Creativity and New Media

I basically created a second life in something called bitmoji which links up with snapchat and allows for you to personalize memes and even add your friends bitmoji avatar in certain memes.

HW Creativity

New media fosters creativity in many ways specifically in allowing virtually anyone with a computer to created music. More than that people are able to sample old music and make mash-ups and remixes. In the New Yorker article, The New Math of Mashups, Sasha Frere-Jones writes about how normal people with a musical ear take songs and mash them up using technology. This in my opinion can often take the song from one level to a way better version of itself that otherwise wouldn't known.  In one cause Jones states Stoke was a better song than either one of the sources that it originated from. Nowadays new media allows for singers and musicians of all type to make covers to popular songs and post on soundcloud or youtube. This way they are available to the public and a lot of times these versions offer a variety of and have their own take on the original song which can allow for the same song to be heard over and over different ways.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual realities can be used in a number of ways, including but not limited to, mental health, health, entertainment, and to mimic real existing places etc. For example in the New York Times article, In Room 100, It's Sid and Nancy all over again, by Saki Knafo, Knafo talks about the Chelsea Hotel which changed ownership and under went some renovations. Some of the authentic and old style things were removed, specifically the pigeonhole mailboxes. However, Michael Brown wished to live there his whole life. When he finally did visit, he took pictures then decided to make a virtual reality version of it on Second Life. Ed hamilton was notified and was excited that the mailboxes were still there. Virtual Reality has many pros for example the possibilities that they are coming up with are astounding. The Forbes article, After Second Life Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot, by Diane Mehta lists some of the possible advances " ...in education, in deliver services, or as an advanced form of telehealthcare that offers so much more that videoconferencing". This would allow a more convenient service at the ease of ones home for the doctor.

 The pros are about convenience and efficiency. A doctor doing virtual reality check ups will be able to do more check ups that way than if making house calls. Also they Foster creativity by allowing for customization to a whole new level. The Mehta also stats that about 50% of the virtual realities accounts are owned by children (ages 5-15). However, a negative effect might be lack of communication skills and relentlessness to create them because people are interacting online.

 

Virtual Realities foster creativity in a similar way to drawing or painting. Virtual reality however is interactive, users can create a domain of space from virtually nothing. Then have to roam it with their customized avatar.

The future might look like all the subconsciousness of our elders and loved ones who pasted away be uploaded into these Virtual realities to roam free and live potentially forever.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter involves a concept which I love. Its conciseness, terseness. Twitter gives 140 characters to get out your thought and idea. For that reason there is no fluff, it has to be raw and to the point or short and sweet. This makes it more like a real conversation like when having an in- class discussion. Blackboard is similar to twitter in that both twitter and blackboard discussion can be following one place. But on Blackboard discussions there is no character limit. This allows for fluff and extra details that might not be necessary. However both have their uses. Blackboard discussions are more similar to going around the room formally just sharing your thought like in some classes on the first day when you state your name, major and year and it goes around the room. This styles is needed some times. However, Twitter being that the character count is so short, stimulates conversation by prompting for questions; reason being that someone can't usually explain all of their thoughts in 140 characters. However the most efficient way for discussion is in person because then replies are instant rather than when you get a notification and then decide when to answer. In person you usually answer right away or not at all.

Blog: Social network sites

There are three main social media sites that I use. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Recently I have been using twitter. This is my second attempt at using twitter. First time around I didn't have much to post about.

Facebook to me is simple a means of networking and keeping in contact with my network. I can often times scroll on the Facebook feed and find someone I haven't spoken to inna while and then catch up. Also Facebook allows connections for certain gaming apps. Some are really annoying (candy crush) others (words with friends), not so much. Also sharing things on Facebook allows me to stay updated on current events.

Instagram allows me to see what the people I know have been up to, along with their personal interests are. Allows me to also to watch funny videos and trending videos. I used to post on Instagram but I have not posted in quite some time. Mostly I use it to see what my friends and favorite celebrities are up to.

Snapchat is very cool because it allows me to see what my close friends have been up to in the Last 24 hours. Along with giving me the ability to do the same. Another benefit of snapchat is that when i take a picture it does not automatically save and take up space in my phone.

Twitter I am still getting the hang of. Seems as though people post things that are trending similar to Facebook but instead of embedded videos they are links. The updates seem to be more frequent as well, which also include important information from event top notch companies that most people interact with daily.

Blog Social Networking

Social Networking is used by people to keep in contact with friends, employers to get personal insight on potential employees, customers to decide whether or not to buy/consume a product or service and companies to try to better their products or services to tailor the need of the customers. Some of the benefits come from customer reviews, whether it be on movies, food or a product. Many consumers look at the reviews in order to help them make what they believe to be the right choice. In an MIT Technology Review article by Kristina Grifantini Can You Trust Crowd Wisdom?, Grifantini quotes Vassilis Kostakos an assistant professor at University of Madeira in Portugal and an adjunct assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University who says that rating systems can tap into the "wisdom of the crowd". However the study of reviews on Amazon, IMBd (Internet Movie Database) and BookCrossings by Kostakos show that people have different voting patterns and that the data could be skewed. The study showed that in all cases a small number of users made most of the reviews. Thus it doesn't justly show the idea or opinion of the majority.

In the NPR article by Frank Langfitt Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, Langfitt talks about how recruiters are finding it easier to find potential employees by checking on theses social networking sites. The more popular site for job recruiters seems to be LinkedIn because it not only connects a person with people they may have encountered but also with the contacts of their contacts so the bigger the person's network the bigger their potential network is.

Te benefits of these Social network technologies is that they allow contact with many people with less effort and with more time efficiency. The amount of connection one can make at one time is immensely more than one could make with just meeting up in person and contacting through the phone. This could also help people that would not meet otherwise meet. There is a "dark side" however and its when it comes to privacy. Although many of theses sites have settings to control what information you put out it still is not full proof. So on a social networking site where you likely would be more open about your personal life perhaps a recruiter who uses that sites could see and disqualify you based on what they saw or even a boss could see and potential demote or fire you.

In the future seems these technologies will become more personal. The privacy features also might be less. This would make it blatantly okay for a company to fire or not hire people.

BLOG: Blog v. Wiki

Blogs and wikis are similar in that groups can contribute to the webpages. Blogs however are typically more conversational, meanwhile wikis are styled more informational. In a blog not every user can change the structure of the page but in a wiki all users can. Which isn't always the best and most effective or efficient ways sharing information. Reminds me a of  saying "Too many hands in the pot ruins the batch." The CNN article Wikipedia: No longer the Wild West? talks about the reactions to Wikipedia's decision to add a type of oversight to the page. This is a great decision for them and beneficial to their site because the had a bad reputation for dealing out false information. However now with editors responsible for confirming the changes made by users it turns away from being free for all and now makes there information accurate.Blogs are run by small groups or one person and are regularly updated. It is very important for convergence in today's networked world because new platforms (usually digital) are allowing information to travel faster than it ever has. Therefore it is important for televised information and information put out in other ways besides online be also shared through an internet platform, preferably one most commonly used. Blogs are used for collaboration for collaboration of neighborhoods, schools, clubs, graduating classes, consumers of a particular brand or company and even just common interests. For example in the New York Times article Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid by Michael Wilson, a neighborhood blog help Police bust a crime that was going on in their neighbor. This may have not been investigated otherwise. This could have lead to more problems being that they would have been still doing their illegal business for a longer period of time. 

A new use for wiki could be something similar to Facebook or LinkedIn where companies can add information about how a person is and their work ethic and how people view them whether it be coworkers, relatives, friends, former employers or current employers. This would be beneficial to employers, rather than a person needing recommendations they can access this from this wiki site. It would be very raw and authentic. It should also have a space for the person the page is evaluating to make a comment either thanking or defending themselves against whatever information was put about them.