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