Creativity and New Media

The beginning stages of creating my MyPLAYER

My finished product in action

Here is an example of how new media fosters creativity. In this virtual world of NBA 2K15, I was able to create a whole new identity using the features provided in MyPLAYER. It allowed me to customize and make a unique character just for me to use in my very own story line, giving a glimpse of what it's like to make it in the NBA. There are many options to customize such as hairstyle, accessories, height, weight, eyes, shoes, tattoos, voice, etc. With this new identity, I'm able to communicate and play against others in this virtual world. On top of that, seeing other people's characters along with actual real life NBA players sometimes also gives me ideas on how to make changes to my character, fostering creativity within the virtual world.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity by allowing new possibilities and materials to work with. As new media continues to advance, it only opens up room for more creativity. With the help of new media users, creativity will continue to prosper because these users are constantly being given new features to play with. Even within companies, a lot of ideas they stick with originate from consumers. For example, in "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers", they explain how the hashtag phenomenon came from an early twitter user. Twitter took the opportunity and built on this idea by adding a hyperlink feature to these hashtags in order to group tweets within the same topic altogether. Interests coming from both consumers and producers in new media are what fosters creativity.

"Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" by CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, New York Times, October 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment. In a virtual world, you are given the opportunity to use a unique avatar or character to communicate with others who are also logged in to the same virtual world. Virtual worlds are mainly used for gaming but can also be used for business operations or escaping reality. For example, in "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life," Dave was able to live in a world he enjoyed. He was able to visit his own neighborhood without actually stepping a foot out of his door. He enjoyed his time more at the club virtually rather than actually physically in person.

There are both pros and cons to a virtual world. The pros of a virtual world would be having the ability to do what you can't in real life, simple communication, and being able to enjoy a world you don't really live in. The cons would include online harassment  because of the anonymity and not being able to come back to reality. Many people hide behind computers and attack others verbally without having to face any consequences. These people are sometimes known as "keyboard warriors."

Virtual worlds foster creativity by allowing people to do what they can't in real life. It also allows people to collaboratively work together to create an ideal world to live in. In "Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life," companies like IBM were able to create a world to share and communicate ideas a lot more easily and convenient. They were able to meet virtually, cutting travel costs and possible security breaches.

Virtual worlds seem to only be improving. In many virtual gaming worlds, people already sell their virtual items for actual money which shows that people can actually make a living off this. As technology grows, virtual worlds will continue to grow with it.

"I've Been In That Club, Just Not In Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, NY Times, January 5 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html?_r=0

"Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life" by Mark Tutton, CNN, November 9, 2009,
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html

Social Networking Sites

Facebook, being extremely popular, is probably one of the most used social networking sites out there. People can send messages, share media, stay connected with friends (distant or not), and also share interests with others. One of it's main features is the news feed where you're constantly being kept up to date with all the trending news or entertainment and daily updates from your friends. Since they've released the mobile app, they've also added more features like location services and check-ins, providing convenience.

Instagram, another extremely popular social networking platform, is also widely used. It originally offered only the ability to share and like photos, but now, they've added 15 second video sharing. They also have a handful of filters for you to choose to filter your photos. Also, they use hashtags to categorize similar photos together for easier browsing. It's great because it allows people to capture moments and share it with others.

Twitter, a site I didn't really like when I first found out about, is mainly used for status updates. Although users are limited to 140 characters, it is still becoming increasingly popular. It also highly encourages the hashtag craze. If you aren't following someone, you can still see their updates but only if you're on their page. If you follow them, you can see all their updates on your Twitter home. Unregistered users are also still allowed to read tweets which is pretty cool, however, they aren't allowed to post.

Myspace, on the other hand, is now pretty much dead. Because so many users, including myself, left for Facebook, they changed their whole theme, making it solely music based. Before, it was pretty similar to Facebook, allowing you to stay connected with friends and share media but since 2013, it is a place for musicians to promote their music. It now mainly features written editorial content, radio stations, music mixes and videos.

Blog about Twitter

A Blackboard discussion is very different from a Twitter discussion. On Twitter, a tweet is limited to only 140 characters whereas Blackboard is unlimited. Also, on Blackboard, only those who are in your course section can see what you have posted while a tweet is open to anyone with internet access. There are constant notifications whenever someone replies or retweets on Twitter and there is also a mobile app. BlackBoard updates are usually sent through an e-mail which is a lot less convenient for most users.

In-class discussions are also pretty different from Twitter discussions. In a in-class discussion, there isn't much time to think about what you want to say. On Twitter, you can reply whenever you feel and can also delete your tweet. If you say something in-class, there is undoing. An obvious difference is the fact that Twitter is online and in-class discussions are face to face. Like I previously stated, tweets can be seen by anyone and anyone can respond, whereas in-class discussions are limited to those in the room.

Social Networking

Social networking, by definition, is a platform to build social networks or social relations among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. A main benefit of social networking is the ability to stay in touch with people anywhere with access to the internet. They could be hundreds of miles away but can still stay connected. These social networking sites also bring those who share common interests together by allowing the creation of groups and also access to trending news. Another benefit is allowing both companies and those in search of employment to find each other. A popular website that makes this easy is LinkedIn. This website gives employers the opportunity to hire and gives everybody else the opportunity to find a job. In "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting," the article states that "8 million professionals spread across the world" are using this site, which offers a huge audience for recruiters to select their candidates.

Although there are several benefits to social networking, I believe they also come with drawbacks. One main drawback or “dark side” to social networking is the fact that once you upload something, everyone can see it. For example, with Facebook, your life is pretty much exposed on the Internet. Whether it is your location, pictures, statuses, relationships; anyone with Facebook has access to that information. Privacy is a huge drawback to social networking. In “Who cares about Facebook privacy? Students do”, studies show that “engagement with privacy settings increased significantly” since 2009-2010. This shows that although students are aware of the invasion of privacy, they still choose to use these sites because they deem the benefits outweigh the costs. Even with this drawback, I still do believe that this technology will continue to evolve for the better. There are constant updates and fixes to technology everyday and at this rate, there’s no stopping its growth.

"Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

"Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do" By Marc Parry, NY Times, July 29, 2010
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Who-Cares-About-Facebook/25877/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

BLOG V WIKI

In today's swiftly progressing media, blogs and wikis are essential in providing information to people everywhere who use the internet. The main difference between blogs and wikis is that a blog is written similarly to a journal, making it more personal. They consist more of opinions on facts compared to wikis. Only the author of the post is allowed to edit the post; others are only able to comment. On the other hand, wikis consist of information posted by multiple users because it’s open to the general public giving everyone the ability to edit and contribute to the page. However, wikis can’t always be trusted because people can also publish information anonymously without having any credibility. According to “How to Use Wikis For Business”, “thousands of people police the site (or at least those areas in which they have expertise), fact-checking and editing as necessary, so the quality of the content generally remains high.” Even so, the main goal of both blogs and wikis are to share information and knowledge with others.

People coming together through media has definitely impacted our world today in a positive light. One example was given in “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid”, where a community shared their experiences with suspicious drug activity through a blog, leading to a drug raid by the police; “peering turned to blogging, and blogging turned to action.” Without these opportunities for people to stay connected, a vast amount of information would go undiscovered.

A new way people can use wikis is maybe creating collaborative study guides for students studying similar subjects.

"How to Use Wikis for Business," by Ezra Goodnoe, Information Week, August 8, 2005, http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331

“Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid,” By MICHAEL WILSON, The New York Times, June 26, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html