Thursday, March 31, 2011

Technology is Changing


I think in my own opinion media strives to get people's attention that there is many important factors that come into play. Many things that the media portrays can be miss interpreted how someone looks at it, but to get a better understanding how it works someone has to do their research.  We as consumers are living in a technological environment and the public is either paying attention to what is going on in the world or simply does not care. Technology is very vital to what are cultures understand and can be very confusing to older cultures or third world countries.

My main goal is to get a better understanding why consumers are converting their money to using alternative transactions such as using their cell phones. According to Bernard & Miller said, "Instead of swiping a plastic card at the checkout counter, consumers would merely wave their phones" (p. 1). I have suspicions that the United States is in real trouble with money and researchers are finding alternative ways of paying for purchases. Inflation is extremely high and we are converting to other ways of paying transactions other than money. Printing machines that make "green notes," cost money to run the printing machines so researchers are coming up with alternate ways of paying off all the debt the United States is in. Or simply trying to eliminate money altogether.

In my own use making transactions to big retailers, I use either my debit or credit card. I rarely use cash because it is more convenient to use your debit card. Big corporations such as Visa have commercials that people are making purchases with their debit or credit cards, not cash. When a consumer used cash it slowed down the whole process with the transaction. In other words cash is just a fairly tale in today's world. I think in the next five years we will not see cash at all in the United States.

In other countries such as Japan and Africa according to Bernard & Miller said, "In Africa, where many people do not have credit cards, mobile phones have often replaced cash. And in Japan, people have been swiping phones at convenience stores and bus stations for several years" (p. 1).  There is a real problem out there with money and there is real evidence stating that money is vanishing through out the world.

I think we as consumers have to be very cautious of what technology is out there. Before the public races to go buy the latest cell phone with this technology. People need to be sure to do some research before someone uses it, because this technology is coming out so fast. Many conglomerates such as Verizon, At&T and T Mobile are in the works for it coming out 2012. This is a very serious matter that comes into play and we as consumers need to be very cautious about the technology that is coming out for cell phones.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/technology/24wallet.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=nfc%20chips%20in%20cell%20phones&st=cse