Business Assessment of TOR Publishing Group

 

Discussing the TOR Publishing group

    TOR Publishing is one of my favorite groups that releases books of fantasy and science fiction genres. TOR stands for Tom Doherty Associates; this company is owned by Macmillan a larger publishing company. You can view the TOR Website here.

Describing the Site

    Exploring TORs website, they featured at the top of the page their brand and other brands that are shared by their parent company. The other brands are the following : Bramble, Forge, Nightfire, TOR, and Teen Starscape.

    The rest of the website shows the new releases and books coming soon, each category has a selection of books with an option to see more available. There is also a smaller selection near the top of the website that allows users to search and browse authors. 

    At the bottom, it allows you to sign up for their newsletter, view the Company's mission statement, and possible careers. It also gives its viewers an opportunity to access their various forms of social media for each brand. Such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As for TOR publishing their Tiktok.

    I think they designed the website like this for ease of access to all products and to allow their visitors to see other brands owned by their parent company, however, Macmillan is not displayed unless you scroll to the far bottom for copyright ownership. Their website is also super easy to navigate and leaves little room for not finding what is needed. I think that this is effective, but a I would prefer if it was the whole Macmillan website, and this was a smaller sub-category to their website. Instead of a misleading direction making buyers think they're two entirely different entities.

Online Presence 

    I think the company relies a lot on their brand name alone since they've been around for nearly 50 years. They do an okay job with communicating on their social media websites, and a far less good job of communicating through their website. I signed up for their newsletter which wasn't as communicative as I would hope. I have yet to receive something from them since the beginning of this month. 

    Their social media platforms are okay in terms of communication. They have a blog site which I found amusing and fun to explore. Their other forms of social media like Tiktok, and Facebook has a small following and probably not as large as one would think they would have for such a big company. 

    Their business doesn't have a strong identity, but they seem to be trying to establish one through their social medias. They do have separate voices to their posts. Their Blog has a consistent voice as well as their Facebook, while their Tiktok is a little bit less so. 

    I think the company could greatly improve, by creating a cohesive voice though their social media and having more fun with reaching out to their audience. Such as getting into similar flatforms that reach out to younger people, and maintaining a fun voice that reaches all age groups. They should also have their YouTube available through their website so that people can be reached better. It took a few searches to find their main channel. 

A Little Extra

A fun book blog for you Fantasy and Sci-fi book readers. 

Am I A Digital Native or Immigrant?

 

Digital Native or Immigrant?

My simplified definition of the two:

Digital Native: A person who grew up on technology and has used it as a source of information, communication, and entertainment for the majority of their lives.

Digital Immigrant: A person who grew up with technology, but it was not their main source of information, communication, and entertainment. They merely adopted it later in life.

What is the Divide between Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants?

    What seems to me, to be the divide between digital natives and digital immigrants is the understanding of technology and how it is used between the two. This seems to be major problem of the two groups. Those who grew up with technology and have used it as a form of learning have a wide range of skills that those who are digital immigrants do not, but the same can be said the other way around. Digital natives don't have some the social and learning skills that digital immigrants have. The divide is entirely that of not understanding one another.

    It has affected how students learn today, do to teachers who are digital immigrants not understanding that students can learn in multitude of different ways using technology as a useful tool. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants By Marc Prensky, brought this up when using a game called "Monkey Wrench" to teach how to use AutoCAD and complete tasks to learn how to use the system.

   

    Teachers who are digital natives, since there are some who are now teachers. Use technology as a learning tool and seem to be having a great influence on students in the classroom. I have seen this firsthand in a middle school setting. I think forms of technology is the way to go. 

Which Am I?

    From my own definition, and how Marc Prensky describes the two groups. I am under the impression that I am digital native. I grew up watching educational programs, playing games, and using technology quite a bit. However, I am also in the weird age group where it didn't really become a large part of my life until I was entering grade school. For those curious, I was born in 1997. 

    I think that this has both pros and cons to being a digital native. Compared to those younger than me, I was taught how to research using both books and computers as for those who are more digital immigrants. Looking at how I learn, I appreciate being a digital native, because I think there is more ways to learn how to do something, and being able to navigate through the various forms of technology has made it easier to do so. The cons of it, would be the desire to read books, but I personally love reading, whether it is a on paper or on a device of some form.

My Personal Connection to the Knapp's Relationship Model

My Relationship

    I have been with my current partner for nearly 10 years now. In November of this year, we will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary. We are not married, and this isn't a priority for us as of now. There is talk of marriage and small plans, however, we both agreed that we aren't financially ready for it since we already feel like were married in the first place. Our view of marriage isn't the traditional sense, since we just want to celebrate us, and enjoy ourselves. 

Knapps Model

    Using my relationship to connect to Knapp's Relationship Model, we are at the point in our relationship that we are probably the most committed deeply and have been for a long time now. We started referring to each other as partner, instead of girlfriend or boyfriend, because it shows our commitment to each other. Sometimes we do tell people that were married (In spirit anyways). I believe that our relationship in this regard is the 5th stage of Knapp's Model, and that we are in the Bonding stage. 

Online Communication

    When it comes to using online communication, I don't believe it has negatively affected my interpersonal relationship with my partner. We have quite a bit of fun using the social media such as Instagram. Without her I would probably have zero online presence in the online world. I think that online communication has been mainly beneficial. The benefits of it, from my point of view at least is that I get to send her food recipes, pictures, or funny videos that I think she would personally like. When it comes to texting or calling, we can communicate when apart and long distance were when we are on trips. The only downside is that sometimes we both doom scroll when were both bored. Especially in the Oregon winters, and there's nothing to do outside.

    I know most people see marriage as the final stage of a relationship, but I feel that investing your time and nurturing your relationship in all forms of communication is really the final stage. I like to think that Knapps Model provides evidence for this.

Oversharing Online

Social networking sites, do they offer benefits and drawbacks? Social networks have a large variety of benefits that we can all agree and disagree on. Few things that people can say that they benefit from these sites, is the compacity to communicate with the public whether this local, or from a distance. The ability to do this helps people who want to keep up with friends and family who live far away. This as well helps businesses especially those who are smaller have a presence in our world of large corporations. 

Drawbacks of communicating on these social networks, is that there are more people seeing what people post. This increases how people interact with each in positive or negatively ways. Examples of this, is online bullying since the way that we create profiles on these networks can be made anonymously, and people can hide behind these masked accounts. These hidden figures can cause discord and harm to those who are merely using these sites to make friends or stay connected with family members. Tying this is in, we are going to discuss mental health and does social networking have any responsibility when it comes to in their users when it comes to promoting mental health?

Responsibilities of Social Networks, and Mental Health

Social media networks responsibility when it comes to their user's mental health has been a debatable topic since these networks became established. Today's main topics are aimed towards online bullying, depression, isolation, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

In medical news today, the article talks about how much time teens spend on social media, from their survey. They found teens who typically spend on average 2 hours on social media have poorer mental health compared to other students. It also talks about how teens on social media tend to have poorer mental health due to the fact they feel unsatisfied, or unhappy with how their lives are being presented on these networks. This leads to social anxiety, decreasing self-esteemed for not meeting expectations, and isolation if they see friends hanging out with other people and having a great time without them.

 I think that when it comes to social media or social networks overall, there is a give and take on their responsibilities when it comes to mental health. Social networks should have a timer for their users for the amount of time they spend on their sites. We as individuals, or if you are a parent should also do some research on how these networks may have an influence on your mental health, and/or child's. Social networks as well should also give an advisory for minors, and people who first sign up for their networks.

Work Cited, and Additional Information

These are the cites used for all topics discussed today

21 Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking | FutureofWorking.com 

Negative Effects of Social Media (clevelandclinic.org)

Social media and mental health: Depression and psychological effects (medicalnewstoday.com)

These are some more tools for those who wish to become more informed

Science of social media’s effect on mental health isn’t as clear cut as a warning label might suggest | CNN

The Social Media and Mental Health Connection (verywellmind.com)