Next New

A new type of "new media" would be a more extensive virtual reality. Opposed to signing in on a website and being transmitted into an online world imagine using virtual reality through a headset such as an Oculus rift. An Oculus rift  is a special headset that transports you into different virtual realities. Samsung has a VR headset too, that with your phone you can enter different places all over the world, cliffs, underwater, and even in the desert. Although this phenomena is not new, imagine being able to network within those virtual realities with other people around the world. There could be set destinations where you can interact with people all over the world with this headset This can create international social networking. Also it creates a space of similarities to be shared and even beautiful scenery from across the world. It can provide alternative travel methods, for people who may have a fear of flying or don't have access to traveling whether it's personal or economical. This new media will provide another resource of exploring, and being able to do it from the comfort of your own home is always appreciated.

Wiki So Far

I contributed to the YouTube wiki page. I added another section called YouTube TV. The day it launched, I found an article with the information on the new developing technology. YouTube took on another platform of media. They are in the progress of building this new subscription service. This service will contribute to the necessity of cable being obsolete, such has Netflix and Hulu programs. I will continue to research this topic as it is still developing. 

I have also been going through the wiki pages to see if any catch my eye for more research. Although looking through social networking, I want to contribute the research I did for my paper. The topic was social networking so I have a lot of knowledge I want to share on the subject. 

P2P

File sharing is the ability to contribute your own work or files to other people.


According to NMA Staff in "Content producers should take advantage of P2P, not fear it"  they specify that P2P file sharing is peer to peer distribution of content.

For example, The Pirate Bay is a website when you can share files with other peers. The initial concept of the site was to advertise the Steal This File. There are other blogs notated in this blog such as "Digg, Slashdot, and BoingBoing" to bring people together to download multiple files.

Privacy

New media comes with plenty of issues with privacy and confidentiality. For example, In the New York Times, Tim Arango published an article "As Rights Clash on YouTube, Some Music Vanishes" where he goes into depth about the copyright issues on YouTube. Warner Music has a partnership with YouTube to monitor footage uploaded by anybody with possible issues of copyright issues. Resulting in these issues people are subjected for their videos to be monitored on a daily basis which violates privacy at a certain level. Also videos do get taken down if there is an issue found with it. Another article in Wired by David Kravets, goes into detail about how Google was opting to manually go through copyright issues that arise on Youtube. However this article was updated two days later stating that Google has retracted that statement. Youtube does need to manually go through the videos rather than taking it down automatically because some of the content that is published do not violate any rules of confidentiality and privacy. These are some issues that arise in new media and privacy.

Advice

  Using new media to improve Baruch can initiate constant evolving. As students we use media to research, to be up to date, and share amongst each other. Suggestions I can make is suggesting a platform that includes all of the new media we can get. As in having one domain for vlogging, blogging, posting, sharing, etc. Having all these accessible concepts, allows us as students to find everything in one content. Instead of having different accounts through different platforms, having to remember passwords and different usernames. There should be news and entertainment occuring together to give the most information at once. Speed and consistency is what we seek when looking for information. To have an organized domain appealing to everybody at every demographic and putting a creative spin on it is what I would suggest for applying new media to Baruch. It would have to be like nothing created before, which is why suggesting everything in one domain would give more access at a faster rate.

Creativity and New Media

I decided to give Second Life a try because I do know people who use it and have recommended it to me before. I started by creating my avatar by selecting one of the choices provided. I was then given instructions on how to navigate through the game with which keys on the keyboard. After going through 5 steps to be entered into the "Social Life" Where you can communicate with others in the vicinity, change your appearance and have access to all the settings. You can morph your voice. There's an active map to show you all the people near by. All tools provided for the character to walk, fly and jump. 

HW Creativity

New media continuously generates new creative content. With all the new platforms provided more people are expressing new types of art. In "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?"  of the New York Times discusses the popularity of mashups with familiar characters. Both Disney and Nickelodeon characters have been starring in music videos created by users using recent music. These users take snippets of old shows and match them with songs and create the video. This is one example of how new media fosters creativity. The ability of editing, shooting, and publishing gives individuals creative imagination. It brings a sense of nostalgia too.

Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why? The New York Times, September 24, 2007; available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in numerous ways, educational, social and entertainment. Online classes have increased within the last couple of years. Online classes give the opportunity to people who don't have the availability to physically go into school. In a social context, virtual worlds create connections to different people all over the world. The ability to communicate with anybody in an instant is revolutionary. In the case of entertainment, "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff wrote in the New York times about a virtual Lower East Side. That's right virtual access of a neighborhood right at the tips of your fingers. Itzkoff starts off this article with going to a concert from the comfort of his own home. There were no bouncers, no lines and nobody to distract. 

The pros of a virtual world give us an advanced society and provide connectedness. Virtual worlds create an advanced society by giving us opportunities we did not have before. Before virtual worlds, you miss out on events and interactions due to whatever reason and you get another opportunity with this option. Also the creativity and sources used to create virtual worlds goes unnoticed. At a point in time we did not have the tools to communicate and now we have software to transit you to another world.  Virtual worlds create interconnections between the users. For example, a person who is shy maybe classified as an introvert may not feel comfortable speaking to somebody at an event or a public place. Whereas in the virtual world the atmosphere invites the idea to communicate with each other and connect.

The cons of virtual worlds are absence of reality and lavish spending. "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You" by Ruth la Ferla in the New York Times speak on these issues. She discusses the users of virtual worlds where there is a distinction between life in the real world and virtual world. The opening paragraph suggests that users throw themselves into a virtual dimension and keep up the facade of that life itself. They spend money on clothes and furniture of their virtual lives opposed to spending money on rent needed. Mike Wilson, the chief executive of There.com explains that there was an influx of spending within the virtual world throughout the recession. This whole article discusses the percentages increasing of spending over the years for their need to stay in touch within this world.

I believe the virtual worlds continuously adds creativity. It's giving another outlet to us as a society. We are instantly transported into a world of interests or opportunities. For example this class itself, fully online but we all contribute ideas and intelligent conversations amongst us. Next, we might be transported into a class itself through this world. In the future I'm sure the virtual worlds will relate even more to reality. I feel eventually the difference between the two is going to be hard to distinguish.

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussions compared to Blackboard discussions share similarities and differences.  The similarities are the concept of constant conversations. You can respond to a person's tweets or retweet their posts to have on your account. Within Blackboard you can reply to a person's post to share continuous ideas and see other response such as twitter. Another similarity is all posts are in one place, for discussion board you see all students responses within the thread. The differences are that the characters are unlimited for Blackboard opposed to twitters 140 character rule. Another difference is the freedom of topics, there are definite trends to follow and posts along with. But Blackboard discussions are structured in a specific day. In contrast with an in class discussions, those are different from the two completely. A face to face discussion between anybody is more genuine, where you can look at the person in their eyes as they speak and really listen rather than looking at a screen. There is more of a chance of several different discussions emerging.

Blog: Social networking sites

The first page I explored was Facebook. First impressions go as far as cluttered. My timeline was displaying different wall posts from all my friends, a menu dropped down to the left, trending topics and suggested popups/ads to the right. Scrolling through the timeline of wall posts, the posts were out of order. There was a link posted three hours before followed by a post published 20 minutes prior.  However, the overall impression of facebook was a place to express words, emojis, birthdays and more. It exceeds expectations of capabilities within the site. It can connect you with people all over the world discussing the same thing.

When visiting twitter it gave me a fast pace feeling. The tweets, only allowing 140 characters challenges users to condense what they mean. Not necessarily do people even need the 140 characters to express how they feel. Twitter has a similar design to facebook, in the way the mainstream of posts are front and centered. A menu to the right and suggestions all around. The ads are built into the mainstream, where you see your "followers" retweet a post. I am impressed in the way that twitter was one of the first media outlets to allow you to reshare a fellow users post, to add to their own domain.

Blog Social networking

Just as the article, “Antisocial networking?” in the New York times suggests that technologies are used for communicating to each other at a fast rate. Unlike before when all interactions were face to face, time has only created a way to stay in contact at all times. The benefits also stated in this article are that close relationships are important for developing connections in the real world. There is a constant change in technology which I see as both a blessing and curse. I believe technology has opened up a new door for possibilities we only imagined at a time such as the telephone, which has developed a lot.

I do see the side of the “dark side” of technology though. “Is Myspace Good for Society? A freakonomics Quorum” in the New York times brought to the light this idea that we need disconnection sometimes because then it makes us realize how dependent we are on technology and connections with other people. As people, we spend a lot of time on our phones, on the internet, and get distracted to what goes on outside of the phone. I believe technology is good and has brought us all together and closer as a society but I also feel we are reliant on it too much.

Antisocial Networking? by Hilary Stout, New York Times, May 2, 2010, p. ST1. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html

Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner. NYT Feb 15, 2008 http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum

BLOG: Blog v Wiki

Blogs and Wikis are used by many people daily. They both give a type of power to the writers behind the posts. I feel blogs are more personal compared to wikis. Blogs are controlled by the creator itself, as they posts about what matters to them or what they want to speak out about without additional comments, at least in the original post. Whereas wikis are a continuation of information being passed along, where people can add to the posts. Also it seems like Blogs can be used by the anonymous to express things without the repercussions. Such as when Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times, " Stung by the Perfect Sting", about a Model who found she was awarded to be the "Skankiest in NYC," by an anonymous blogger. Most people probably did not seek this blog, however he anonymous blogger wrote about how she felt the model was a "ho" and "skank" and found out who the actual blogger was through her resources.

It's important to allow all types of communication to be connected in today's networked world. Everybody is communicating in different channels (instagram, snapchat, etc.) in different ways, such as blogging, posting on facebook walls, or even vlogging. One may connect better in one way than another, but having an outlet for all different channels is important so we can all relate. Relate to each other's content and be able to discuss/contribute ideas.

Blogs can be used in a collaboration rather than just individual use. People can come together to speak or express as a unit. Also just as in the article, "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid" by Michael Wilson where many bloggers helped the police track down on multiple drug nuances in the Bay Ridge area. Bloggers were noticing suspicious activity around there neighborhood which led the police to finding there was a crack house, that led to arrests. Just because blogs are usually created by individuals there can be a collaborative effort.

A new use for wiki that has not been done before can be a fact checker added to the pages. Since wikis are available for editing from anybody there is always a chance of false information being shared. In order to avoid that issue, there should be an added fact check to ensure the correct information is being passed along.

Project Purpose

I would like to explore social media and it's social networking aspect. I am going to be discussing the pros and the cons of the sociological angle of social media, having to do with the development and structure of different social media. I would also like to speak on the morality one has when it comes to social media. Lastly I want to discuss the educational opportunities of social media. All showing pros and cons. I will do this with a series of research having to do with social media and statistics in each case. I would also like to conduct a survey for multiple millennials in regards to my project.