Creativity and New Media

For a class I had to create an avatar of myself in a virtual world. I learned that this virtual world is very similar to real life, but you have no limits on who and what you want to be. First, when you pick your avatar you can be a person or an animal like person or a robot. You get to choose from a bunch of different choices. Then, when your actually in the world you can create how you want your place to look. You can visit other people's worlds and make friends through this virtual reality. When I payed, I was able to change my clothing. I visited a world which was a family site. We danced on the dance floor. I also visited a night club where I danced even more. I enjoy playing in this virtual world because your free to just express yourself.

                

Creativity

New Media continues to grow in popularity over the years. It is a way for people to express themselves through videos, pictures or through writing. It is a way for these people to be creative without really having too many boundaries. A lot of these new media sites use fans to help build new things for their sites; to help improve it in a way that will attract these people. The article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" by Clare Cain Miller talks about and gives us a few examples of this method. For example Flikr found out that sharing photos was becoming a popular thing, so that's how the site came about. They actually leave there innovations up to their users. It is a good way to get an idea of what they like to make the site more attractive. As the article states, Twitter is one of the top sites that uses customer innovation. Users of Twitter are the reason why tweets have that name. They started calling them that and eventually Twitter adopted the term. The # was also another thing brought about by a user of Twitter. These are ways in which people were just being creative and it caught on with other users and Twitter itself. A site like this lets you come up with new ideas for Twitter. Being creative on websites is very easy. I believe these type of sites are for users to be creative and express themselves.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

The virtual world is actually really interesting when you really come to understand it. People choose who and what they want to be and through these characters act out good or bad deeds. A lot of people tend to not realize how much a virtual character affects your actions in real life. Reading the article “Virtual World may Impact Real World Behaviour”, it gives us an example of how it affects our real life. It talked about people being heros’ and villains. In real life they gave them a test where they would taste chili or chocolate, then pass it further on. They would choose how much of each they would give to the taster after them. The people who acted as heros gave a lot more chocolate than chili and the people who acted as a villain in these virtual worlds, gave a lot more chili than chocolate. This can be a pro and a con for the virtual world. A pro in the sense that if people are choosing to be a hero, they tend to do better in real life as well. A con because these people who are choosing to be villains are also acting that way in real life. The virtual world gives people a chance to leave their normal stressful lives for a while and either save the day or terrorize it. A few other advantages of the virtual world is that it can help with training programs for the military, surgical procedures such as diagnosing and procedures and also gaming experiences. Its an advantage in these ways because the virtual world is so similar to real life. Some disadvantages of making a virtual world is that it is very time consuming, it could also not be as clear to see or hear. There are many disadvantages a virtual world can face. The virtual world is all about creativity and the idea that you can be anything you want. In the article No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s The Real You” by Ruth La Ferla it talks about how people during the Recession could not actually go out and buy these expensive things, but took to the virtual world to do it instead. People would spend money on these games in order to have what they wanted in the real world. It is almost like a way to express who you really want to be, even if it isn’t possible in real life. You can create your world however you want to with very little boundaries. I think the future is going to have a lot more involvement with virtual worlds. I believe it is going to eventually be a way to help train employees, especially in the retail industry. In my eyes the virtual world can be a very positive thing for the future.

Blog About Twitter

You can have discussions on Twitter, on Blackboard and in a classroom. There are differences however, on how each one is held. We all know how classroom discussions go. I think this one is the easiest one that is held. The teacher talks about the topic being done in class and then everyone comments on it. Usually the students are learning and will occasionally asks questions. It is just an easier way to communicate between everyone about what is going on in class. A discussion on Blackboard is easy enough to have, but I don't think it is as effective as actually being in a classroom. Usually a topic will be put up on Blackboard and questions will be asked by the teacher. Then, each student will go and answer the questions and talk about the topic. It is in the form of a comment, so everyone will comment on it. You usually view them as separate answers, but there is a way to see them all at once. This can cause students to not read all their classmates answers, so they won't get as much out of the topics as if they were in a classroom. The good part about Blackboard is that it is always up there, so the students can go back whenever they want to look at it. They are in order of dates when they are posted. Twitter, I believe is the hardest way to hold a discussion. People are always tweeting, so your feed is constantly updating with new information. If you have a discussion, it doesn't mean that all the comments will be right under each other. A easier way to hold a discussion on Twitter is to all use the same hashtag. By doing that, you can click on the hashtag and all the comments will come up that used it. Although each way can be used for discussions, I believe some are easier then others. Face to face discussions seem the easiest to me, but discussions online are more convenient.

Social Networking Sites

Social Networks are used by everyone as a way of expressing themselves and also communicating with others. I visited Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr. I've had a Facebook for a long time and I am very familiar with the site, however, it is constantly changing. To me, Facebook is a very public site, even if your profile is private. You can share everything on, like what your thoughts are or even photos. It makes it very easy to communicate with anyone. You can comment on people's photos or status. You can also privately messaged people on Facebook. This site is very similar to Twitter to me. I haven't had Twitter long, but you can do very similar things on it as Facebook. Its actual setup is different looking, but you can tweet about whatever you want. You can retweet other people's things or even comment on them. Just like Facebook, Twitter gives you the option of being private or public. You can upload pictures and also like any comments or pictures you want. Both Twitter and Facebook have the same feel when it comes to their websites. Instagram is different then both Facebook and Twitter. It is more focused on pictures and videos. You upload pictures and then your friends can comment or like them. Instagram also has direct message which is its form of privately messaging someone. Instagram is more used as an app though because when using it as a website, you can't do everything. You cannot upload new photos or videos on the website, but you can do all that on the app. You can only comment and like other people's photos on the website. This social network is app based on phones. Flickr is the newest social network for me and I just got one. It seems very similar to Instagram, except it has its differences. With Flickr you can upload any photos you want onto the site, but not everyone will see that. It is called the camera roll, like the ones cellphones have. In order to make photos public, you have to upload them to the photo stream. You can favorite other people's photos or comment on them. All these social networks are very similar and can do pretty much the same things. They allow you to upload photos or videos, comment on other peoples things and overall just communicate with others.

Social Networking

Social Networking has emerged throughout the years and is now a huge way in communicating for everyone. There are many ways in which social networking can be used and there are many benefits of using it.  One way social media is used in business is for job recruiting. In the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" it explains how social media helped Maureen Crawford-Hentz recruit for global lighting company. She used a site called Linkedin where all she had to do was type in a keyword and it navigated her to a person who was working that current job somewhere else. It was as simple as typing in one word and she found a possible new employee. However, not everyone needs to have the option of being contacted for  a job opportunity. As the article states, there are privacy policies that allow you to decide whether you can be contacted or not. Other ways social media can be used is for keeping in touch with all friends or even family that lives around the world. A website like Facebook makes it very easy to communicate with anyone at anytime. I have family living in Italy right now that I keep in touch with. Facebook even has a translator button, so if someone writes something in a different language, Facebook will translate it right there for you. I find myself using that a lot when I am talking to my relatives. Social media is beneficial for those who want to communicate with others. It is beneficially, as the article showed us, for businesses to find new employees. Within a company social media can be very beneficial because it can be a way for the employees to communicate and keep up with what is going on at work. It can help them figure out when their meetings are and what new project is being worked on. Although social media can be beneficial it also has it's "dark side".  A big problem we see now is how anti-social social media made people. We see people constantly looking at their phones either texting, using the internet, or on some social media site. The article "Antisocial Networking?" by Hilary Stout goes into great detail about how kids do not do normal kid things anymore. It talks about how kids are constantly on social media and are no longer actually able to have conversations with their friends in person. Kids don't go outside anymore and play games, instead most of them are inside sitting on their computers. The article says that unlike the kids parents, who had relationships with their friends, the kids could miss out on some experiences that will help them develop socially. Another dark side of social media is that nothing is really private anymore. No matter how private you try to be, your information is out there for anyone to access. I do believe that in the future social media is going to be the center of everything. The only way people will communicate is through social media. I think that businesses will even jump more on the social media train and run a lot of their daily work through it. It is going to take over.

Blogs Vs. Wikis

Reading up on the topics of blogs and wikis we can see they have many differences and similarities. They are very useful for students or people in general who want to express themselves and connect with people all around the world. Blogs and wikis, both are very easy for everyone to access. They can be viewed by anyone, anywhere in the world. They can also be commented on by anyone. After reading either one, you can respond to the article. There is a difference between the two when it comes to editing a wiki or blog. The difference is you can actually edit a wiki anywhere within the text. You cannot edit a blog, only comment on it. With both a blog and wiki, you can express your own ideas and be creative. Both a blog and wiki can be a good source of communication with people who have similar interests to your own. There might be quite a few similarities, but there are also differences. A big difference between the two is that a Blog only has one author and that author is the only person who can edit that work, while a Wiki is made up of a bunch of different authors that are constantly editing the work. The information posted to both a blog and a wiki is usually different. A blog is usually the opinion of the author, where the wiki is usually information on a topic. Both may have differences, but the convergence to the Wiki and Blog in the business world is very important. In the article Brooklyn Blog Helps Drug Raid by Michael Wilson we can see how important blogs can be and how important the convergence to blogs can be to a business. In a neighborhood there was a very suspicious house where the neighbors assumed were selling drugs. A few neighbors would post on this blog explaining what they would see and hear day to day. It brought up suspicion and the cops were brought in for investigation. They eventually figured out there was drugs being dealt and taken. The cops arrested five people including three bothers who lived in the houses. This investigation would have never took place if the neighbors did not post on the blog. It shows how important blogs could be in the business world, in any type of business. In the article How to Use Wikis For Business by Ezra Goodnoe, we see how Wikis have become important to the business world. First off the article says that the cheap prices of a Wiki make it easy for businesses to publish their work. This helps the business exchange information and make it easy to communicate within the business. Wikis can make a business run more smoothly and get their business ideas across more easily.
Blogs are not normally known as collaborative works, but I believe there is a way that it could be used like this. It originally starts off with one author who voices their opinion. I do believe, however, once people start commenting on the blog, they are imputing their opinion into the work. These comments can be used to help the blogger with their new blog posts. Wikis are usually a collaborative work. We already know the lists of things that wikis are used for. I believe that in the future wikis will be used in classrooms. I know they are used now in classrooms, but I mean have even more importance. Maybe, they will be used to actually do class projects, or used for class notes where students can add information if they feel its necessary. I think there is going to be a bigger role in the future for wikis in a classroom setting. I also believe online classes will also incorporate them more into their class work.