Creativity and New Media

So I've decided to make a Second Life account and it is pretty amazing since you can practically go anywhere in this virtual world by teleportation. I created my own avatar (3rd picture) and here are some of the places that I went to:
 
                   Glimmer Island - one of the most beautiful places you can go to in Second Life

Mayan Stone ruins - one of the most famous creations humans will ever create in history

And your very own pet world where you can see all the pets you can possible want

These are just 3 of many places you can go in this online virtual world. Not only you can travel, you can create your very own avatar (see 3rd picture) and communicate with other people through their avatars. Anyone over 13 yrs of age can join and people can get creative with their avatars by buying new clothes with Linden Dollars which can be obtained using real currency. I find it really interesting because you can go to locations in this virtual world that you probably can't go in real life.

Creativity

According to the article, "Twitter Serve Up Ideas from its followers", by Claire Cain Miller, companies use new media such as twitter to try their best to satisfy their customers. Technology companies are the most active when communicating with the community to get ideas for future products. Even though the community has these ideas, they don't have the resources to implement them so they turn to the companies to test them out. And then customers give the companies feedback to continue improving on these products. That's what makes new media so important; it allows us people with creative minds to express our ideas through new media. This is how new media fosters creativity which is why the world is in the position it is in now.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

          Virtual worlds created today can be used for entertainment or they can be used for jobs. For example, in the article "Avatar II: The Hospital" by Stephanie Simon, health care facilities are utilizing the virtual worlds to practice real life simulation of emergency situations that can possible happen. It became more and more popular and universities began to pick up this method of training. They prefer this method of training rather than the traditional training where a real life trainer helps future employees with hospital practices because it costs less. It only costs about 1000 dollars to purchase the virtual land and only 300 per month to maintain it. Another reason that professors can be creative about what kind of real life situations can occur and add them into the virtual, improving the training experience over two times. But like we all know real world isn't perfect, the online virtual world isn't perfect either. For example, if a professor wanted to train the students to a particular patient with some sort of disease, the students would need computers that can support the Second Life virtual world system and a good internet connection; not all of us have that. But in the long run, it'll make the health care facilities more efficient.
             According to the article, "Going to the virtual office in Second Life", another creative way of using the virtual world is by using these virtual worlds to have meetings at their computers without having to travel from country to country. This is rather convenient because travel budgets are tight in our recession now and by using the virtual worlds, it saves businesses time and money to create more innovative products. But sometimes there is a downside to it because a lack of human contact leads to isolation and lack of bonds forming. And it is also difficult to see a person's reaction to a statement if you can't see the person in real life. But virtual worlds, overall, can be more efficient when it comes to saving money and time.
              In the future I would expect the virtual worlds to include something that is unrealistic. For example, we can experience the entertainments we have in real life such as movies, books and video games. I'm not sure if they have it or not, but they should create something that transports our mind into the virtual world to give us a full experience of it. There are other creative ideas but many people are out there creating ways to make virtual worlds foster a good experience for all of us.

          
        

Blog about Twitter

         Twitter discussions are very different from the discussions you can have on blackboard. One reason is the you can only enter a maximum of 140 characters which is not enough for an in depth discussion about a certain topic. This forces us to manipulate our vocabulary to fit the 140 character requirement. And in a way, it is more informal then blackboard.
         Blackboard on the other gives more freedom to express your own opinions. You can write as much as you want to about a certain topic without worrying about character limits, unless it is mentioned by the professor. If i would to choose between Twitter discussions and blackboard discussions, it would be blackboard only because of freedom to write as much as I want. I don't think I can handle the restrictions Twitter imposes on me.
         An in-class discussion is also very different from a Twitter discussion because in class discussions are only restricted to how long class is. And it is verbal communication between students and the professor while Twitter discussions are through texts via the Internet. These are the comparisons between Twitter discussions, Blackboard discussions, and in-class discussions.
        

Social Networking Sites

        Facebook is often compared to MySpace nowadays. The difference between them is the way people are able to customized their page. I realized that MySpace allows user to to customize their page by using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets but on the other hand Facebook users can only use plain text. Facebook has other features that make them unique such as each user having their own "Wall", virtual pokes, photo albums, and an updated status. And Facebook has way more applications than MySpace. But both of them have similar privacy settings in which it can limit a person from seeing another person's full profile.
        Twitter is another social networking site but it is much different from Facebook and MySpace. Facebook and MySpace are good sites to reconnect with old friends and family members while Twitter is just a good way to let others know what you're up to any given moment. It feels like it can be an addicting site to go to once you a hang of Tweeting since you can get responses in an instant but it is a good way to communication to people around the Internet.
        And the other social networking site is Bebo. It is similar to Facebook in which you can stay in touch with friends and share photos and update your status, etc. The privacy settings are also similar since you have the option of making your profile completely public or just for your friends to see. But the layout is different since Facebook color scheme is blue/grey/white while Bebo is red and white. I feel that Facebook gives a more professional look than Bebo although you can't customize your page.
        These are my impressions of these social networking sites.

Social Networking

                Social Networks such as Facebook, MySpace, etc all have their ups and downs. For example, corporations that are looking for future employees can use Facebook as a source to determine whether or not he/she qualifies for the job. This forces people to have a formal Facebook layout so nothing can jeopardize the job opportunity.  They can tell who you are just by looking at your Facebook account.  But there is a downside to this and that is the invasion of privacy. According to the article “Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do” by Marc Parry, young adults are actively engaged when managing their privacy settings. They don’t want their information to be leaked to the public so they restrict it where only friends can see the information. But corporations always find a way around it so privacy is a big issue in social networking; this is considered as the “dark side” of technology.

                According to another article “Carnegie Mellon students to exploit social networks to predict success of Internet startups” by Alpha Doggs, students are using the Delphi Method (a forecasting technique which involves panels and questionnaires to find a consensus of opinion) to innovate the next Google or Facebook.  For example, it can help decide where you want to place your investments in. This can benefit us in a way such that we can make our moves depending on certain scenarios that can happen in the near future.

                So what do I think about the future of these technologies? I think it will make social networking more reliable and convenient for us but at the same time it can hurt us. One reason is that we would talk a majority of the time through these mediums. I think real life meetings can speed the establishment of personal connections. But in the long run, the community will be able to talk to each other more efficiently.