My New Media Class - So Far

In this class we have viewed many forms of new media. New media technologies include blogs, wikis, twitter, second life, etc. The class notes introduced some technologies that I was not aware of like mashup, twitter and second life. Also I have learned that the new media gives many people an opportunity to communicate on a different level and encourage collaboration and information sharing between users.
The internet plays a great role in new media because it connects people from all over the world. In order for everyone to use new media, they must have access to the internet. Another way that the internet is helping people is through community blogs that can help fight crime like the one mention in the article, “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid”.
New media is enhancing old media with its new technologies. In the past, people watch their shows on the television but now they can watch them online through internet. Now there are many websites like Hulu.com where you can watch your favorite shows the next day if you missed it or even watch the same episode if you like in a few hours after it is broadcast on the television.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Second Life allows users to create avatars of themselves or anything they want to be in virtual worlds. The users can design any characters they want to be. They can develop an avatar to either be completely identical to their present personality or create someone else. In virtual worlds, people are able to do or accomplish things that they may never able to do in their lifetime. For example, the disabled, that are not do certain things because of their disability, are able to do whatever they want which they could not do in their current state. The users can be experience more then what is available to them in reality. The avatars can do anything like fly.
According to the article, “IBM’s Virtual Worlds for its Employees” IBM uses this technology among its employees. The purpose of the company to gives its employees the training such as signing for benefit, developing codes and sales skills. The virtual worlds help to cut costs in the areas such as training, which can be held on IBM’s version of Second Life.
The dark side to Virtual worlds site is that the users will become addicted and rarely get off from the site. Also it is not good to spent time on these sites because users lost the interactions in their real life. In addition, some people start to believe someone else and trying to run away from their own being.
This technology might evolve into training programs for many other national and international companies, much like IBM’s program. Having virtual worlds, the employees get ready for the work in much quick way. The companies can also use virtual worlds to give an indication of how the end product may look like.

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking site, which I have heard it before but never use it. It is basically the status update feature similar on facebook. I just signed for twitter for this class but I do not like it a lot. I personally feel that the range of 140 characters is so annoying. Sometime it makes hard you to express what you want to say. Also it is not as convenient as other social networks to see the comments about your post from the other users.
The similarity between Bb discussion and Twitter is that they are both limited to the register users. However, to reply on the Bb discussion is mush easier than the twitter. Twitter does not have the option to reply underneath the post. Also Bb discussion is more private because it’s only allow the register user to see whether Twitter is much more public because the updates you make can be seen by anyone with the internet connection. I think twitter is more useful for breaking news like an airplane landing on the Hudson.
The difference between twitter and in-class discussion is that in-class discussion is face-to-face discussion where you get the reply fast. If you send the post on twitter, you have to wait until the person read your post.

Social Networking

Social networking can be used to stay connected with your friends, make new friends, get socialize, share ideas and join groups with similar interest. Through social networking, people get awareness to specific issues. Social networking is also very useful in corporative level where you can get connected with business people and get information related to your field. People make connection through ordinary blogs and postings. Instead of personal interaction, Social networking can be used for business. I think these networks very helpful to small business that do not have budget to do an advertisement at high level. They can use twitter, facebook, myspace and many other social sites to post their product information.
Social networking is helping you to know and talk with others which would not be possible in the real life. It helps people to keep up-to-date with anything around the world because you can have friends all over the world. Social networking also brings diversity because the internet gives individuals from all around the world to accesses to networking sites. Through social networking people get information about other religious and new languages. According to the article, “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting” by Frank Langfitt, social networking helps people to find jobs. For example, Linkedin is a social network, where users post their resume and other relevant information so they can get chance to hired by a company or get notice in certain industry.
With so my positive things, social networking has some negative aspect. Some people use social networking to get personal information of somebody and then spread it all over or use to harm them. Sometime these kinds of cases get more serious and bring very bad consequences. Other thing that I found is that some people become addicted to some social sites and spend a lot of time which they can spend on their studies or work. Also employers use social sites to find about some applicants and screen existing employees, so be careful what you post on social networking sites.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

There are many social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Friendster, which people use for communication, collaboration, and creativity. I personally have an account on Facebook. I think Facebook is one of the famous social networks that people use. I heard about Myspace but never thought to make an account on it. Most of my friends are on Facebook. I like to use Facebook because it is simple and easy to use. Facebook is getting popular all over the world so it is easy to search to see if my old friends are available on Facebook. Facebook is very helpful to be in touch with friends and share your pictures with them. I have looked at other websites such as Myspace, Friendster, etc. I think Facebook, Myspace, and Friendster have similar features. On each site, the profile contains your picture, basic information about yourself, interests and comment wall. The Friendster is little different from other because it has a blog feature and Myspace has an option to change the layout. Facebook is more used by college students where Myspace is for more teenagers.