Groupon- Not Cool for Merchants

Groupon is a social way to share coupons online. They negotiate deals with businesses and offer them to their subscribers with the promises that new, previously unreached customers will enjoy their experience and become regulars. One of the main problems is that the company is that they have no way to make sure their promises are held up and that they do not care what happens to the merchants after the daily deal is over. Some of the latest research by ForeSee shows that most of their income comes from a small number of people. This means that a few number of people will use Groupons very often, but they don't normally go back when they have to pay full price. These people are very frugal and are not likely to become regular customers. Also, people that would normally purchase items at full price from a merchant will go in with a Groupon which greatly reduces the merchant's overall revenue. This directly goes against the idea that it helps merchants and supports the local economy.
The social media aspect of Groupon puts unneeded pressure on consumers to purchase deals. Facebook and Twitter "friends" may pressure their followers to purchase unneeded Groupons and ultimately cause their followers to lose money if they never redeem their Groupon. Also, if news feeds are clogged up with advertisements and pleas to friends to purchase the Groupons they have invested money into, it could cause frustration. Sometimes "news feeds" can be so jammed with certain things, it is hard to actually use them for the purpose of seeing different status updates and tweets from more than just their avid Groupon-user friend.
Groupon is also a prefect example of hegemony. The  majority of the people using Groupon are more inclined to purchase those that have more purchases than others. A certain group of people that are regular Groupon users can use their purchasing power to lead others to believe that what they are buying is the right thing to buy. Groupon has a quota that makes sure a certain number of people buy each deal before the deal activates which contributes to the power of a small group of people to convince others that the deal they want is the interest that everyone should share, even if that interest is not actually shared. This can lead to a false sense of shared interests. (Storey, 79-80)
Overall, Groupon has many positive aspects that tend to outweigh the negative aspects for consumers. However, merchants tend to suffer and often regret their use of Groupon. For additional reading on the negative aspects of Groupon for merchants, please visit the reference links shown below.

Reference links:
What Daily Deal Companies Should Do to Help Merchants
10 Reasons Why Groupon is Terrible for Merchants
Groupon's Whale Problem

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-WfiOGSAno

Fourth Set - Communities and Connection

This is a list of the last set of presentations:

Wikipedia (Louis, Andrew, Danica)
Twitter (Jared, Joshua, Tyler)
World of Warcraft (Claire, Jennifer)
Augmented COmmunication (Dieu, Anna)
Linked in (Minhtrang, Wen)
YouTube (Mitchell, Amanda)
Facebook (Jocelyn, Elaina)
Groupon (Steven, Kristina)
Skype (James)

Third Set

This a list of the third set of presentations (Education and Learning)

Rosetta Stone (Louis, Andrew)
Baby Einstein (Jared, Jennifer)
Smartboard (Claire, Elaina)
ExmoBaby (Dieu, Anna)
Lumus (Minhtrang, Wen)
Adobe Connect (Joshua, Jocelyn Steven)
Gameification (James, Kristina)
Edmoto (Danica, Tyler)
Cellphones (Mitchell, Amanda)

Sherry Turkle featured on SourceFed!

Exmobaby

Please see our presentations on Exmobaby in the following videos:

The Pros:




The Cons:

Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect is a web conferencing software that allows people to host meetings, teach classes, consult with remote colleagues, invite outside experts into your class, and provide online training for users.

Watch us play with Adobe Connect:

Thinking about the readings:

I was able to find a few passages in Turkle’s Alone Together, that deal with multitasking and its growing relevance to modern society. Some believe that multitasking is “the crucial skill” for working and learning in this digital age, and that traditional teaching methods “hamper student learning.” Regardless, studies consistently show that multitasking actually reduces efficiency and productivity and that students who busy themselves with other things during class often don’t do as well as students who leave their computers at home.

- Jocelyn

Sherry Turkle writes in Alone Together that that new technologies can bring on anxieties and disconnection. With technology, we have the ability to place people away into varying ranges of intimacy. If phone calls are too intimate, text offers a better solution. If face-to-face interaction is too personal, then we have Adobe Connect and other web conferencing tools to allow us to separate. We honestly don't know what each other are doing while we web conference, which can cause us to question if we really are communicating. As admitted through first hand accounts in Alone Together, people can't even focus on a web conference without seeking out email or Facebook, making the conversation disconnected. (Turkle 13-17). Nicholas Carr writes that because of technologies ability to monitor our life and to send us reminders and notifications, we actually want to be interrupted. "We crave the new even when we know that 'the new is often more trivial than essential' "(Carr 133-134). Therefore Adobe Connect causes a social disconnect by allowing us to keep people at comfortable distances and by allowing us to grant our needs for new data income (notifications, alerts, reminders, etc.) to make us feel satisfied and at peace.

- Steven

In Rewired, Rosen states, “The stark reality is that today’s kids just can’t do one task without wanting to do a bunch of other things at the same time. It’s a way of life for them. The natural inclination to multitask in these young kids probably has many sources, including the cool, dazzling, multifunctional new devices that permit and encourage multitasking. What might this constant need for multitasking mean to parents and educators? For one thing, it could mean that long cherished demand for improving learning and raising grades . . . simply might not work anymore.” The world of technology is constantly changing, and education needs to keep up with it. Adobe Connect supports a wide range of media content, which can enable a sort of multitasking, and can generally improve interest. I think that Adobe Connect offers a great, interactive experience that can take the learning style of modern day kids into consideration.

- Joshua

NOT COOL Instagram Presentation

Not Cool Presentation

Instagram is a social media app focusing pictures. Users can upload pictures from their phone or take pictures through the app itself to share with their followers. Negatives of the app include logistical problems such as the 2"x2" photo grid, limited filters and inability to format multiple pictures into one image. And while there is a way to flag unsavory content, younger users can still easily access inappropriate images of things like illegal drug use and people practicing self-harm. There is also the potential for users to develop a skewed perception of themselves based on others' approving of their self image. If a teenage girl looks on the popular page and sees the skinny bikini model with 300 likes, while their smiling self portrait only received 15 likes, then our young teen will start to associate social acceptance with being a certain weight, having a certain style, or even being willing to expose themselves in more mature ways. While I personally LOVE this app, I recognize its drawbacks and realize that this push towards a more visual form of social media will have a huge impact on how we view ourselves and others.

Instagram "Not Cool" Prezi