The Future of Digital Media

The Future of Digital Media

The world of Digital Media is a constantly changing environment. We live in the time frame where PC’s have become man’s best friend, where digital editing and graphic design is practically a trait learned while growing up, and where entertainment rules the generation. Computers have seen more improvement in the past 5 years than ever before. Now instead of only having a PC at home; most of today’s generation can also be caught sporting around the latest cell phones that have the ability of a complete computer crammed into tiny pocket-sized containers and Ipods that have full access to the internet or view YouTube videos at the owners slightest whim. Just one look at the world around you now can show you where the Digital Media future is going.

With PC’s capabilities growing everyday it has now allowed the general public the ability to begin learning skills in digital editing and similar subjects. I know this fact personally because about 3 years ago I was in the same position learning the video effects program Adobe After Effects. Having grown up playing around with Adobe Photoshop and other programs it allowed me to have great success just jumping in and learning a completely new program. Thru online forums and video tutorials I quickly began to achieve the skills necessary to start experimenting and combining several effects or techniques to create CG seen on TV or in movies. Within no time I was creating things I never imagined I would ever be able to before. This by no means is a complete education in certain programs but it shows how the general public can access and teach themselves all the vital programs to create the next blockbuster film or dynamic video game.

The world of how things are viewed is also evolving as time goes by; the creation of sites that allow users to display their works has drastically increased individual recognition. With sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr users can upload photos and film of their work for the world to view. This is allowing amateurs to break into the field of Digital Media at an alarming rate. Users such as 18 year old English student Nick Haley, whose amateur iPod Touch commercial was picked up from YouTube and turned in to a high definition television ad, have found out that simple user created material can change your life as you know it. Users are finding them contacted by production agencies to aid in the help of professional advertisement. Advertisement agencies are also using YouTube to get a wide variety of reviews to products, ads, and more. With users able to log on worldwide and view videos at any possible time they can get a range of opinions from every different age, race, gender, and ethnicity without having to spend a dime.

This is just the tip of the icegerg of the ever evolving world of Digital Media and how it is improving itself. Things are rarely created the are perfect but companies take an idea and enhance it till it is. As Steve Yelvington pointed out in an article," Google did not invent search. They perfected it. The did not invent pay-per-click text ads. The perfected them. YouTube did not invent online video. The perfected it. Facebook did not invent online social networking. They perfected it." I believe you will see a lot more of this in the near future as new technology is perfected and further built upon into the unknown.