Creativity and New Media

Bitstrips is an app that allows users to create a cartoon version of themselves and create comics that starts them or their friends. You can change your hairstyle,  Bitstrips is linked with Facebook, which some people update their moods or statuses using this app. It's a new way to express yourself and interact with friends because instead of posting the same things, you can edit your own comic and post something that's related to your life.

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Creativity

Media is constantly improving and it consumes everyone's lives. We use it daily to check updates on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Media fosters creativity since it allow one to share ideas to a large audience. An example of how media fosters creativity is how some companies offer contests for their viewers to participate in. Big companies offer viewers to market a company's product to help the company generate a new idea. Doritos had a YouTube contest that had its viewers think of an idea and make a video to sell their brand. The best one would be chosen to be played as a commercial during the Super Bowl. Twitter allows people to predict which product or idea will be popular, and companies uses these statistics to help them grow. Nowadays instead of companies thinking of a new idea, consumers help the company instead. Viewing other's videos or ideas also help improve each other's creativity.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html?_r=0

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Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

There are many ways virtual worlds can be used for. They can be used for business purposes to social purposes. Virtual worlds allow people create 3D avatars and connect and communicate online rather in person. Such as how IBM helped a company log into the world called Second Life and create virtual meetings. The meeting on the screen looked like what the room would look like in real life and the 3D avatars would look like the executives. Virtual worlds allow people to actually "be there" but not actually there. People can also create and live however they want to in their second life without financial constraints or limitations. Virtual worlds can also foster creativity. People might find creative ways to make money since there are no boundaries in the virtual world. Although virtual worlds may sound fun, there are also a downside to it.

Sometimes people are too into their second life that they do nothing but investing all their time into their fake life. People may want to just live their second life and not their real one because they can be whoever they want to be behind the screen. This is good for lower self esteem people. However not everyone can be trusted in the second life. Virtual worlds may have real life molesters or kidnappers pretending to be someone who they're not to lure other people in. Some people meet their boyfriend or girlfriend through their second life and may fall in love with the avatar but not the actual person.

Virtual worlds and real worlds are pretty similar in the fact that people need to buy the things they want and need to create and start a family. I feel like virtual worlds will continue to grow in the future. Businesses might use it more to conduct meetings. It can also act as a form of entertainment in gaming or online dating. It will continue to grown and become more popular. Although it may be fun, people should just not be too into it and forget about their real life.

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-12-19/toys-with-a-second-life
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1363759952-GqzAx1BOpAdne%20EDI%20I3MQ
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/nyregion/thecity/03virt.html?_r=1&

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Social Networking Sites

Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Tumblr, are websites that comes to our mind when thinking about networking sites.

Facebook is probably one of the most popular social networking sites out there. It is very easy to use, and since how almost everyone has one, it allows one to easily communicate and be updated with their friends lives. Finding friends is easy due to the fact that they have a mutual friends and friends suggestion sidebar. You can post on walls and post up statuses, photos, and videos. The newsfeed also acts a current event update because people post up statuses about current events. You can also create event pages or pages for people to like.

Myspace used to be very popular 7 years ago, when I was in middle school. Unlike Facebook, Myspace have music pages, which allow you to follow bands and stream music. It was pretty popular among band groups and musicians but now that there are other sites like Twitter for their fans to follow their day to day lives.

I've never really used Twitter until recently for this class. I never got into it and not many of my friends use it. However now using it for this class, I find that Twitter is fast and easy to use. By limiting user's posts to 140 characters, it is easy to read and the messages are straight to the point. The hashtags are fun and its a good way to group similar topics. It allows celebrities to interact and update their followers.

Tumblr got popular more recently within the few years. It's a blogging site where people and people from ages 17-25 blog and reblog pictures and posts and gain followers. I've been using it for a while and I find it very easy and fun to use. I can browse through many pictures and posts by different users and it can be very time consuming and interesting to look through. I can also create a private blog under my official account and make it password protected so no one can see my personal posts.

Social networking sites are emerging every day. These four sites are just some of the many sites we have and I believe there will be more sites in the future.

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Blog About Twitter

Both Twitter and Blackboard are ways to communicate and have a discussion. Both Twitter and Blackboard allows faculty to communicate and update students. However, Twitter is more current and easier to access while Blackboard is more set and less flexible. If using Twitter, discussions are limited to 140 characters. Therefore sometimes this might not be enough to get a point across. Blackboard allows students to attach files or type as long of a discussion they want. Unlike Twitter, Blackboard has threads which creates an organized way to show all the discussion under one area, while Twitter it's all over the place and the only way to find a tweet is by hashtags.

I think in class discussions are more effective to discuss. It's more face to face and sometimes ideas are more spontaneous. Sometimes ideas are bounced off from one person to another, and it allows people to build their communication skills. It's better for the students and teachers to talk to each other because sometimes people are not who they seem behind the computer screen. The downside is that not everyone will participate, like the more shy people or the less outspoken ones.

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Social Networking

Social networking is a predominate in our lifestyle nowadays. There are many ways people and corporates use social networking. People use social networking to connect with friends and family. It's an easy way to keep up with the social circle. It's an easier way to communicate with the world around us instead of using long distance calling. It is used to maintain a connection between people. Individuals use blogs or vlogs to voice opinions or convey a message. Celebrities use Twitter or Instagram to connect with fans.

Besides keeping in contact, social networking has other benefits too such as finding a job. Corporations or other people use sites such as LinkedIn to maintain professional connections and build a network. Companies can use it to recruit and find potential candidates. Maureen Crawford-Hentz who is a recruiter for Osram Sylvania, used LinkedIn to search for high quality candidates and reached out to Alfred LaSpina who currently works there. (NPR.org). It helps students and other professionals to find jobs. Social networking creates a faster and more efficient way to keep in touch and get the latest update and news.

Although social networking seems very beneficial, there are cons too. One example would be the loss of privacy. Take Facebook as an example. Every comment, status, photo, or video you post up, anyone has access to it. People has access to your information and can even download the pictures you posted up. Moreover, if you look at Facebook's Terms and Policy, everything you post up onto Facebook belongs to them. That means that they can use the picture you posted up in any way they want. 

Also, social networking can lead to cyber bulling. Since people are communicating behind screens, they don't know who is behind it and can pretend to be anyone they want. This also ties in with the lack of face to face communication. As social networking become more and more popular, children rather talk online than meeting and talk face to face. They face their computers 24/7 and this also creates a lack of communication between them and their parents. "Children used to talk to their friends," as a New York TImes article stated. Talking online damages their skill to comfortably talk to others in person.

In the future, social networking will just keep on increasing. There is no way to prevent it as long as technology keeps on increasing. The future generations will rely on it much more and this will just decrease face to face communication. We can tell by just the different generations. I didn't use the internet until I was in middle school. My brother, who's 6 years younger than me started using it when he was in first or second grade. My baby cousin, who's four this year, knows how to navigate through the iPad and watches cartoons on YouTube. This just shows how in the future, social networking will be a huge part in everyone's lives. ALthough it has negatives, social networking keeps us all connected and updated and potentially helps us find a job. 

Cite:

(NPR.org): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf
(NY Times): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1362626765-dLKYNgBT64iriXkkDduLDQ 

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Blogs VS. Wikis

Blogs and Wikis are both forms of communication that derived from the Internet. They are created with the intention to share information to a wide audience.

Blogs are websites used for one's own opinion, thoughts or information, usually on a daily basis. Anyone from individuals to companies can write a blog and the blog can contain anything. The author reflects their personality through the blog by the content, the tone of the posts, and the layout. The main difference between blogs and Wikis is that blogs are more personal. Unlike Wikis, blogs are also in journal format where posts are in chronological descending order, while Wikis have categories. Another difference between Wikis and blogs is that readers are allowed to comment on a post in a blog. This allows the author to get feedback from readers and creates communication between the readers and the author. Sometimes blogs can be collaborative and helpful for a cause or case. Such an example would be how a Brooklyn blog helped lead to a drug raid. According to a New York Times article, readers on a blog commented and gave feedback on a post that helped the police. On a neighborhood blog BayRidgeTalk.com, a one person posted “Fighting and drug deals going down in the driveway of this house,” about a home steeped in reports of suspicious activity. Another person replied, “I’ve heard loud fighting for almost a year now but did not realize until recently that it’s a crack house.” One of the bloggers have gave a detailed description of the crack house and months later police raided the two neighborhood crack houses, arresting the suspects. Blogs are usually the work of one individual, but blogs can be used for collaboration.

Wikis are more informational, less opinionated and personal. They share information with the masses. Wikis allow a group of users to create and edit posts by others or themselves. (CIO) Wikis are shared databases that can be edited by anyone who has access to it. Unlike blogs where there is usually one author, Wikis have many knowledgeable contributors who help keep the content updated.
Both blogs and Wikis are important in today’s networked world. They both impact the way people communicate with each other. People rely on them for information and some are used for research. Posting the information on blogs, opens up a two way channel of communication between the authors and the readers. It allows readers to voice their opinions and thoughts and share them with other peers as well. Wikis have provided a wide knowledge base for the masses. A person who is interested and curious about a subject matter can learn about it without researching through different websites and books. Wikis have allowed the masses to learn by providing information. Although people do say don't use Wiki for research because they can be unreliable because anyone can edit it and some people can add unrelated or misleading information. Blogs and Wikis are important tools of communication in today’s world.

I believe that a Wiki can be created for each College and only giving professors and students the access to edit. This is a useful way for students and faculty to build a connection and add pages for different activities and updates such a different page for classes, information, events, etc. This will create an organized way to show all information on the college and a great way of presenting and collaboration within the college community.

Articles cited:
New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html?_r=0
CIO: http://www.cio.com/article/336818/More_on_How_to_Build_Your_Own_Wikipedia?page=1&taxonomyId=3130

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