The Next New Thing

Mankind has increased its production of new technology in the last decade and the improvement of technology has left a great impact upon the consumer’s lifestyle. Its come to the point where consumers base their whole life upon technology and the Internet. This advancement in technology has also impacted the gaming industry. Recently the development of Xbox’s Kinect has created a revolution in the industry. We no longer bother with joysticks and game controllers. The only things controlling it now are our bodies. We’ve become the characters within our games, almost. To create an even more realistic game play, we shouldn’t be observing these games on a screen. I would create game play that didn’t require visual sensory, as does the Wii or Kinect. However, it would be connected to the player’s body in that the player’s mind can control the outcome of their game whether it is an RPG or first person shooter. We should be able to control the games with our minds. With interconnecting wires connected to our heads and using electrical impulses from our bodies we should be able to control these characters as if we were one with them. It’ll come to the point where we are living the world of these games. Our brains would send electrical signals to the wires that would provide for an even more realistic game play. It’ll become an alternate universe for future gamers.

P2P File Sharing

Filing sharing is the public or private sharing of computer data or space in a network. While files can be shared outside a network with USB or emails, most file sharing is usually online in a network. File sharing means that a number of people are allowed to use the same file and are able to read, view, modify, copy, or print it. These types of files can vary from documents, computer games, games, music, and videos.

P2P file sharing stands for peer-to-peer file sharing. P2P file sharing is an application or network that enables users to connect to this feature and are able to download or share anything that the network has or allows. Some examples of p2p filing sharing are BitTorrent, Ares, BearShare, Kazaa, and Limewire. Some applications like Limewire do not exist anymore because of the ban on it.

In the article by Clive Thompson, “The BitTorrent Effect” it is true that BitTorrent is one of the most successful p2p programs ever. More than 20 million people have downloaded this application and the more people use this application, the faster the download speeds become because of the ability to find people that want to share the data or file that you are looking for. What sets BitTorrent apart from most other p2p file sharing programs is that, it goes at a faster rate than most other programs and it is not restricted to one uploader and downloader at the same time.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

It is really interesting to see the variety of topics there are on our class Wiki and amount of information people are able to contribute in various ways. For the class Wiki I have been working on 2 different topics: New Media and Video game Consoles and How New Media is Used in Business. In New Media and Video game Consoles, I added the sources section as well as a history of how video gaming all started. In How New Media is Used in Business, I added a few pictures and an more in dept detail of how Twitter is used in business. For this subject, I plan to add a few more different social networking sites of how they are used in business.

Privacy & Confidentiality

The issues of privacy and confidentiality are very important to new media. In the privacy aspect of new media, people must protect and watch out for whatever they put or post up onto the internet. Everything posted online can be a dangerous hazard because other people are able to get information out of anything. In a research I found for my term paper, a Facebook message or status can be very harmful and is able to throw people in jail because the government uses it to track people. As more and more people use the growing field of social networking sites, privacy and confidentiality decreases. Even though there are privacy options for these websites, the websites are always constantly changing and privacy settings are usually changed for everyone. Even if your own website is private, something you write on your friends page might not be and other people are able to view it. There are many risks involved in using these new media tools but most people think that the benefits outweighs the risk.

Advice

Since the rise of new technology, we are able to use new media to help improve Baruch College. We are able to now use social networking websites to promote any type of event or presentations the school has. A simple group on Facebook can spread the word out to Baruch students to promote any type of events they are having. A tweet from Twitter allows any students following the account to be well informed about any presentations. Most students are very well involved in social networking activities, and such an invite or notification will be able to inform any of these students get involved with school by going to events, presentations, promotions, or just a fundraiser like Relay for Life. I see the trend that most clubs or organizations in the college has been starting to do such an action by making their own accounts and started to add people on Facebook or follow students on Twitter to get involved in the school community and network.

About my PROJ

Most teenagers and young adults will be the majority of people involve with social networking. A majority of the population using social networking will affect the world with respect to new media. Technology today is an ever-changing phenomenon. Technology will be constantly changing and improving, and so will new media which give rise to social networking. The topic I researched about the pros and cons of social networking will mostly be from online resources and a few from personal experiences.

I believe the future of social networking will improve more and more as better changes are made in technology. Each social networking website takes surveys constantly on the ratings of profiles, securities, networking features, search and help/support in order to make their website the best it can. Social networking will take over the world one day as more and more people are willing to use them and they spread through word of mouth.

Creativity and New Media

How can we explain creativity and new media in a few words? It can’t be done. Creativity and new media has evolved in so many ways over the years that society is not able to keep up with it.  Some people tend to keep using old new media while most of us shift to new media. In my example I show pictures of what old media such as books, cards, letters, old cell phones, and radio evolved into with some creativity into nooks, kindles, eCards, blogs, new cell phones, and podcasts.

http://www.slide.com/r/3IgjT9Bewz_3AtbGWpvChqp-FKK5unHu

Creativity

Creativity is described as one of the best idea’s the mind has to offer.  In order for anything to be successful, creativity has to occur.  It is the ability to create ideas, products or services different from everyone else or so it seems. New media allows for creativity to happen for people or companies to differentiate their product and make them unique in order for their idea, product, or services to succeed.

In the article “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?” by Brooks Barnes, it talks about people on YouTube using the song “Crank That (Solja Boy)” and using Disney characters and cartoons to replace the video of the characters doing the dance instead of the rapper.  The medium of YouTube enables people to mess around and post videos with all sorts of creativity.  YouTube in a way is one of the biggest media in the world for people which allows members to post videos about anything. The fact that most of the videos created has not been taken down by Disney's copyright infringement means that it might help by promoting the company for them in a way. 

In the article Twitter Serves Up Ideas from Its Followers” by Claire Cain Miller, it talks about how big and small companies monitor Twitter to see what the customers like and what they want to change.  Social networking websites like Twitter allows for new media to foster creativity. These companies that monitor the websites is able to see what customers want and they adapt to the majority of their needs. That is where creativity needs to come in, in order for the company to do well they need to grab most of the majority to use their products or services.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

In these virtual words today, many people go online to do different games like play games or create an avatar of them selves meeting other people. Virtual worlds can sometimes be pros or cons depending on the type of situation given.

In the article  “'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction” by Nicole Saidi, she writes about a person with autism being able to get comfortable in their virtual and meeting new people at a relaxed state.  Since social, emotional, and communicational problems are a factor for people with autism, being familiar with the environment in the virtual world before real life is actually a good idea. In the article “Going to the virtual office in Second Life” by Mark Tutton,  people now are able to meet each other in a meeting without having to be in the office at the same time. Even though this sounds like a positive idea not being able to meet in person may create a problem about sharing information they might forget to communicate. Not being able to see each other in person creates an isolation or a boundary that people sometimes needs to cross to get their thoughts through.  It is also harder to have control if there is chaos and an argument going on.

Virtual worlds foster creativity by letting the user be able to fully control their “avatar” in the virtual world. The user is able to dress them how they want and are able to make them how they want to look. Either designing an avatar that looks like you or an avatar that you want other people to see yourself as takes skills and creativity to do that. In my opinion I don’t think too highly of the virtual world unless there is a new technology that is able to improve it. Even though new technologies is developing, the focus of the world today is still depending upon meeting each other face to face when there is important information to be discussed. When virtual worlds do take over in the future, everyone would be doing everything from home and there would be no need to leave our house.

Twitter

In a Twitter discussion it is a face paced and very up to date social networking site that people can navigate easily between only if they know how to use it. The downside of a Twitter discussion is that each tweet is limited to only 140 characters which can sometimes be a problem if you have a lot of things to say about a topic. In a Blackboard discussion, the writing being typed has privacy and is limited to only classmates and professors which is a good thing. Another positive reason a Blackboard discussion is better is that people have no limit of what they want to type. Blackboard is also very organized and very user friendly to navigate where you need to go. But both of these discussions does not compare to an in-class discussion. An in-class discussion can be very different for different people depending if they like to participate. An in-class discussion can be a valuable experience depending on what people learn in class and what they are able to contribute; some of the things learned in classrooms are not able to be taught online without some hands on experience. 

Social Networking Sites

Facebook: I have been using Facebook ever since college started and this website is very user friend and easy to use. It is more of the mature audience, which use to be for college students but has now spread more to adults and younger students. This social networking site allows you to almost do anything such as update your status, post of friend’s walls, upload pictures, or even create events. The only downside is that you can’t change your background or customize your page to however you like which I believe is a good feature to Facebook.

Myspace: I used Myspace back in high school when it was one of the most popular social networking sites. I think Myspace is one of the founders of social networking websites. The downside of Myspace is that anyone or everyone is able to have one. In Myspace you can customize you page or background to however you like. You can put any picture up while having a playlist of music in the background. I think this website has less interaction going on and is just more of a website to brand yourself to display your page into looking nice.

Twitter: Twitter I believe is not for everyone in the social networking world. Some people like it while others hate it. You can only “tweet” up to a maximum of 140 characters, which keeps everything short and sweet about an update on your life. This is definitely useful for popular people like celebrities to see what is happening in their lives or for corporations to see if anything important is happening in the company. Do we need to know what everyone is every few minutes or hours in the day? Probably not.

LinkedIn: I have just created a LinkedIn account since I thought it would be nice to one now then in the future since I might just create one anyone to connect with professional people around the world. This website is more of a professional website which helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals. This website allows you to create your profile of educations, past job experiences, organizations, and so much more. This website is for a mature audience and is very user friendly allowing you to easily edit and change your profile. 

Social Networking

Social networking can be used to keep in contacts with old friends, currents friends, and even find new friends. It takes a lot of time for people to keep up to date in all of our friend’s lives when there is so much going on in society and social networking allows up to do that without having to meet face-to-face.  In the corporate world, social networking technology allows hunting for job candidates to be easier. In the article “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting”, by Frank Langfitt he quotes that “Social networking technology is the absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting – ever.” A popular website like Linkedin, has a network of professionals across that you are able to reach and email each other. In a sense, social networking is a community that brings together everyone involved.

In every aspect of argument, there is always a “dark side”.  While keeping in touch with people is a good thing, there is always a bad thing about how much people can find out about you. In the article “Who Cares about Facebook Privacy,” by Marc Parry it is obvious that most students do. The article reports that most Facebook users modify their privacy settings at least once during the year. Most of the majority of people on Facebook are young adults such as college students just trying to keep in touch with old friends and new friends that they meet. The more people use social networking sites, the more information people give out to the world.

I believe the benefits of social networking will out weight the risks. In the future technology is very unpredictable. Many of the technology invented come and go but it just depends on how useful and user-friendly it is to make the idea stay. These technologies must be new and creative to make sure the majority of the people in our society likes the idea.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Blogs are personal Internet journals written usually by one writer. Wikis are online database filled with facts and knowledge written by people all over the world.

Blogs are usually more subjective because it depends on how the one writer feels. The writer creates a post about their opinions and it is based on a specific timeline. But one has to be careful on what to write because in the article “Stung by the Perfect Sting”, by Maureen Dowd, a blogger was sued for defamation suit.

Wikis on the other hand are written by people all over the world inputting their own experience and knowledge to others, so Wikis would tend to be more objective. In the article “A Rorschach Cheat Sheet on Wikipedia?” by Noam Cohen, the problems with Wikis are that the information is on it cant be relied on to be true or false because Wikis are constantly being updated.

The importance of convergence in today’s networked world is magnificent. New media such as blogs and wikis are able to correlate with one another giving us a way to communicate in a more efficient manner. But with everyone able to access all these kinds of information, can’t be a good thing if private things like personal blogs are public. In order for blogs to be used for collaboration, they need a feature to allow other bloggers to add information onto the blogs with the consent of the owner. But since this feature might be too unsafe, the only way to contribute to the page is by leaving comments or ideas on the articles already posted.

Pros and Cons of Social Networking

In today's society, social networking is taking the world by storm. Most teenagers and young adults will be the majority of people involved in social networking. When it comes to social networking websites, information that is published will be one of the most fundamental issues. While we use these websites to keep in touch with friends, family, coworkers, etc., information shared can have negative consequences because it is not kept private. There is enough personal information on the website which can be used for theft or identity loss. In my research, I will explain the pros and cons on social networking websites.