Creativity and New Media

Above is a snapshot of my avatar named Blbear93. I used Second Life to create this avatar. My avatar is flying across the ocean because I always wanted to travel around the world but due to the expenses, I don’t travel often. Moreover, my avatar have the power to fly because I always wanted to fly to get to where I have to be. Flying is always faster than walking.

CREATIVTY

According to Barnes, new media foster creativity for many individuals who have access to the internet. YouTube users often use the program called mash-ups to combine snippets of other videos to create a new video. For example, a YouTube user used the song called “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” to combine snippets of Disney movies together. Within months, the videos started to gain popularity and the song has climb its way up to the No.1 hit on Billboard Hot 100 of the month.  New media allow individuals to turn something old into something new by altering the original version of the product.  

Work Cited:

Barnes, Brooks. "Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2007. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

   <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html?_r=0>

 

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual world is a computer-based simulated by the appearance of the environment. The virtual world allows individuals to exercise their imagination and creative beyond drawing it out or writing it out. Virtual world are being used in today society for multiply reasons. For example, virtual worlds are being used as a training programs for flight simulator for polite and battlefield simulator for soldiers. In addition, virtual environment have been used to treat patient with anxiety problems by flooding them with their fear so that they could learn how to handle themselves in reality. Next, virtual world is being used by many gamer. With the advance technologies for gaming systems, the gamer can now create their own avatar and interact with other people in the virtual world.

Pros about virtual world is that it is a great place where individual of all class can come together to socialize with one and another. They can meet people with common interest from all over the world. It also proves freedom of expression through the avatar that they have created.  On the other hand, some cons about the virtual world is that individuals many confuse themselves of what they have and don’t have compared to reality. Individuals may be more attracted to the virtual world which may cause them to detach themselves from reality. Lastly, depending on what the individual do on the virtual world, the individual may feel insignificant which may lead to destructive actions.

Due to the rapid advancements in technologies, the virtual world will flourish in the near future. The virtual world would look exactly the same as the real world if not better. Many people will start to become more engaged in the virtual world than reality because the virtual world would be more appealing. It is more appealing for the users because the users get to exercise their creativity in the virtual world. They virtual world allows them to have everything that they ever wanted in one area.

Blog About Twitter

There are some pros and cons about having a discussion on Twitter. Since twitter only allows 140 character per post, the individual will have to get straight to the point of the idea. In addition, it is easy to find similar discussion topic on twitter due to the option of hash-tag because hash-tag group any similar topic with the tagged word. Some cons about twitter is that sometimes and individual will have to re-tweet the post which can be a hassle and confusing. Moreover, twitter can be very hard to follow because there are so many people tweeting in a day. The layout of twitter is also not as organize as it could be.

Having a discussion on blackboard and an in class discussion is more efficient in term of the context. Discussion on blackboard allows individual to keep track of what was said at what time. The post are lay out on a chronological order and it is easy to keep track of the comments and topic.  Having a discussion in class is the most efficient because it is happen on a real time basis. A discussion on twitter can take up to a few days while a discussion in person can take up only a few hours. 

Social Networking Sites

There are a lot of  social networking site on the internet. Some are solely used as a form of self-expression sites and others are used as networking sites. Some of the most popular social networking sites are Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook is currently one of the most popular social networking site there is. Facebook allows individual to connect to family, friends, and other individual within a certain interest. An individual can post up pictures, comment on other posts, post up status, and create and advertise events. Facebook is convenient way of communication because they have incorporated messengers chat box and video calling functions. 

Myspace was just as popular as Facebook before Facebook was introduced.However, recently Myspace have reconstructed their layout to be more appealing in appearance than Facebook. An individual can design their own Myspace layout according to their personality. Moreover, Myspace also allow individuals to play music of the individual's choice while other users visit the page. My space is a constant posting of the individual feelings and interests. 

Twitter is used as a status update because it only allow an individual to use 140 charters which is about one or two sentences. An individual can tag other individual by using @ in front of of the individual name. The most appealing feature that twitter have is their hash-tag. By simply putting # in front of a word, it group the post with all the other post that have the same hash-tag. It makes it easier to find similar post according to the hash-tags. 

LinkedIn is widely used by professional individual who seeks to hire or find a job. Its a social networking sites where the individual will have to keep everything that they post professional. Individual usually post up their background information and their field of interest for other professionals to see

Social Networking

Social media technologies can be used for many different reasons. For example, professional recruiters have started to hunt for job candidate through the social media technology such as Linkedin, Facebook, and Myspace. These social media technologies offer easy search access of information about the individual or the company to both the recruiter and candidate (Langfitt).  Moreover, social media technologies have been used for political purposes such as raising money for a cause, fight smear campaigns, and help raise the awareness and votes of politicians (Carr). However, with all these effective ways of using social media technologies, there are some downsides to it. With the advance in technologies for gathering information and data, it is easy for identity thief to occur. Third party users with intention of stealing your identity can simply search you name up on Facebook and all the basic information that is needed is presented in the about page of Facebook (Global Focus).  Moreover, even though social media can be used for job search, recruiters may also use social media to look into your personal life to judge you and make assumptions to see if you are the right candidate.

In my opinion, social media will soon evolve into a semi-professional site for recruiters and candidates to interact. Slowly moving from oovoo to Skype to Google hangout for business meetings, Facebook have also partner up with Skype so that Facebook can have online video chat option. Now a days, many companies have started to request an online interview before having an in person interview. Social media technologies have become the first step in hiring or looking for potential candidates.

Work Cited:

Carr, David. "Obama's Personal LinkedIn." The New York Times. The New York Times, 09 Nov. 2008.

            <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/business/media/10carr.html?_r=0>

Global Focus. "Leaving ‘Friendprints’: How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security." N.p., 10 June 2009.

            <http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/leaving-friendprints-how-online-social-networks-are-redefining-privacy-and-personal-security/>

Langfitt, Frank. "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 03 Oct. 2014.

            <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf>