Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Societal Impact of Laser Tattoo Removal



Tattoos are prevalent in our modern day culture. It is rare to go to the store, or anywhere and see absolutely nobody without a tattoo. Some of these tattoos are wonderful, meaning something to the person who has it or being a form of art. Other tattoos, however, can be hurtful to others or to their standing in society. Some examples of these would be a tattoo that shows hate or prejudice, or a gang-related tattoo that one may have gotten at a young age. These types of tattoos can influence a hiring manager when they are making decisions and can be detrimental to ones chances of getting a job or getting into a career they want.

It is mostly among these people that laser tattoo removal will have a great impact on society. It’s fairly common knowledge that having a prominent gang tattoo on one’s neck, displayed for the world to see will discourage managers from hiring them, mostly because they don’t want employees affiliated with these gangs as it could bring trouble or, more likely, cast a bad shadow over their company image. With these effects of having the tattoo, a person who wants theirs removed might be willing to risk scarring and pain to have them removed. There are many methods to remove an unwanted tattoo.

One website I found suggested ocean water or a removal cream to fade the tattoo. Other methods include somehow sanding down the skin or surgically removing the skin layer with the ink. Both can lead to severe scarring and are now generally only used when laser tattoo removal is not an option.

According to the New Look Laser Tattoo Removal information page, their tattoo removal experts can remove nearly any type of tattoo: writing, sleeves/large artwork, designs, and even small parts of larger tattoos. Laser tattoo removal uses concentrated light waves to pass gently through the top layer of skin and break down the ink quickly. Additionally, the layers do not enter the deepest layers of the skin, allowing for fast healing and making scarring a very rare occurrence. This will allow that job candidate who no longer wants his/her hateful or gang-related tattoo to have it removed without major scarring.

The New Look Laser Tattoo Removal Guide gives information to any potential tattoo removal candidate about what they should look for and how tattoo removal works. It explains that blue-green pigments are more difficult to remove and that older tattoos are easier due to the fading from the sun and body trying to get rid of the pigments. There is medical information about tattoos and removal and what to look for in a tattoo removal specialist and their equipment.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Technology For Tuition



There is widespread distaste of the use of DVRs among broadcasting networks. You’d think they’d appreciate that people can record the shows they broadcast and watch them in their own time, but the distaste is for one reason: Consumers can now skip the commercials. Ted Harbert, NBC’s chairman summed it up in a presentation to advertisers by saying, “This is an insult to our joint investment in programming, and I’m against it.”
Commercials have been around for nearly as long as television has. Unlike radio, where the debate was whether or not the radio waves should be privately or commercially funded, the only debate around television was what the best way to generate advertising revenue was. Soon enough, the commercial was born and became a mainstay in television. It soon became the top medium for advertising and is still that way today (Pavlik, 346). In fact, 59.91% of advertising dollars spent are spent on advertising in Cable TV, Network TV, and Local TV. An additional 4.84% is spent in Hispanic and Syndicated TV. With figures like these, it’s easy to see why network broadcasters wouldn’t like the idea of consumers being able to skip one of the main sources of their revenue.
The advertisers are paying to advertise to us, the consumers, and they’re paying quite a bit. With that, we become the products the network broadcasters are offering them. However, with the advent of DVRs, if more and more people can just skip the commercials, it may get to the point where advertisers won’t want to waste their money to advertise somewhere where their advertisement is just going to be skipped. They may prefer to advertise somewhere where consumers can’t avoid seeing their advertisement, such as an ad before or during a Hulu video, the ones that are unable to be skipped if the consumer wants to see the show, or somewhere similar.
However, I think that the amount of people without DVR is still significant enough that there are still numerous people who can’t just skip the commercials. Advertisers know this and as a result, I don’t think that as of right now, DVR is cutting significantly into revenue brought in by advertising money. But if DVR usage continues to increase at a considerable rate, it might in the future. But, by then, technology might advance and software might change to make DVR usage more like Hulu, where you can’t watch the entire show without seeing a few commercials. It’s hard to tell if it could cut into the revenue in the future simply because of how rapidly technology changes.



Sources:
Pavlik, John. Converging Media. 3rd Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. eBook.