Databases; What Would We Do Without Them?

Before databases, there was the narrative structure traditional media. Now that we have databases, we can find everything easier, and not only on the internet. In our minds we sort things like a database. We put our sweaters in one drawer, jeans in another. Some of us alphabetize our CDs and DVDs, which is something that a database would do. All websites can be looked at as a form of a database, while this was not the case many years ago.

With the narrative structure, it was harder to categorize and find things without a database. I think this new form of media is very beneficial to everyone. The narrative structure served as a storyline for different types of media and news stories in regards to where they came from and the story behind them. Like one of my classmates said, I think it is important to consider where different types of media (books, newspaper articles) originate from. It isn't always necessary to know about the author but sometimes it does give the piece of literature a new meaning.

With this new medium we now have databases on website like CNN, Twitter, and YouTube. When logging onto these websites there are different categories to choose from when trying to find what you are looking for. On Twitter, for example, if you were interested in hearing what other people had to say about the Academy Awards, you would be able to click on a category about the Oscars, or even other categories like the fashion at the awards. Twitter also uses the "#" sign to put in front of a word(s) so that one will be able to search for something like "#valentinesday" and there will be a bunch of posts that show up about people who are talking about Valentine's Day. News stories are categorized on websites like CNN, or even Perez Hilton. Perez Hilton (a blogger who dishes dirt on celebrities and is my guilty pleasure) even has his blog entries categorized into either an even that happened, or the celebrity that the story is about. You are able to go back and look at stories from years ago that you are interested in.

People are able to use databases to their advantage everyday. A variety of people post their pictures online, perhaps using Photobucket or Flickr. When doing this you are able to categorize your pictures, maybe by the date, who is in the picture, or what object the picture contains. Without the invention of databases, we wouldn’t even be able to write research papers or projects. Well, we might be able to but it would be a lot more complicated. We wouldn’t have the luxury of sitting at home on our computers looking up articles on a database.