Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual world can be used in many different ways. Mainly when we think of virtual world we think of escaping reality, the real world. In the article, “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” by Diane Mehta, she interviewed Jacki Morie, a virtual world designer in telehealth care. Morie said, “Minecraft is a virtual world. It’s digital LEGOs if you will, but it’s a space for kids to exercise their imagination and to connect with others to also want to build and create things.” Morie is explaining how the game Minecraft is already prepping kids in this generation to want to innovate and network. Another virtual that I can include is the game Pokemon Go that was released this Summer. It was a virtual game on a phone that basically was synced with Google Maps and the player would have to travel outside to catch Pokemons that appeared on their screen. This was an innovated move by the game designer to help people connect both virtual and real world together. Another article that relates to use of virtual world, “In the Room 100, it’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again” by Saki Knafo. In the article Michael Brown, who has fantasized about living in the Chelsea hotel (a hotel where artists use to stay), developed a setting on Second Life replicating the Chelsea hotel before corporate management team took over. In the replica it shows the pigeonhole mailbox, but it was removed in real life. Brown did visit their once and he photograph the arts on the walls and simulated them into the virtual world. In this virtual world it also allows online avatars to meet in the hotel to do poetry reading. This shows that not everyone can accept change. People still want the old and Second Life lets people to relive Chelsea Hotel before they changed.

The pros for virtual world is that people can interact with others without revealing physical self. They dress up as avatar and interact with each other and that eliminates fear and shyness. The cons of a lag time, and lack of acuity. People feel more comfortable when they are in the virtual world that their creativity are endless. When people realize that they are back to reality, they know that they are limited in certain sources. A con is social awkwardness, networking with people in virtual world maybe easier for someone than the real world. I believe with the technology we have today, people would develop reality into the virtual world. There are already head pieces for gaming that brings the users into the setting of the game they are playing!

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussion are more simple and straight to the point compared with Blackboard discussion. A tweet only consist of 140 characters so the person tweeting would have to limit their discussion whereas in Blackboard discussion the person can elaborate as much as possible. By using hashtag we can group a twitter discussion to certain viewers(like we did for homework). Blackboard you would have to click on everyone's post and manual reply.

In class discussions are better than Twitter discussions because you know who is talking in your group of classmate and the responses should be faster than Twitter discussions. There can be a tweet from a while back and you can retweet the tweet days or months later replying.

Social Networking Sites

When I log on to Facebook my impressions the top 3 icons on the top right. I usually check for any new friend request, new messages, or just random notifications. For Facebook it used to be very hyped back then where people would post on other's wall when they communicate and other friends will comment on the post. Now it's just if there's a birthday, people will post on their wall wishing them a happy birthday. When they find a viral video that relates to you they will @(insert your name). I personally mainly use Facebook for group messaging with friends.

When I first started Twitter, my first impression was that it was pointless and useless because who would care about what I tweet out anyways. I realized it was great for networking and connecting with people with similar interest. For me, I like collecting sneakers so I would follow people that are consistently tweeting updates on where a new shoe might come out earlier than its expected release date.

Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram is based on posting pictures or videos where followers can like and comment on them. When people use hashtag on their pictures, they try to reach out to people with similar interests. I have a few friends that are bloggers that uses #blogger , #ootd(outfit of the day) and it would attract people that are fashion bloggers to follow her page.

YouTube is probably well known as one of the top social media website. My first impression of Youtube is that there were so many different videos you can watch from different genre(vloggers, comedy, pranks, makeup tutorial, etc). I even watched a Youtuber that specializes in tutoring people in calculus ,when I was taking a calculus at Baruch.

Facebook is great with reconnect with your old friends. Twitter is a way to tweet about your daily activity or to follow people that tweets out stuff that interest you. Instagram and Youtube uses photos and videos to reach out to their followers.

Social Net'g

When we think of Social Networking, we think of the top websites such as Facebook, and Twitter. The benefits of Facebook as a social website is that it helps family and friend stay connected, and join group events with people that have similar interests. Social media also can help businesses and corporations innovate their customer service. For example, recently I used Twitter to tweet out to a specialty retail business about a problem I had with a product. They answered within minutes and we found a solution that satisfied us both.

In the article, "In India, Using Facebook to Catch Scofflaw Drivers" by Heather Timmon we see how people in New Delhi, India use social media to contribute together and bring down hazardous drivers. "The traffic police started a Facebook page two months ago, and almost immediately residents became digital informants, posting photos of their fellow drivers violating traffic laws."(Timmon) Residents in the area where traffic usually occur, submitted photos of drivers who are breaking the law to traffic police's Facebook page. If indeed the picture proves the driver is breaking the law, they will receive at ticket for their wrong doing.

Many people my think social media is always on the positive side, but there is a "dark" side to it too. In the article, "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private" by Rebecca Greenfield shows that the Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi Zuckerberg was not able to manage her privacy settings correctly. She intended to post a picture of her family, but only for her family and friends to see. Somehow the photo leaked out and someone ended up posting it on Twitter. This shows the negative side of Facebook and their lack on miscommunication on privacy settings. We all know that what ever is leaked on the internet, there is no such thing as taking back.

Social networking website are constantly new ways to innovate. There are more ways to communicate with people with similar interests, your friends and family, and possibility of a recruiting employers(LinkedIn).

Blog v Wiki

In today's society, we have numerous ways to network with each other. Media convergence is important to people in today's world such as for businesses. Blogs and Wikis are two forms of new media that helps communicate information across from one to another. Blogs are more of an one person's opinionated contribution about their personal life and where other people can provide feedback and comment on their post. While wiki is more of a group collaboration, where anyone in that group can contributed editing the page.

In the readings, "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid," by Michael Wilson we see that bloggers from the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn contributed information to help their community take down a crack house. The blogger's posted on BayRidgeTalk.com, on the events and drug activities that were happening inside and outside of the 93rd street crack house. After providing these information, people in their community filed complain to their local precinct and it led to an investigation to bring down the drug dealers.

In another reading, "An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified," by Noam Cohen, we can see that how Diplopedia helped prepared and organized memo and biographies for State Department. Unlike Wikipedia, where anyone can contribute to the page, people that contributed false information or vandalism on Diplopedia can be tracked down.

Blogs can be used for collaboration where two bloggers could write about the same topic and their viewers can look at both blogs to gather information for themselves. Wiki could have more restriction on what information are accurate letting notable users post on it.

Outline to Research Project

The research topic I chose was "eBay: Community or Bazaar?" I chose this research topic because I have a very high interest and also involved in the eBay community. eBay being a new media in today's society have impacted the way we shop and sell. For my research I am planning to look at most of the prospective, such as economic, sociological,technological, and also moral. I already have a few positive and negatives impacts off the top of my head, such as international sellers and how its good that we can get products for cheaper than our local retail store. It is a positive benefit for us the buyer, but negative impact on our economic growth. Since eBay is my daily hobby, I would have a lot to say how eBay affects me and will change the future.