Technology - Flexible Glass

Am I the only one who has trouble keeping my phone in my pocket, because my pants are too tight and my phone is too big? I have the IPhone 5S, and in comparison to many phones now, it is relatively small, but not quite small enough. However, the solution to this pocket and phone dilemma, might not be too far away. In January of 2016, LG announced that they were working on and looking forward to producing the first ever Display Flexible OLED. In simpler terms, a television that is made out of a material so flexible that it can be rolled up into a one-inch tube (http://bestofwhatsnew.popsci.com/lg-display-flexible-oled). An 18-inch version of this is in the works currently and their expectation that a screen as large as 60 inches will be available in 2017. So what exactly makes this flexible screen possible? As of now all televisions and other electronic devices are made from thick, nonflexible plastics or metals. These new screens will be produced using a polyimide film. According to http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3384028/The-TV-roll-like-newspaper-LG-unveil-flexible-screens-used-smartphones-cars.html a similar plastic is already in use in Apple Watches and some of the newer versions of Android. An example of this incredible plastic material that is being used can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_tXaS6rP4c.  

Companies like LG and Samsung have begun producing incredible products such as these, in certain televisions and cell phones. However, the plastic that is being used is not flexible to the consumer. It is flexible to the production team as they produce the products, but the final product is not actually flexible. http://www.oled-info.com/flexible-oled believes that second generation products using this OLED plastic, will be in fact flexible to the user. A video released by Samsung shows the ultimate goal of these products, which is to create a phone that can be folded down into the size of a small wallet, but have the capabilities of a tablet. These will make calls, send texts and allow you to surf the internet as if it were a tablet. http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-flexible-foldable-phone-vidoes-2015-9 Shows several different video, simulating what the final product will look like and how exactly it can be used.

It is unclear as to when exactly these products will be available, but there is much information on these first generation prototypes. http://www.cnet.com/news/what-you-should-know-about-flexible-displays-faq/ explains that LG announced that they are now able to produce a flexible display screen, which is actually the “light-emitting diode”, or layer that produces the images and sits beneath the glass. Yes, flexible glass has been available for quite some time now, but finally there is the display screen to match it. Of course the end goal is to have curved phone and television screens that can bend and move like a piece of paper, but the technology they have already come out with is a great first step. My concern with this would be the quality of the picture on the display screen. LG claims that the picture will be just as clear, if not better. I believe this will completely change the way the world communicates. So much of communication is now down on phones, tablets, IPads, and televisions. The internet makes the world a smaller place, and allows us to communicate with people all over the world in a matter of seconds. A device as small and effective as this can effect the way information is presented in the business world, and our every day communication.  I guess only time can truly tell as to what will occur because of this new invention, but I am very excited to see where the Flexible Display OLED will be in the future. Hopefully it will be snuggly tucked into my tight pants pocket!

Social Media Case

I would like to begin my analysis of the “Twin Towers Mattress Sale” by directly quoting CNN when they said, “9/11 is NOT a holiday. You can't have 9/11 sales.” I want to make this clear from the very beginning, I do not think it is appropriate for any company, large or small to have a sale based on a devastating personal, national or world event. We do not remember the attack on Pearl Harbor by having a swimsuit sale for many reasons, but simply said these things are just NOT appropriate. With that being said, Miracle Mattress of San Antonio clearly made a massive mistake in releasing a video promoting a “Twin Towers Sale” on their Facebook page. They immediately received backlash from people and there are stories on just about every news station explaining this awful situation. For my personal analysis I would like to focus on the outcomes for Miracle Mattress and compare it to a situation I found while researching this topic. Unknown to most of us, on September 11, 2016 in the local Panama City Beach Walmart, a display was created out of Coke products depicting the Twin Towers and an American Flag. The towers were actually formed from Coke Zero cans, as to make a connection to ground zero. The full article can be found here, but I was in complete shock this had not made larger news. There was immediate backlash from customers and the display was quickly taken down, but I could only find one source that had reported this incident. Yes, this situation was probably far less severe of an offense than the video produced by Miracle Mattress, but I think it was too quickly swept under the rug. Walmart issued a statement saying, “They didn’t mean any harm,” and they continued on to blame the creative for this depiction on Coke. Coke did not make any statements in response. I recognize Coke and Walmart are much larger corporations, but it was very apparent to me they clearly are held to a different standard.

            The response to this video was devastating to Miracle Mattress as the owner did all he could in his power to save face for his company. He released a statement apologizing for the video clip, claiming they would simply stay quite throughout the rest of 9/11 and make an additional statement in the week to come. Unfortunately, just because Miracle Mattress stayed quite, it did not mean social media and the public did.  The hashtag #MiracleMattress began trending and still shows evidence of the harassment towards this organization. One thing which seems very strange to me was the woman who is the main spokes person in the video, and the owner, share the same last name. I am not positive on their relationship, but I would assume there is a high chance they are actually husband and wife. If this is the case, why is this the first time the owner is hearing of this marketing campaign as he claims? I understand the owner of this company and the other executives did not know exactly how to respond in a situation like this, but I do not believe remaining silent for as many days as they did, was for the best. However, they did release another statement, nine days after their original statement expressing how Miracle Mattress executives had decided to handle this situation. They came to the conclusion they would be “indefinitely closing their doors.” I do feel this was an appropriate approach, but what a devastating decision. I also found the letter to be written, much less professionally than I would have expected. I felt it was missing several key components we had discussed in class. To be specific the owner used many contractions and a few other grammatical mistakes. I am sure his focus was not on his punctuation or grammar at a time like this, but I did find this interesting. I also did found some evidence of the store reopening its doors more recently, but I was not able to find as much affirmative information on this.

            With the decision to close their doors, I do not feel this company has a chance to regain success even if they do reopen. I went to their Facebook page to see what others had been saying directly to the organization and found they were ranked a 1.2-Star company. I work in social media marketing and I know first hand a ranking like this is very hard to recover from. I scrolled through hundreds, maybe even thousands of reviews left on this organization’s page. There were a few who claimed there should be mercy shown to Miracle Mattress, but most were of complete contempt.  

I am torn on how exactly I feel about this situation. I believe Miracle Mattress was completely wrong in their release of this video, and really they were wrong for ever scheming up such a horrific marketing plan. This being said, it is so sad to see how this store and franchise has been completely diminished to nothing. They have lost basically all credibility and respect in the national view. They have been publicly shamed to the point of no return. After  a situation like this I do not feel Miracle Mattress will ever be able to make a full recovery and return to be a profitable organization. Social media can be a beautiful thing as it brings the world together and allows us to share information in an instance. However, for the Miracle Mattress store in San Antonio, they saw a much uglier side to the power of social media.

Online Reputation: Kaelyn Loveless

To: Kaelyn Loveless, Fellow Classmate

From: Ashton Henderson, Member of Technical and Professional Writing

Subject: Online Personal Information Analysis

Date: September 27, 2016

Kaelyn I have been very surprised by the investigation I performed this last week. I began by searching for you on Google and started with your first and last name, as well as Utah. The first hit that came up was a site with information on whom I am assuming is your father. This article can be found here, and it actually lists you as one of his dependents. From this site I noticed you are from South Jordan, Utah. This was exciting to me, because I am also from South Jordan. My search then took me to Facebook where I easily found you, because of all of the friends we have in common. From your Facebook profile I learned you are one of four children, with two sisters and one brother. It looks to me, you are the oldest or the second oldest in your family. I also learned your middle name is Nicole. It is not often you see a person’s full name on Facebook, so it made me think your middle name must have great meaning to you. This information can be seen here and the picture included shows a picture of the whole Loveless family.

On your Facebook page I found some other interesting information. It appears you attended Bingham High School, just like I did. I believe you graduated in 2014, so you are a year younger than I am. It appeared you were very active in high school with dances and other school activities. I concluded my search on Facebook and my third step was then to return to Google where I searched your first and last name as well as Bingham High School. This search pulled several different links all discussing soccer. It seems you played soccer for Bingham High and were on the varsity team at some point. Max Preps provided information from the 2013 season. Kaelyn I discovered you played defense and you were number fourteen. You actually played with one of my really good friends, Madison Loftus. Overall it appears your team had a successful season and finished 28^th overall in the state of Utah. Unfortunately I was only able to find information on your senior season at Bingham, but I enjoyed the information I did find. Congratulations on a successful career of athletics at Bingham, I know there is an extra emphasis put on Bingham athletes and it’s an honor to be one.

As I searched for you again on Google, an interesting link appeared about five headings from the top. I opened it to find it was an event sheet for an LDS mission farewell you said you would be attending. This took my search back to your Facebook page where I discovered you are a member of the LDS church. I thought this was really impressive without being a friend of yours on your social media platforms, I could see your religious affiliations. To me this shows you are a dedicated member and have no problem sharing such things. I could also see this was not the only mission farewell you had attended, and you must be very supportive of your friends and their choices. I was also impressed you shared this on your Twitter and Instagram accounts. In your condensed personal biographies you clearly state your religious group and openly your beliefs. I thought this was very admirable. A tweet about your graduation from the Bingham LDS seminary can be found here. 

From these two other social media platforms I was able to find that you are actually a Utah State Ambassador and a cosmetologist. I was surprised  I could not find more on the fact that you are a Utah State Ambassador, but this may be because you are newer to USU. For the future, I would recommend you make information about your time and work as a Utah State Ambassador more available, because this is such a powerful experience you have taken part in. This opportunity will someday be a great resume addition for you and I am sure you will want to share it with those who will be looking to hire you. Throughout this entire process I have really enjoyed being able to get to know you, Kaelyn, and learn some things about you. It is amazing to me we can be from the same home town and go to the same high school, but know virtually nothing about one another. From all I can see, all of your profiles and links on the internet are clean and well kept. You should have no problems if a future employer of any kind were to search for you on the web. I hope you have found this information to be beneficial to you.

                                                                                            

Ashton Henderson