Media convergence is known as the ‘coming together of media’, which according to Jenkins it is where old and new media collide. IPhone is an example of media convergence which was first launched in 2007. In the past phones have just been purely for text messages and phone calls, however from the development of the first mobile phone in 1973 to the smartphone now in 2016 has increased enormously. I couldn’t imagine life without my iPhone now, it is the first thing I check in the morning, as the features of the phone allow me to download all my favourite apps, search the web, record videos and take pictures.
This was a huge development of media convergence as technology has developed over the years. For instance in July 2007, barely 9 million American owned a smartphone – representing just 4 percent of the entire mobile market. Today over 100 million Americans own a smartphone. IPhone has been an huge development in todays society, which I personally think we take for granted. So would you be able to live without your iPhone?
Network Society and the Media 
I’d like to say that I could, but I recently had to go a week without it and I genuinely struggled. If I could do all of the things that a phone allows me to do but on separate devices, then I don’t think not having one would affect me as much. However, the ease of one device holding everything you need is incredibly addictive…
LikeLike
Honestly I know for a fact I couldn’t live without mine. iPhones have developed to the point that our wholes lives revolve around them. My iPhone is my alarm in the morning and the last thing I’ll be doing before bed is being on social media on my phone. I have everything on my phone, I online shop and have online banking so can transfer money and check my balance on my phone, I have my calendar and reminders on my phone not to mention all the photos and videos that are important to me. So to answer your question I 100% could not live without my iPhone.
LikeLike
That’s an interesting point of view to look at the convergence from the perspective of the devices we use to access different media and content. Indeed, smartphones are integral part of our lives. In the past, if you needed to communicate with someone, you would use a phone; if you needed to do research, you would go to a library, if you needed to take a picture, you would use your camera and so on. Nowadays, all this can be done from one device. And we can see how manufacturers adapt to this convergence and consumers’ needs as screens get bigger, memory cards can store more and increasingly more apps are being developed to allow us to use our smartphones for whatever we might need them.
LikeLike
As a writer, I couldn’t live without my iPhone. But all kinds of telephones are now an inseparable part of our lives. However, we don’t use it only to communicate. It is mostly for entertainment. We are checking Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat many times a day. However, if the answer is yes, we should consider how addictive new media convergences are.
LikeLike
I think I would be able to live without my iPhone, but I wouldn’t feel happy. Yesterday I accidentally left my phone at home and needed to spend a day without it. To be honest, I felt almost naked, because I knew that something can happen and I cannot be aware about that. Also, almost all of my friends have iPhones, so perhaps this is one of the reasons why I want to carry iPhone with me all the time – I don’t want to be separated from them.
LikeLike
I agree completely. I couldn’t imagine my life without an iPhone. In fact I’m typing this out on my iPhone right now. I talked about this subject as an example in my “why study the media” letter last term. The media surrounds out life, and smartphones is one of the easiest ways for it to do this. The new iOS9 update last year meant that the news was directly streamed to your iPhone before you even opened an app, all you had to do was open your phone, slide to the right and they news about your local area or areas of interest to you is right there. We don’t even have to search for our news. Our news find us.
LikeLike