New New

New media has almost everything anyone can want and need to make communication easier. But a new form of media that would be pretty interesting is a website that worked as a mix between Second Life and Facebook. On Second Life you can create your own avatar and basically roam the world and Facebook is used as a way to stay in touch with people you already know and network. A website that allowed users to create avatars that looked like virtual images of themselves would be interesting because it would elimate the fact that overusers of virtual worlds tend to forget about the real world. On this website there would be real people, in real neighborhoods, speciffically the ones where the user is from. A virtual world allows you to live in a fantasy world and thats fun to do as a game but it also brings a disappointing feeling when you realize that none of it is true. The Facebook aspect would come in with a networking aspect. People who know each other can introduce their friends to their other friends and there will be an actual real life look image to match so the catfishing aspect is eliminated. I think this is a great new idea for media especially since is improves some of the disadvantages that social networking sites have.

P2P

File sharing is the practice of sharing or allowing access of multimedia, books, programs, etc. from one computer to another over the Internet or a network. On the other hand, peer to peer file sharing refers to the sharing of files directly from one computer to another without the need of a central server. One example of P2P sharing is Lending Club. Lending Club is a website that allows users to apply for loans and recieve funding straight from the investors and without the branch network. Basically, with Lending Club investors put up funding for loans with their own return rate and are able to profit while consumers recieve lower interest rates. Peer to peer file sharing is a new type of technology that is beneficial because it is a direct process and eliminates the middle man.

Kaufman, Wendy. "Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other." NPR.org. NPR, 10 May 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2015. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/10/182651552/peers-find-less-pressure-borrowing-from-each-other>.

Wiki So Far

When I first looked over the wiki one of the pages that I found interesting was the "Definitions" page. This got me thinking that a big part of assimilating into social media is keeping up with the slang. Social networking sites make it easy for people to communicate and network with each other, and users have even gone as far as creating acronyms for words for simpler typing. As new acronyms are developed it is difficult to keep up with them all, so I started a page titled "Social Media Acronyms." The page is basically a list of acronyms (acronym and actual word) from A-Z. Since creating the page I have constantly been updating it with new acronyms as I go, trying to have at least one for each letter. Some things that I plan to work on in the future is adding an image to the page and writing more of an introduction. I was also considering incorporating slang instead of only acronyms.

Privacy

New media has caused a great breach in privacy for Internet users. Site like Google and Facebook are taking our personal information and spreading it to other data companies who wish to know the smallest details about us. Web surfing and social networking has advanced greatly over the years and it is has now become a very prevalent part of our lives. With the weight that the Internet holds today it is difficult to tell if it is the companies behind these site or the users who are to blame for privacy issues. For one websites gather information from advertisements, online purchases and profiles. However, like Target, companies can face security breaches with private customer information, like address and credit card numbers, being lost. But as far as social sites are concerned it is on the users to read the terms and agreements properly and to know not to post private information. It is crucial that people know where there information is going before they put it online. Anything shared via a social networking site is sent to everyone on that persons friends list but also to other agencies that are not. These agencies are composed of advertisers, researchers, marketing analyst, etc., who can share the obtained information with their fellow marketing and advertising firms. In order to really partake in networking though, part of the criteria is to share things like events, interest, relationship statuses, etc. but are we willing to sacrifice our privacy for a few Facebook posts? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said that in today's society it has become the norm to share personal information. 

Advice

Attending and graduating from college is a respected accomplishment. Nothing about going to school is easy, so it would definitely be nice if campuses made things easier on their students. I personally am an active user of Blackboard and I have been fortunate enough to have my professors update Blackboard consistently. However, I do wish that Blackboard had a app. School email is linked to the site and you do get notifications when content is added, but it is never anything useful. It would be great to get helpful notifications when homework is posted, syllabi’s are changed, future readings or assignments are added, etc. 

Baruch specifically, has a great campus and I am proud student but it does have room for improvement. There is so much going on at Baruch that it is impossible to keep up! There are so many clubs, tons of events, and loads of activities but there is really no productive way of keeping up with everything. Baruch can definitely benefit from having an app; An app where a school event calendar is available, a listings of clubs and any important notifications (like entrances being closed requiring an extra 4 minutes to get to class!). Yes we do get tons of emails and fliers from the school but it can be overwhelming and just too much sometimes. We already have Twitter and Instagram so why not an app?  

Creativity and New Media

For the creativity and new media assignment, I decided to join the virtual world and create a Second Life character. The process was simple at first. I started off by making an account via the website and then downloaded the software on my computer. Afterwards, I had to choose an avatar and a username for my avatar. Then it got pretty complicated. I own a Macbook and that is what I used to play. Many may know that the functions on the Macbook are more complicated than those on a regular PC. I had some difficulty navigating my avatar around for a while until I finally got it down packed. With Second Life I was able to create a virtual version of me, named AgentSelf, who traveled to all the places I wish I was. AgentSelf visited a few beaches in Europe, then went to the clubs in Miami and also, did some sightseeing in Europe.

After learning about virtual worlds, specifically Second Life, I thought it would be interesting to know what the hype was all about. I enjoyed creating my avatar and making her be and do everything I was not able to. The worst part of the experience definitely had to be learning the keys of navigation. The application has a lot going on and many different things to manage, such as the chat, destinations, notes, etc., which was overwhelming for me. In addition, there are certain aspects I was not able to try, like clothes and appearance, because they took time to change and I only had Second Life for a trial period. I think new media has created great ways to spark creativity among its users but I am still skeptical of the motives of its producers.

Creativity

Companies create sites with a general idea of what they want or believe will sell. But once these sites are made available to the public, it is the users who decide what stays and goes. For every social media forum that consumers indulge in there are always things that can be made better. As sites develop, producers can see what is actually working, what needs to go and what needs to be added. According to Claire Miller, companies are sitting on the sidelines waiting for their customers to innovate for them. Social media sparks creativity because people know what they want and for everything that they use, they also know how they wish it actually was. When you're using a site frequently you tend to wish that part of it was easier or made doing something more convenient. For example, on Twitter before the creation of the "@" symbol users didn't necessarily know when someone was tweeting about or to them. As Twitter founders saw a need the "@" symbol was created to fulfill. The ones who are submitting to the media should dictate how it functions so, I think it's great that companies are attentive to their audience. Is how they are going about the best way? Well, that's a different story.


Work Cited:
1. Miller, Claire. "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html?_r=0>.