I created an avatar in Second Life. There are a bunch of different places you can go and worlds you can explore, and I think that part is very interesting. There are also tons of people you can interact with, and that is really weird to me. Not knowing who you were interacting with was creepy and uncomfortable for me. Despite this, I thought the fact that there were so many places to explore was pretty cool.
In my opinion, the reason new media is on the rise is because it fosters creativity. It gives individuals a chance to express themselves in a bunch of different ways. New media has established resources for people to create and display what they make to the world. As a basketball coach, new media has given me a platform to both share and retain information that is helpful to basketball players on apps like FastDraw. Here is where you can share plays with other coaches to help your team and other teams improve.
This idea of sharing creativity has helped companies like Twitter build their website to be bigger and better. In the article Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers by Claire Cain Miller, she addresses how a company like Twitter listens to their consumers when it comes to ideas on how to expand the website. They sit back and let the consumer talk about what would make the website better, and then they build upon that. Technology companies have become very reliable on innovation via outsourcing simply because sharing ideas on the internet is so simple. This just goes to show how new media has given people a platform to be creative, expand, and help companies improve.
Mainly, in the media, you see blogs talk about virtual reality for recreational use. The reason virtual worlds are being used for recreational purposes is because you get to escape your reality and explore a world you may never get to experience otherwise. But businesses are also starting to take advantage of virtual worlds. In the article Going to the Virtual Office in the Second Life by Mark Tutton, he talks about how businesses are starting to hold conferences and meetings using virtual reality. The only issue I see with this is that it can take away from human in-person interactions.
There are tons of other uses for virtual worlds such as creating battle scenarios for soldiers to prepare for war as described in the After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot? by Jacki Morie. Other than that, virtual worlds can be used for therapy purposes, such as creating worlds that veterans can walk through to help them get over disorders like PTSD. With the technology that we have in this day and age, virtual worlds can grow to become a staple in different areas of our every day lives.
Discussions on Twitter and Blackboard have a couple of similarities and differences. To hold a discussion on Twitter you use hashtags to group tweets together. You can also reply to other people’s tweets and view conversations on Twitter. The one thing that makes Twitter discussions difficult is that it is limited to 140 characters for each tweet. This can cause misunderstandings between people during discussions.
In my opinion, Blackboard discussions are easier to navigate through than Twitter discussions. There is no character limit which means you can type as much as you want. Blackboard discussions are driven by threads. You create a thread and people post entries onto that thread.
The issue with online discussions is that people don’t always read what everyone else says, causing a lot of repetition in responses. I feel like in-class discussion is the most effective way to communicate. Everyone is face to face and gets a chance to hear what every other person is saying, causing the conversation to progress in a way that is difficult to achieve during online discussions. Although online discussions are becoming popular, nothing can replace the authenticity of in-class discussions.
The four social networking sites I visited were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The first website, Facebook, is somewhere I surf around when I’m bored to find funny or interesting content such as videos and pictures. Your news feed is constantly updating with content that your friends post. It is also a website where you can contact a friend using Facebook Messenger. In comparison, LinkedIn is basically like Facebook for professionals. You have a profile, a news feed, and a messenger where you can contact people you connect with. There isn’t much entertaining material on LinkedIn, as it is used to gain connections with others and expand your network.
Twitter and Instagram are also very similar to each other. On Twitter, your timeline is constantly refreshing with tweets from the people you follow. You have a profile that shows all the things you’ve tweeted. Instagram is the same thing, but with pictures. On Instagram, your feed is constantly refreshing with pictures from the people you follow. You have a profile that shows all the pictures you’ve posted.
My impressions of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are very similar in that they can be used for interesting content to look through to be entertained. My impression of LinkedIn is that it can be used to expand your network and connect with others in pursuit of a job.
In our generation, social media and social networking has consumed our lives. We are the generation that is known for being stuck in our phones at all times of the day, and it is because we are constantly on websites like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Businesses have realized this and have started to create social websites of their own. There have even been new websites created such as LinkedIn which is essentially a person’s resumé on their profile to help businesses recruit and hire new employees. This times into what the article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt is talking about. This article talks about how a job recuiter for the company Osram Sylvania found a product marketing manager on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has made it very easy for job recruiters to find highly-qualified candidates to recruit.
The article Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner touches on a few things about social networking. Although this article was written in 2008, there are still very relevant points that were made about social networking. One professor, Judith Donath talked about one negative aspect of all these social networking websites. She said that it devalues the meaning of the word “friend.” She also said that although we will have a lot more “friends,” the connections between us and them will be a lot weaker. I thought this was very interesting because I can relate to that. There are some people I have as “friends” on social networking websites that I never talk to. I think this is part of the “dark side” of social networking. Another part of the “dark side” would be people pretending to be someone they’re not. There is a lot of cyber bullying on social networking websites that has caused young teens to do drastic things like commit suicide. Martin Baily addressed this in the aforementioned article.
Although blogs and wikis are both forms of communication on the internet, they are different in several ways. A blog is usually written by one author, who shares content on his or her particular interests. Once the author posts the content, anyone can comment on the blog posts, but the author is the only one who can edit the content of the blog. Once someone comments on a post, the author has control over whether he or she would like to approve the comment and let it be posted on his or her blog. This gives the author full control over what they want to display on their blog. In contrast, a wiki usually has many contributors. Anyone can edit the content at any time. With a blog, the discussion takes place in the comments. With a wiki, the discussion takes place in the content. Another difference between blogs and wikis is that blogs will usually display content that reflects the author’s opinion, while content on a wiki will usually display factual information gathered by different contributors. Nonetheless, both blogs and wikis are equally useful when it comes to sharing information across the Internet. The article Pentagon Keeps Wary Watch as Troops Blog by James Dao touches on some very relevant things. It speaks negatively about soldiers blogging about their experiences. Soldiers use blogging as a form of therapy and a way to express themselves so that people can see what these soldiers are actually experiencing. I think it is very important that soldiers are able to do this because without this form of therapy they could lose their minds. An article like this shows the importance of blogging and the need for an outlet where you can express your opinion to the world. On the other hand, the article Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales on Making the Most of Company Wikis by Gardiner Morse explains how wikis can be efficiently used in businesses. Jimmy Wales tells us that employees use wikis in their company when they need to rapidly collaborate with other employees and share knowledge on a particular topic. This tells us that if we need something done quickly and efficiently, wiki is the way to go.
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