Creativity and New Media

I recently joined the site World of Kaneva which is a virtual reality. I chose an avatar that resembled mean and I explored the world. I found in my world, in my house I had my own pool and beach.

  I visited a night club where I met other avatars and hung out with them. We were able to chat through these virtual worlds as well.


 

I find it really interesting how you can control another life in the way you want. You are literally living another life where you can be who you want without anyone judging you.

Creativity

New media is an outlet for people who need to express themselves without boundaries. I believe new media makes it really easy for someone to be creative. A lot of the sites we consider new media such as a blog, Facebook, Instagram and others like this, allow you express your ideas, your thoughts online through words, videos or pictures. It is almost a form of art when you use these sites because you are using creativity. YouTube is a site where people posts all kinds of videos. These videos can either be of actual people, or of things that people make up and mix together. An example of this comes from the article "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. Buy Why?" by Brooks Barnes. Where people did mash ups of cartoon characters singing and making a music video to the songs. The example talks about the song "Crank That" by Soulja Boy. These people remade this music video with actual characters. This is an example as to how people are using new media to show their creativity. This is the easiest way to express your creativity. Your behind a computer screen just talking about a topic you want and sharing photos and videos.  

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in many ways, as its popularity continuously grows. People use them for their own personal pleasure as well as the business world uses them to help improve their technology. Along with the idea of different ways the virtual world is being used, there are the advantages and disadvantages of it. The advantages of it, is that you can escape from reality and use your own creativity to make your own world. It is very similar to the real world and that’s why companies you it to improve their technology. In the medical field it helps with medical procedures, in the military it helps with weapons, it can also be helpful for those experiencing stress. The advantage in a medical is shown through the article “Avataar II: The Hospital” by Stephanie Simon, where a virtual hospital full of nurses is made in order to help real nurses figure out how to handle any disaster. The instructor will come up with the sick avatars and the nurses are put into this world for practice. They each have their own character that is dressed in scrubs and that they can fully control. It is a great way to learn new ways of handling situations without actually having them happen for the first time in real life. The disadvantages of this is that it takes a lot of time to create these worlds and it can defy the laws of physics. The visual effects might not be as good as the real world either.  In the virtual world, it is very easy to be creative. You create your character that you can make whoever you want. You dress them how you want, you create their world how you want; everything in the virtual world comes from your creativity. It is a way to express yourself when you cannot in the real world. It is a way to be who you want to be without people stopping or judging you. I believe in the future, the virtual world will be used in more business like settings, for example like in the article “At Hearing, Real and Virtual Worlds Collide” where the hearing is based in real life and in the virtual world. The virtual characters log in and can watch what is going on through the virtual world. They then discussion their feelings on the hearing amongst each other. I also think the virtual world will come to the classroom, more likely in collages. Instead of going into class, you will have a virtual classroom where you will be learning from. The virtual world is only going to get more and more popular as time goes on.

Blog About Twitter

There are similarities and differences in the way we have discussions over Twitter, Blackboard and in class. On Twitter we can discuss topics through tweets. We tweet our feelings, but you have space for 140 characters. The tweets are in order by the latest that was posted. In order to have a discussion about a certain topic with other people you can either retweet what was posted and then comment on it, or you can comment with the same hashtags. It is simple and easy holding a discussion over Twitter, but the tweets are not all grouped together. Blackboard is also a good way to hold a discussion online. This way might be even more easier and simpler then using Twitter. It is under the tab called Discussion and usually there are different topics listed from the teacher. You chose the topic and click create thread. There is where you post your answer to the questions or your comments on the topic. Under each different topic is everyone's answers all organized. It is listed by the the latest time. You can view each answer individually or open all them up at the same time. The only bad part about this, is that students might not read what everyone wrote, so it isn't as effective. The in class discussion is probably the best way to communicate. You are all face to face and everyone gets to hear what other people think. It is the easiest way to have everyone participate at the same time and actually hold a discussion for as long as the class is. Although in class discussions have been around forever and are probably the most popular of the three, using Twitter and Blackboard are becoming more and more popular along with many other social networks.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook is a popular social network that is used all around the world. It's main function is communication, but it is used for many other things. Right away when you log onto Facebook you can leave a status and write anything you want. People can then comment or like what you post. You can upload photos and videos as well. Everyone has a profile with a timeline of everything they have posted. This profile can be either private or public. You request friends and then you can communicate with them. There is also messaging, which is a private one on one way of communicating. However, through the messaging you can form groups and have group discussions. It is more about just staying in contact with friends and family that are anywhere in the world.
Twitter is another social networking site that is similar to Facebook. When you log on Twitter you can automatically tweet whatever you want. Under that is a list of all tweets that have been posted by the profiles you follow. You can re-tweet or like anything that comes up on this. There is also the topics that are trending throughout Twitter. Just like Facebook, you have a profile which shows everything you have tweeted or re-tweeted. You can post photos or videos onto this site as well. This profile can be made private or public and there is also a way to message people privately. This site is for communicating as well as Facebook is, but it feels more like a site to keep up with whats going on in this world.
Snapchat is a big social network that is not so similar to the last two I just talked about. It is an app that is used to sent photos to people. This site allows you to send a photo to your friends for up to 10 seconds then it automatically disappears and gets deleted. You can send pictures or videos to people as long as you are friends. You can also post a story which is a series of your pictures or videos that you want everyone to see. It stays up for a day and then it will automatically disappear. Any pictures you take on Snapchat can be saved to your photo album. You can also privately messaged any of your friends which also gets deleted after viewing it and closing out of the app. Your friends can screenshot any picture you send them, but you will be notified if that happens. This app is basically a private app that deletes everything that is posted after a period of time.
Skype is a social network used for video chat. You can chat with one person or multiple people at the same time. You can also message people privately or as a group chat. Skype can also be used to send photos or files to each other. A lot of businesses use social networks like this because of how easy it is to communicate. Skype can also be used to make phone calls, of course there are rates to pay if you do, but you can communicate over the phone. It also has a feature called screen sharing which lets you share your computer screen with whoever you are video chatting with.
All four of these social networks are used to communicate with others. They have some similarities, but are different in their own ways. Each site or app is very popular and used by all kinds of people, all over the world.

Social Networking

Social Networking is becoming more and more popular throughout the years with many different people. It is being used between family, friends and even businesses. One thing social networking is big on is communicating between people. On Facebook, people talk to their friends and family everyday, some people even meet new people on sites like this. My mom has just come in contact with family that she did not even know she had. Searching for people is easy considering most people on Facebook use their real names. It makes it easy to find anyone you need to. That goes for a lot of the other social networking sites, you can find people really fast and it's simple. Since I lived in Florida for most of my high school years, I left a lot of friends behind when I came back here. Being able to have social networking I can still keep in contact with them. I have so many of them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, that I can talk to them any time I want and it doesn't feel like we're so far apart. Another way social networking is used is for businesses which the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt shows us. Maureen Crawford-Hentz was looking for someone new to fill one of her open job spots her company had. She thought she would explore the internet and used a site called Linkedin. This website is known for people using it to get jobs and networking. She came across someone that drew her attention and ended up contacting him. This shows social networking making it easier for businesses to recruit new workers. This is one of the benefits for social networking. The easiness and quickness of using the web to find new employees or even to find new family members. It can also benefit us, by allowing people to communicate with anyone in the world, like I do with my friends from Florida. You never have to lose contact with anyone who has any type of social networking. It might have plenty of benefits, but social networking has it downfalls. In the article "Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum" by Stephen J. Dubner, people are asked how they think social networking is affecting society. While a lot of their answers are positive, a few believe it could be negatively affecting society. Martin Baily talks about how sharing too much information might not be the best thing. You no longer have privacy and it can actually end up being very dangerous. He also states that there is a lot of cyber bullying going on that causes suicides. Judith Donath also interviewed in the article states that the bad side of social networking is that it "devalues the meaning of friend." She says that a friend can just be anyone whose profile you have visited. Social networking can make it very hard for people to have relationships.

Blogs Vs. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are both very similar, but very different at the same time. A blog is basically written by one author, who shares their opinions on topics of their interest. These blog posts can then be commented on by outside people. Anyone from any part of the world can access these blogs and comment on them. It makes it very easy to communicate with others. Usually with a blog, there a multiple posts about different things by that author, so as time goes on the older blog posts can be forgotten, or not looked at as often. The comments on these blogs usually needs to be approved by the blogger, therefore not everything will get posted. Communication will take place through these comments. Wikis are usually a collaborative effort, where there is many different authors contributing. Unlike a blog, with wikis anyone can edit the post at any time. It is constantly changing as new people read it. This is also a good way of communicating and can be used anywhere in the world. Where as the in the blog, the discussion takes place in the comments, the discussion in a wiki can take place right in the work. Wikis usually contain information, rather than opinion, although sometimes people may throw their opinions into the page. Bot the Blogs and Wikis have are important in convergence for a business. The article Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog by James Dao may mainly focus on the negative influences troops can face while blogging, but it also shows the importance of this new technology emerging. The troops feel like they should be able to blog and express their feelings during their time at war. Mud Puppy, one of the soldiers who uses blogging as an outlet of his feelings says he thinks it is very important they allow soldiers to express themselves through blogs. He feels that people need to know what is actually going on from the soldiers, most importantly the ones who are facing the problems right now. It also helps them communicate with other soldiers and also people higher up in the military. I think blogging while in the military can be a good form of therapy for the soldiers since they can express themselves and also talk to others that are currently going through what they are going through. This article shows how important blogging can be to a business and just something so simple by letting them communicate with one another and express their feelings. Wikis are also just as important as it emerges which the article Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales on Making the Most of Company Wikis by Gardiner Morse explains. Right off the back the article explains that companies use wikis in order for people to communicate within the business. They use it to determine meeting times, thinking of new possible projects, and figuring out what is best working for the company. It is one of the best ways for employees in a business to collaborate on ideas. Blogs are not typically thought of as a collaborative effort, but it can always turn into one. When a person posts a blog it is usually their opinions on a certain topic. This can later be commented on by outside people who are providing their own opinions on the work and the topic. The author of the blog can then comment back to that person and so on. This can turn into a collaborative effort when the author is trying to write a new blog post. The author can use ideas from other people who have contributed to their posts. This is one way that a blog can turn into a collaborative effort. Wikis are becoming a very popular form of communication and has been introduced to many different companies. I think wikis will eventually be used in businesses that are selling clothing and shoes. I think if employees use wikis as a way to communicate and get their brands out there, they will sell more products. I also believe it can help them get feed back from their customers and that will help them with new ideas on how to sell their products. It can also help maybe even set up these products in a store, so they look more presentable. I believe being able to get customer feedback is very important for stores and the more ways you can get it, the better.