I did this about two years ago, me and my friend were hanging out late in a nearby neighborhood park in the middle of the summer. We were talking about the things that our parents do culturally when were around people. We ended up having a huge laugh about how similar our parents act because of our culture and how we grew up. Then thought about it and we really don't see too many youtubers who speak my language or at least use it in their videos. I speak a dialect of chinese called thai shan. So I decided to create a cover of the song "Call me maybe" in my dialect for fun and received a lot of praise for it. Thats my way of creativity i guess... heres the link to the video
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Creativity
New media allows people to be creative by giving them the freedom to express themselves. I think that in today's media more and more people are allowed to express their creativity because most of these people can remain anonymous to other users and they can express themselves without being judged as an individual. For instance there are people on new media websites like Youtube.com that are creating their own versions of popular music videos with popular cartoons. Without the Youtube platform they would have never thought to create such videos and get some many views and expect to go viral. I think new media allows someone to create a username for a specific social platform and have a different personality. This in a sense allows a someone to be someone he normally isn't and not judged in a sense. Whether the comments are negative or positive, people see the username and not the actual person freeing them from judgement. In the New York Times article it says that big companies that own the rights to the cartoon characters actually don't mind these parody videos and actually think they are funny. Everyday people are coming up with new ideas in to how to make new and creative ways to use all the existing new media.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds
Virtual worlds can be identical to reality or built for fantasy reasons. Virtual worlds can be used in a variety of ways. A virtual world allows users or players to do things that they normally can't do or prepare for something they don't have experience with. For instance, there are people who work from home because of devastating injuries and the virtual world allows them to do things that they can't do in reality because of those injuries. The ability to walk, fly, socialize with others, and create a platform for people of similar situations.
Ways that virtual worlds can be used are for people to potentially "practice their real life". It may sound bizarre, but people inventing worlds where users can practice/simulate real life situations that may occur. one example would be practicing a profession. The virtual world has garnered interest in professional studies, that colleges like the University of Michigan and Stanford are using it in their medical schools. They put students in a hospital environment and basically allow students to make decisions on the fly within a certain time frame. This helps students practice their future profession in a simulation to help benefit their decision making in the future.
Another way that virtual worlds can be used are for health issues. Jacki Morie speaks about recreating a war zone/towns where soldiers have fought and enabling them to enter these virtual worlds as a for, of therapy. By adding friendly foreign civilians and people, it helps soldiers overcome post-war phsychological issues.
The pros of virtual worlds are the creation of healing spaces and people coming together with similar backgrounds. It brings similar minds together and when people who have similar goals and views, things tend to get done. It allows people to do things that otherwise couldn't do in reality. I think the cons of the virtual world are that some people get too caught up in the virtual world and maybe start to depend on it. When people are on virtual worlds for too long it often causes problem in their health in terms of their physical beings. Another con I think that virtual worlds come with is their social skills may deteriorate. It may be acceptable to speak or act a certain way in the virtual world, but not necessarily in reality. I think the future of virtual worlds will continue to grow as institutions find more ways to integrate this technology in to their organizations like colleges and fast paced organizations.
Simon, Stephanie. "Avatar II: The Hospital." WSJ. The Wall Street Journal, 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 20
Mar. 2015.
Mehta, Diane. "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
Ways that virtual worlds can be used are for people to potentially "practice their real life". It may sound bizarre, but people inventing worlds where users can practice/simulate real life situations that may occur. one example would be practicing a profession. The virtual world has garnered interest in professional studies, that colleges like the University of Michigan and Stanford are using it in their medical schools. They put students in a hospital environment and basically allow students to make decisions on the fly within a certain time frame. This helps students practice their future profession in a simulation to help benefit their decision making in the future.
Another way that virtual worlds can be used are for health issues. Jacki Morie speaks about recreating a war zone/towns where soldiers have fought and enabling them to enter these virtual worlds as a for, of therapy. By adding friendly foreign civilians and people, it helps soldiers overcome post-war phsychological issues.
The pros of virtual worlds are the creation of healing spaces and people coming together with similar backgrounds. It brings similar minds together and when people who have similar goals and views, things tend to get done. It allows people to do things that otherwise couldn't do in reality. I think the cons of the virtual world are that some people get too caught up in the virtual world and maybe start to depend on it. When people are on virtual worlds for too long it often causes problem in their health in terms of their physical beings. Another con I think that virtual worlds come with is their social skills may deteriorate. It may be acceptable to speak or act a certain way in the virtual world, but not necessarily in reality. I think the future of virtual worlds will continue to grow as institutions find more ways to integrate this technology in to their organizations like colleges and fast paced organizations.
Simon, Stephanie. "Avatar II: The Hospital." WSJ. The Wall Street Journal, 13 Apr. 2010. Web. 20
Mar. 2015.
Mehta, Diane. "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
Monday, March 16, 2015
Blog About Twitter
Twitter allows for people to "tweet" which is simple voicing their opinion to the general public, a specific group of interested users via "hashtags", and people that follow them. BlackBoard discussions are private and shared only with people who are enrolled in the course. Twitter on the other hand is public in that anyone following you can see your activity. The similarities that the two is that you're voicing or talking to only the people that know you exist. For example, when you post on BlackBoard your opinion is only seen by those that are also on Blackboard and for Twitter it is by the people that you allow to follow you (only if your profile is private). So in a way both platforms allow you to start discussions with people that you want to get answers from. When comparing Twitter to an in-class discussion we think about people participating. In a class discussion people are usually taking turns voicing their opinions and their thoughts about a subject. These discussions are also usually taking place within a confined space like a classroom or a lecture hall. Twitter does the same thing, but is a lot more flexible in that it allows for people to contribute to a discussion via Tweets. There isn't anything such as "calling out" or "raising your hand" in a Twitter discussion. When people tweet(voice) their opinions, its instantly seen(heard) by the people they're directed to on someone of a real time news feed. Now the discussions on Twitter are happening instantaneously without waiting for someone to finish talking and they can instantly voice an opinion on someone else's opinion. Twitter is in the internet space so there is no confined space for discussion and anyone who wishes to chime in, can do so. By using hashtags Twitter discussions can be specified in that only people who are explicitly looking for a specific hashtag or subject will see it. One unique feature that I think Twitter has that makes having a conversation or discussion so engaging is the limit of characters you may use on a response or tweet. I think short answers allow people to answer tweets quickly as well as read through them quickly. We don't want to hear a kid in the classroom talk about something for an entire two hours, so I'm sure we don't want to read a tweet that is three pages long. We have old media for that.
Social Networking Sites
Here are my impressions of some social media sites that I use or have used.
Facebook
Facebook gives me an impression of an interactive contacts book. There is a messenger on the side in order for me to communicate with friends and also a news feed that allows for me to see whats going on with people. It gives me a feeling of staying in touch with people you may be friends with, come across in the past, or updating others about yourself. Its not very clustered and the information and functions are in easy to spot areas and allows for seamless navigation.
Twitter
I made a twitter account for the first time about a week or two ago and I thought that twitter was very overwhelming. Maybe because I was used to Facebook, but the sign up process took longer than expected because twitter almost seemed to forcefully make you sync your contacts or suggest what seemed like a never ending list of people to follow. The worst part was I couldn't find a way to skip this step of the sign up process. As I played around with it for an hour or so, twitter seemed to be a very simple application. I followed some classmates and also followed some public figures and companies. Twitter seems to be more of a news source. Twitter provides people updates with whats going on with the world outside of their world and allows for people to know whats going on in lives of people that they might not know in person but know as a fan.
Instagram
Instagram to me just seemed like Facebook, but strictly photographs. In this day and age where everyone uses phones with cameras, people are always sharing things that they come across through photos. Instead of text, people are using photos to update their "statuses" or what they're up to. People are allowed to comment or like the photos. Overall Instagram just seems like a film roll of photos taken by the people that you follow.
Meetup
I had a chance to use Meetup in the past and I think this social networking site is one of the better ones. This one allows people of common interests to meet each other through those interests. For instance, if I wanted to start a soccer game on Saturday, I would create an event and those who are interested in playing soccer would sign up for the event and then users can get together to form groups that continue to expand as these events start to expand. It sticks to its name of "Meetup" because it brings people together. I was fortunate enough to participate in a meet up in the past and I had a great time and met some really interesting people.
To really sum it all up Facebook is more of a keep in touch tool with the people you know and provide them with updates about your life as well as a way for people to interact. Twitter seems more of a news feed for just about anything, a simple hashtag and you can find news and updates on a subject you're looking for. Instagram, I would say is a Twitter and Facebook put together, it provides news and people can follow just about anyone as long as you know their usernames and most of the time profiles are public. Instagram allows you to see what people are doing visually rather than textually. I think Meetup is the odd one out in the fact that there is no following others and posting and updating people with how your life is going. It simply is a platform for people to get together and meet in person to enjoy activities that they have in common. You create groups, search for groups, set up events, and attend events. The only thing that it may have in common is that these groups or events have message boards that allow for people to organize their events or talk about their common interests.
Facebook gives me an impression of an interactive contacts book. There is a messenger on the side in order for me to communicate with friends and also a news feed that allows for me to see whats going on with people. It gives me a feeling of staying in touch with people you may be friends with, come across in the past, or updating others about yourself. Its not very clustered and the information and functions are in easy to spot areas and allows for seamless navigation.
I made a twitter account for the first time about a week or two ago and I thought that twitter was very overwhelming. Maybe because I was used to Facebook, but the sign up process took longer than expected because twitter almost seemed to forcefully make you sync your contacts or suggest what seemed like a never ending list of people to follow. The worst part was I couldn't find a way to skip this step of the sign up process. As I played around with it for an hour or so, twitter seemed to be a very simple application. I followed some classmates and also followed some public figures and companies. Twitter seems to be more of a news source. Twitter provides people updates with whats going on with the world outside of their world and allows for people to know whats going on in lives of people that they might not know in person but know as a fan.
Instagram to me just seemed like Facebook, but strictly photographs. In this day and age where everyone uses phones with cameras, people are always sharing things that they come across through photos. Instead of text, people are using photos to update their "statuses" or what they're up to. People are allowed to comment or like the photos. Overall Instagram just seems like a film roll of photos taken by the people that you follow.
Meetup
I had a chance to use Meetup in the past and I think this social networking site is one of the better ones. This one allows people of common interests to meet each other through those interests. For instance, if I wanted to start a soccer game on Saturday, I would create an event and those who are interested in playing soccer would sign up for the event and then users can get together to form groups that continue to expand as these events start to expand. It sticks to its name of "Meetup" because it brings people together. I was fortunate enough to participate in a meet up in the past and I had a great time and met some really interesting people.
To really sum it all up Facebook is more of a keep in touch tool with the people you know and provide them with updates about your life as well as a way for people to interact. Twitter seems more of a news feed for just about anything, a simple hashtag and you can find news and updates on a subject you're looking for. Instagram, I would say is a Twitter and Facebook put together, it provides news and people can follow just about anyone as long as you know their usernames and most of the time profiles are public. Instagram allows you to see what people are doing visually rather than textually. I think Meetup is the odd one out in the fact that there is no following others and posting and updating people with how your life is going. It simply is a platform for people to get together and meet in person to enjoy activities that they have in common. You create groups, search for groups, set up events, and attend events. The only thing that it may have in common is that these groups or events have message boards that allow for people to organize their events or talk about their common interests.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Social Networking
Business intelligence has always been something that companies invested heavily on. More so in today's day and age because of all the interactions that people have with Social Media. Social networking is a way for various individuals or groups to interact and meet each other regardless of physical distance. Today's day you may meet a person of a mutual friend that you have never seen or heard of, Social Networking through the internet made this possible. This is where the business intelligence of companies come in. They bring in their Big Data equipment and start collecting the information that we as a society feed it. We may think that we're uploading pictures, posting a status, or checking in to a restaurant. Companies care about this and they want to know what we're interested in. Companies want to know what exactly we're interested in, where we frequently visit, how we spend our time. All of this information is important to these organizations because they can take the data they mine from our day to day activities and come up with algorithms that define us. By giving us a definition they can better market products and services to us because they know exactly who we are and we'll eventually give in to the things they have to offer.
In today's society we don't think too much about things such as privacy because we think that reputable organization's size means their security is equally as big. But what we don't realize is that we instantly click "I Agree" because we assume that all of the fine print are written in a similar manner and it doesn't hurt us. The dark side of social media is that people don't realize that the fine print of these websites are to allow them to collect and monitor our day to day actions. These privacy statements are written in a way that its long and confusing so the users don't even bother trying to get through the entire thing. If the owner of Facebook's family photos are allowed to be viewed by people over the internet, than anyone's photo can be too. In order to keep ourselves safe, we simply should not post anything anywhere that you would regret later.
Reed, Daniel. "Survey Reveals Generation Gap in Attitudes about Security and Privacy." JavaWorld. Communications of the ACM, 11 May 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.
Greenfield, Rebecca. "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private." DEC 26, 2012 10:44AM ET Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private. The Wire, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Blogs vs. Wikis
Blogs and wikis are both media technologies that convey information to readers. Wikis are pages where there are multiple people who contribute in to editing these pages so that information is pooled and constantly updated. But because its more of an open source project the information can be changed and be deemed untrue. There are constantly updates to wikis until the perfect information is put together in which contributors feel is correct. Contributors are given some sort of recognition. Wikis although have multiple contributors, these contributors don't interact in terms of editing the page and moving on. If there is a disagreement there doesn't need to be consent for one contributor to change what another contributor says.
Blogs on the other hand is a more journal like source of information. In blogs the information is written by a single author and contributions to the information or topic come in the form of comments or responses which do not change the original post of information. The information on the original blog post may be bias to a particular subject, but the beauty of blogs is that users can comment and respond to the posts and creates argument which then leads to people holding valuable conversations via the responses. Blogs create more interaction between contributors and there is no "I'll edit your post because its wrong on the wiki" and more "I disagree or agree because...". Though sometimes the contributions do get personal and people do get offended, its a great way to get insight and opinions from various people across the web.
Wilson, Michael. "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 June 2008. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Dowd, Maureen. "Stung by the Perfect Sting." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2009. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Blogs on the other hand is a more journal like source of information. In blogs the information is written by a single author and contributions to the information or topic come in the form of comments or responses which do not change the original post of information. The information on the original blog post may be bias to a particular subject, but the beauty of blogs is that users can comment and respond to the posts and creates argument which then leads to people holding valuable conversations via the responses. Blogs create more interaction between contributors and there is no "I'll edit your post because its wrong on the wiki" and more "I disagree or agree because...". Though sometimes the contributions do get personal and people do get offended, its a great way to get insight and opinions from various people across the web.
Wilson, Michael. "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 June 2008. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Dowd, Maureen. "Stung by the Perfect Sting." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Aug. 2009. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
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