Creativity and New Media

This is a screenshot of one of my favorite games called GTA V where you live vicariously through three different characters (you choose which). The game allows you to pick one character and decide what type of house they live in, what type of car they drive, and so much more. Games these days foster creativity by allowing me to be creative with the cars I design (shown below), the way I dress, and the life i want my character to live.

HW Creativity

New media is just old media made accessible to everyone over digital technologies like our phones and computers. With so many options of digital media available its easy for new media to foster creativity across various platforms. A New Yorker, article written in 2003 gives us the perfect example. In the article, the writer talks about a DJ who created a mash ups between two completely different songs by breaking them down and putting certain aspects of each together. This is a perfect example how new media has opened the doors for creativity, before new media this was not possible because everyone didn't have access to media from anywhere in the world the way we do now. 

Even big companies are producing creativity because of new media. Look at no other than the social platform of Twitter. Through their own platform (which is a form of new media) Twitter has consistently produced creative features based on the patterns and behaviors that people show on its new media platform. Essentially Twitter is "relying on others habits and behaviors to innovate for them."(Miller, 2009) In essence, the uprising of new media has allowed people to communicate and have access to thing they didn't which in return allows them to innovate.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

 What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?

Cite at least 2 of the assigned readings.

Virtual worlds are changing the way we interact with others. They can be used in so many ways that ultimately benefit the development of mankind. Today in modern times, virtual reality is being used across many industries including education, medicine, and corporate America. In education, virtual world are being used to do things like virtual classrooms to help you learn about places that are anywhere in the world and virtual campuses to allow you to visit schools before your in the same state. Most important virtual worlds are helping lonely and shy people with finding their voice. in a interview with Forbes, a virtual world designer stated that "virtual worlds, allow people to be truly, together-connected by these bodily representations of themselves called avatars". These virtual worlds provide a face place were people can express themselves in a realistic way. Although virtual worlds can be a good thing they need to be carefully monitored because they can be just as bad. For example in schools, its easy for students who should be using virtual worlds to interact and learn, to go ahead and use it as a source of entertainment similar to television. Another con can be the fact that some people may get addicted to virtual worlds and completely isolate themselves in the real world.

When it comes to the effect of virtual worlds on creativity theres no where else to look at than in autism centers. Virtual worlds have allowed autistic kids a way to describe what their are feeling and communicate with others which is something that is monumental to do because of their disability. for example one virtual world user said that he was able to use chat rooms and soon realized that people use symbols to express themselves such as the smiley face. (Saidi) I think the future of virtual worlds is exceedingly bright. virtual worlds are a powerful tool that can allow us to change the world one industry at a time. For example, in the future i see virtual worlds being used in the education system to bring education all over the world.

• Mehta, Diane. “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 May 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/#79e951ff735
• “IReport: 'Naughty Auties' Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction.” CNN, Cable News Network, www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter is one of the main social networks of the world. It has created a platform where people can chime in on any subject of the world and contribute their part from anywhere. Blackboard on the other hand is the social network that allows students of the same university communicate with each other and professors. Blackboard discussions take place under the discussion tab while under twitter discussions happen under tweets. Although both are great because they allow you to communicate over long distance nothing beats in person discussions. With in person discussions, you can be more emotionally involved and the discussions can be more informative because theres no cap as to how many words you can write.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Twitter
My least favorite of the four social networking sites listed on this blog post is nonetheless Twitter. Theres many reasons as to why I don't like Twitter from the 240 character lock on tweets to the fact that it can be a little confusing for first timers. The whole twitter feed can also be confusing (speaking from experience). Where Twitter does win is in the department of trends and news. For me the number one way to stay up to date and get info immediately is from Twitter and its because how easy the iconic hashtag has allowed for information to be shared. When I want too get the latest news from different perspectives that aren't biased theres only thing that i have to do.. hashtag it on twitter. 

Facebook
The king of social networking sites is the one and only Facebook. My second favorite social networking site despite all the data they have on me. What I like the most about facebook is that the funny content that I can get access to from friends and from random people. Also the user interface is beautiful and pretty simple with the whole newsfeed. Another thing that makes facebook great is that its the social platform with the biggest amount of users so this is your greatest chance at having everyone you know all on the same platform which does make communication with them a lot easier. 

Instagram
My favorite social media site is none other than Instagram which happens to be owned by facebook as well. Unlike twitter and facebook, Instagram does everything around pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that definitely speaks volumes of Instagram. I love instagram because it motivates us to express our feelings in a way other than just using our words and now that they have added the best feature that SnapChat had, theres no other reason not too use instagram. 

LinkedIn
Last of all, LinkedIn a social network that I find extremely important in the business world. Its social media meets a job agency. I think LinkedIn is the true definition of a network because it allows us to network with people who can possibly help us advance our careers which is the whole point of networking.

Blog Social Networking

The technological advancements that the world has made in the last 20 years has been amazing and social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn are right in the middle of it. These new technologies have allowed anybody to feel like they have the whole world right in their pocket. For example, social networking site LinkedIn has had a profound effect in the job market. Maureen Hentz from the Global Listing Company said, "social networking is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting --- ever." LinkedIn allows for employers to look for talent from a big pool or professionals while also allowing job hunters to market themselves by creating a profile, posting qualifications, and posting your resume among other things. Another way that social networking is being used is the example of the project done by students in Carnegie Mellon University. Students joined a competition that aimed at coming up with a way to predict wether an internets startup would work or not. The key is that through social networks the student could create a virtual panel that would allow them to test out their ideas on these starts up.

Although the benefits of social networking are endless, everything has its so called dark side and boy oh boy does social networking have one. For example, privacy is a big issue when it comes to social networking. This is evident when the sister of the cofounder of facebook, Randi Zuckerberg posted up a private family photo that somehow ended up showing up on her public news feed. The person who put up the private picture apologized and went on to explain that the photo was seen because they had a mutual friend which still doesn't justify why it was able to been seen by complete strangers. Another example of the negative use of social networking is all the scams that people get caught in. Since social networking allows you to communicate with random people from anywhere in the world, this has opened the doors to crooks who are selling fake things and are scamming legit buyers out of millions of dollars a year. A spokesperson for Ebay said that over the least three years they have received over 27,000 of similar cases to the one described above and most of them start off on social networking group chats and commerce pages.

I think that in the future technology will continue to evolve and eventually we will see augmented reality intertwine with social networking sites. This is already evident from the fact that facebook bought AR company, Oculus for millions of dollars.

Citations:

     Langfitt, F. (2006, November 22). Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

     Doggs, A., & Brown, B. (2010, March 23). Carnegie Mellon students to exploit social networks to predict success of Internet startups. Retrieved from https://www.networkworld.com/article/2230179/data-center/carnegie-mellon-students-to-exploit-social-networks-to-predict-success-of-internet-start.html?source=NWWNLE_nlt_web_apps_2010-03-24

    NBC2 Investigators: Multi-million dollar scam being used on Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nbc-2.com/story/38062070/nbc2-investigators-multi-million-dollar-scam-being-used-on-facebook