Creativity and New Media

One place in which creativity is embraced is in gaming. This has changed with the evolution of new media. This is an example of virtual worlds and avatars. The avatars can be used in games and social events. When creating avatars, there is the option of choosing height/weight, different skin color, hair, clothes and accessories. Many are available for free, but some limited editions cost money. The avatars I made are on Xbox 360 and NBA 2K15.

Xbox 360: On the Xbox 360 you can make an avatar and style it however you like. You can even give it props to play with. Then you can take this avatar online and play games such as 1 vs 100, Guitar Hero, and Uno. Microsoft is working on building up the avatars by creating specific games so users can display their avatars.

NBA 2K15: On NBA 2K15 you can make a player and you play games with the player and earn money. After that you can buy items to style your player. You can also increase your players skills to make him better at the game. You can go online and play with other users and their created players. With the new generations of Xbox One and PS4, NBA 2K15 added face scan where you can actually take pictures of your face and have it closely resembled on your player.

Creativity

We have always been creative. But with the evolution of new media, our creativity has been able to expand to whole new levels. New media has impacted our lives greatly. It has improved and changed the way we communicate and view media. New media has made it easier for people to express their ideas. The Internet lets people exchange ideas easily and rapidly with large groups, and computing tools let people design new products cheaply. For example, instead of making a drawing by hand we can make them on the computer using Photoshop and share it instantly to a larger audience. Viewers of creative works can post their comments and opinions using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The artist of the creative work can see these comments in real time and take into account what to change in the future.  According to the article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers", businesses can also see what users of their products and services think about them. In fact, consumers often come up with ideas for products, and companies wait to see if they have a mass appeal.

Technology has made it possible for anyone to produce any type of art/thought and distribute it to the whole world. But the problem is that there are a bunch of users interacting and it's hard to predict what they're going to do. Why are people using this and how could we make that better?

References:

•  Miller, Claire. "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.  

Virtual Worlds

Although virtual worlds are still developing, they will have a substantial effect on our future life. Virtual worlds are already used in the business of commercial designs, and it is predicted to have a tremendous impact on everyday life as well. A virtual world is technology that enables users to enter computer generated worlds with three dimensional objects. A virtual world has various uses ranging from recreation to communication. According to the article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot", users can feel the human interactions they might be missing. They also allows returning soldiers to be psychologically healed.

Virtual worlds can be used for personal, educational and professional discussions. It lets users interact socially with others and do things that they would like to do or cant do in the actual world. According to the article "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You", virtual worlds allow users to style themselves in many ways that they cant in the actual world free of cost. Users are using real money to buy virtual currency to purchase items in the virtual worlds.

However, a negative side of virtual worlds is that it can also lead to privacy and security issues. Many people on the virtual worlds try to make their avatars resemble their real life personality. There are also the problems of hacking and make users do something they don't want to do. The following is a scenario that I studied in CIS 3270 of a virtual rape.

In a virtual world called LamdbdaMOO there was a virtual rape by a user called Bungle. Bungle designed a subprogram, Voodoo doll, which could attribute actions to other characters. Using the Voodoo doll subprogram, Bungle took control of two other characters Legba and Starspinner, and manipulated these characters to appear to engage in sadistic and sexually explicit actions. Legba and Starspinner were helpless throughout the entire incident. The community was stunned and has no idea on how to handle the situation. So did Bungle do anything wrong and how should he be punished? Should anyone suffer real world consequences?

References:

•  La Ferla, Ruth. "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. .
• Mehta, Diane. "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.   

Social Networking Sites

When you hear the words social media we tend to think of Facebook and Twitter. But there are many more social networking sites. Social networking sites can be very beneficial if you know how to use them properly. The common social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Each of these serves a different purpose in sharing information. Facebook and Twitter are generally used to get news and updates from different sources quickly. Twitter is usually great for breaking news or sharing simple thoughts with friends. People can follow your tweets and if they like it, they can retweet it. Facebook allows users to keep in touch with friends and family throughout the world. You can life or comment on status updates or photos. Instagram is great for sharing photos and videos with use of minimal words and extensive use of #hashtags. Lastly LinkedIn is for professional to advertise themselves to companies. It also keeps personal life separate from professional life. LinkedIn is for adding coworkers, classmates, and anyone you have a professional relationship with. Your LinkedIn profile is essential your resume online. It is a great tool to look for jobs and internships and for employers to look for candidates.

Blog About Twitter

Due to the advancement of technology and the Internet, we are able to communicate with others faster than rather wait to speak face to face. The Internet has also helped in the educational field especially for students at Baruch that work or do internships during the semester. These students can go to Blackboard, look at the notes and do the homework/projects online. It has made life easier for professors because they don't have to print out large quantities of handouts for the students anymore, instead they post it online to Blackboard and it's now the students responsibility to view and print the handouts. Blackboard discussions tend to be difficult for most students due to the ongoing Blackboard problems and it not being as mobile friendly. Many students want to access Blackboard on their mobile devices instead of carrying around laptops. Therefore students tend to avoid checking Blackboard frequently and rely on emails. Although Twitter is more user friendly and has an app for mobile devices, it is not efficient to discuss long conversations. Discussions on Twitter is limited to 140 characters and doesn't allow you to fully explain things to get the point across. A benefit of Twitter is that things are more visual. Both of these discussions platforms are helpful but very different from in-class discussions. In class students and professors make eye contact and use body language to explain their point. Face to face discussions bring about expressions and tone of voice which can make the discussion more effective. A possible downfall of in-class discussions is for people whom English is not their first language. They may have difficult time understanding or explaining things and the professor might just not care and move forward to another topic. 

Social Networking

The creation of social media has changed the way in which we communicate. Before we used to communicate through letters, then phone calls, and now we are using social networking sites to communicate at a faster and efficient pace. Since the creation of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, there has been a debate about their benefits and detriments.

Social networking sites offer a medium for people to keep in touch with their acquaintances and maintain constant contact with their friends and family. This increased connectivity has opened new paths for relationships to be built and bonds to be strengthened. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people o find out more about their friends' interests, as well as their personal lives which can lead to more worthwhile discussions. LinkedIn has allowed students to portray or "market" their skills to many more companies when applying for jobs. According to the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", many more professional recruiters are hunting for job candidates through social media sites.

On the other hand, social networking sites deprive us of face-to-face interaction, which is detrimental to developing social skills. It also creates privacy issues and online threats. Hackers and scammers use information on social media sites to make victims fall prey on their own by posting personal information about themselves. As stated in the article "Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security", few users realize that the information they post, when combined with new technologies for gathering and compiling data, can create a fingerprint-like pattern of behavior.

References:

•  Langfitt, Frank. "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting." NPR. NPR, 22 Nov. 2006. Web. 9 Mar. 2015. 
•  "Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security." Knowledge@Wharton, 10 June 2009. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.  

Blog vs. Wiki

Today's generation relies heavily on quickly getting brief information. Not many people tend to read whole articles about incidents or events. Thus they rely on Blogs and Wikis. Blogs and Wikis have become a vital part of society for information sharing. For example, whenever we need to search up a topic we "Google it" and are many times directed to the first search which is Wikipedia. Through the Internet, many services and products were created such as Texting, Web surfing, VoIP, and e-commerce. In today's networked world, convergence is very essential because time is money.

There are many difference between Blogs and Wikis. The most common being Blogs are one to many, one write to many readers. While Wikis are many to many, many writers to many readers. Blogs are better for following the news because wiki articles can be changed by other users. Blogs can also be seen to be more trustworthy than Wikis because the blog author is responsible for what is posted. The article "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" states how a blogger wrote a post about drug dealing going on in the neighborhood and other bloggers soon replied with information they had heard. The benefit of Wikis is that they allow much more collaboration because readers can update the information they are viewing. The article "How to Use Wikis for Business" states that wikis allow more group communication and shows who updated what part of the project. Wikis are for knowledge sharing whereas Blogs are for opinion sharing.

References:

• "How To Use Wikis For Business - InformationWeek." InformationWeek. 4 Aug. 2005. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
• Wilson, Michael. "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 June 2008. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.