opinion, has a significant impact on today’s society, and is an eye-opener to everyone, especially students of our age, who may not see the negative side effects of technology.
-Arraf Ahmed
You all bring up really interesting points that helped opened my eyes to an issue that I never even thought about. It’s actually amazing to see the amount of laptops, more specifically Apple laptops in an average lecture hall. I myself use a Macbook for school and never even considered how much power a company like Apple has over an entire demographic of high school and college aged students alone. When we think about power, often governments and world leaders come to mind, but it’s easy to forget just how powerful businesses and corporations can be and how their decisions can affect our lives economically and beyond.
You all bring up really interesting points that helped opened my eyes to an issue that I never even thought about. It’s actually amazing to see the amount of laptops, more specifically Apple laptops in an average lecture hall. I myself use a Macbook for school and never even considered how much power a company like Apple has over an entire demographic of high school and college aged students alone. When we think about power, often governments and world leaders come to mind, but it’s easy to forget just how powerful businesses and corporations can be and how their decisions can affect our lives economically.
Matthew Epstein
These are all very interesting points. Each part brings a different perspective of the photo. For the power of business, Apple certainly holds a lot of influence in today’s society. As we can see in the photo, the majority of the laptop used by college students are MacBook. I also agree that the technology has been a big part of education. Nowadays, we barely write essays on a piece of paper. We use electronic devices to type up essays and do varies web assignments. Technology definitely helps us in terms of efficiency and convenience but it also has its cons. I agree that using electronic devices during the lecture will distract students’ attention from the professor. I believe while technology influences people in many ways, we have the power to choose whether to use it as an aid or let it have control over us.
This was definitely a great read! You each have brought up every thought provoking ideas that I haven’t thought of before. Actually, I’ve always wondered how much power Apple has over society considering almost every household possesses at least one Apple product. However, I didn’t piece this together with school. Whenever I heard about the power play, I easily related it to the government or parenting skills. Not once did I think of business corporations like Apple that could “rule” globally. I definitely do agree that having a laptop during a lecture hall can be distracting with all of the multi-tasking that could be done but that is all up to the student’s mentality. Whether the student is focused on getting notes down, which it is faster and more efficient to type rather than handwrite, or simply more focused on messaging their friends and using social media during class time.
Alisha Alex
There were some very interesting points brought up. The power that technology holds over us it pretty powerful. It doesn’t only provide us with different ways of communication but it also allows us to approach and process information differently. Companies definitely have some sort of authoritative hold over us that I hadn’t noticed before. I enjoyed reading your paragraphs on the picture and it provided insight on a topic that most people don’t think of while they are using technology on a daily basis.
I agree with the post. In this modern era where technology is connect to every aspect of daily life, technology has some sort of control over people. As people become more reliant on technology to get tasks down faster and easier, they replace many things. With that, technology based companies gain a lot of control of people. I agree that Apple is a good example of powerful companies. A lot of people use Apple products therefore the Apple name and logo has influence when people are buying a product. People see Apple brand everywhere and a majority of people use them so the demand of consumer is a very powerful power. They can influence people and use their product as the power source since people are always demanding for newer and more developed products. I agree about the power between the professor and student but I think in this case, power can shift from one side to other depending on the situation and as the character of the individual. I think the same thing goes for producers and consumers.
This is a really interesting photo, and an issue that we can all relate to! You all make some very important observations, about the power of the “laptop” over the professor. You also mention some very good details, the size of the lecture hall and the number of laptops. You need to get even more specific, however, to really prove your point, that technology is somehow taking over the classroom. We’ll discuss this more in class together, but think about what more you could say about the details in this photograph.