Next New

During this pandemic there has been a great surge in baking among households. My house included and yes we did bake banana bread! If you haven't I would definitely recommend you try making it with walnuts inside. Many people have begun to bake from scratch and so it got me thinking that it would be pretty cool if there was a social media site for beginner bakers and cooks. It would behave similar to both Instagram and a blog. Users would upload their final products and post the corresponding recipes. This will allow other users to comment and discuss the recipe with either suggestions or admiration. Maybe the user can post about failing to bake or cook a recipe and reach out for help on ways they could have improved. It would be a judgment free zone for people who are just looking to learn this skill. Users will able to find basic videos on how to properly cut certain items such as onions or how to decorate a cake. It can also serve as a business opportunity for a few because people may find their food delicious and are willing to pay for it. I'm not sure what name I would give it. HomeCook? Any suggestions?

WiKi So Far

At the moment I have not added any new content to any of the pages. I will be looking into researching more information about social networking to add to the page. I think more information about the effects of social networking sites on mental health is needed. I have heavily edited the layout of the Social Networking site. The layout did not follow the proper layouts deemed necessary for the project. There was no introduction before we reached the contents page. I looked at the Youtube example as a reference. The Social Networking wiki page was very hard to follow because all the headings weren’t paired accordingly. There was a lot of repetition of heading titles and of unnecessary information that did not pertain to social networking. I sorted the contents of the page so it would flow better and feel natural because the other format was all over the place. It gave me anxiety to look at it which is why I worked on it until it was properly organized. I deleted repeated images and formatted the size and positions of some images because they weren’t adequately positioned in the site. I did my best to reduce the amount of fourth headers. Instead I bolded and added a line underneath the title as a divider. Another wiki page I am interested on working on is education and maybe news. I have a better idea of what I’ll do for the education site but I need to research more about what to add to news if I decide to do it as well.

P2P

Did you illegally download music from sites such as LimeWire when everyone was doing it instead of buying CDs? I sure did! I was about thirteen years old and I had no idea that what I was doing was known as peer to peer sharing(P2P). It differs slightly from file sharing. File sharing is when a file is shared from computer to computer through the internet. Example of fire sharing sites are Dropbox, Google Drive, and One Drive. Peer to peer sharing works similarly as file sharing. It is the sharing of digital media over the internet. Digital media can range from music to books. Peer to peer sharing is easy because it is done through peer to peer networking technology. Besides LimeWire, another example of this technology is uTorrent and Frostwire. Eventually, peer to peer sharing became outdated. According to the article “Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?”, downloading digital media is getting replaced by streaming it instead. Content is getting streamed at a faster rate than downloading it.

Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?" by ERIC PFANNER, The New York Times, April 13, 2009, p. B4. Available athttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/technology/internet/13iht-piracy13.html

Privacy

New media and issues of privacy and confidentiality are always brought up together. They go hand and hand for all the wrong reasons. New media has made it impossible for one’s information to be private and confidential. The new media users themselves unknowingly expose themselves too much over the web. They end up putting out a lot of delicate information that can make it easier for anyone to track them down and follow their every movement. The information found on the web is an easy way to find a perfect victim for identity fraud. The new media sites are also selling their user information to other companies. They can do so because of the terms and conditions that the users agree to when they sign up. Once the user signs up he or she has given up their right to privacy. Privacy on these sites are not guaranteed. Confidentiality depends on how good the new media’s cyber security is when it comes to hacking.

Advice

Baruch College can benefit a lot from introducing new media more into classrooms. It is a fun way for students to conduct discussions on platforms that they are very familiar with. The newer generations can easily adjust to these changes. A few examples of new media that can be used for class discussions are Twitter and blogs. These tools will be especially helpful in an English course. Students can express their opinions and interpretations of a text onto a blog for the class to see and comment on. It is a more comfortable setting for students to truly express themselves.

I believe Baruch College can also use new media to better communicate with its students and provide them with that sense of community that colleges wish for their students. Baruch College is a commuter school making it difficult to get their students to feel they are part of a close community. They should advertise more of their social media pages because they can be very useful to follow for current news involving the university.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity among those who wouldn’t otherwise participate. Today it is easier to be creative because of the new media available to them. As a result, people are creating new things that are entertaining for others. One example of this is the rise of mashup videos on Youtube. Youtube users are using animated cartoons as visuals and pairing them with an audio that makes it funny. According to the article “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?”, Disney is allowing edited videos of their animated cartoons with rap audio despite the animation being an infringement of their copyright because wholesale piracy is a bigger issue. Disney’s toleration of mashup videos allows room for creativity for users to continue making videos as long as it doesn’t interfere with Disney’s revenue. A Nickelodeon spokesperson doesn’t see the harm in mashup videos, he even applauds the clean edits. The way I see it, mashup videos can lead to a few to pursue a career in animation. Thus, new media's ability to foster creativity is beneficial for our entertainment.

Work Cited:

Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why? The New York Times, September 24, 2007; available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html

Creativity and New Media

I chose to play The Sims for this assignment. It was quite interesting, especially given that we are recommended to stay home due to the pandemic going on, so it felt like a little escape. The first thing I had to do was to create my avatar. It became challenging for me to do so because the clothes options were horrendous, but I managed. Next, I was taken to my house. I had to fix and decorate the interior of the house with the little options I was given. I had never played games such as Sims or Second Life before, so it was a surprise to me that I had to do a lot of things to play it. I was given work as a barista at a local coffee shop where I had to work shifts. The Sims makes it mandatory that you work, decorate your house, and interact with other Sims because these assignments are assigned to you as “Quests” that you must complete in order to receive more rewards and cash and to level up. I thought it was funny that one of the quests was for my Sim to rest because I wouldn’t think a digital character would need to. My favorite part about the game was decorating my house. Although I don’t plan on playing the game consistently, I know a friend who does. She has shown me her house and it is huge. She even expanded it! If one truly is dedicated to playing Sims, they can be very creative in decorating their house.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in many ways. A few schools have taken advantage of virtual worlds. According to the article “The Virtual World Moves into the Classroom,” virtual worlds provide an unimaginable experience for students because it is interactive. Social studies teachers gain a lot from the use of virtual worlds because they can take their students on a virtual tour of a historical event without spending thousands of dollars on a trip. Learning through virtual worlds has a positive effect on student’s learning because they tend to “remember what they’ve encountered in the virtual worlds.” Virtual worlds can also help children engage in their imagination and feel connected with others. The article “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?”, states that children can experience this by playing Minecraft. Minecraft is a virtual world that allows its users to build and explore while being connected with other users with the same goal. It is a great way to foster creativity in children since their generation is growing up with advanced technology. They can build and design their own worlds through a mobile device. Virtual worlds serve a great purpose in children’s lives, but it can create problems when used in other ways.

 As always with anything done online, the main concern is whether it is safe for children. This concern was made a reality when Pokemon Go, an augmented reality game, was released. Besides everyone going crazy for it, malicious users were using it to target victims. Children became very susceptible to it because they were walking around town without parent supervision. I strongly believe we will see more of virtual worlds in the future. It has some useful purposes if used for good reasons. I can see it being introduced into the classroom more, especially for subjects such as social studies and art classes that focuses on designs.

Works Cited:

After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/ 

The virtual world moves into the classroom Posted by Joe Earle | Sep 14, 2018 https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/09/14/the-virtual-world-moves-into-the-classroom/

Blog About Twitter

A Twitter discussion must be quick and to the point due to the limited characters per post. This leads to users making threads that users can read and respond to. Unlike Blackboard Discussion, Twitter has a more interactive feel to it. I believe this is the case because Twitter is easier and faster to access. You receive instant notifications if a user replied to your tweet or mentioned you on a tweet. If the user is near their phone, they can continue the conversation in seconds. With that being said, I don’t think a Twitter discussion can ever come close to an in-class discussion because multiple students can input their thoughts at any given point. There is a lot more instant feedback that can guide the classroom discussion. Bouncing off ideas is hard to do on Twitter if not everyone is logged onto it. Twitter is great if you’re glued to your phone or laptop screen.

Blog: Social Networking Sites

The only social networking sites that I log into on the regular are Instagram and Snapchat. I currently have Facebook, but I rarely log into it. When Facebook came out, I wasn’t really into it because I didn’t feel the need to post about my life. Why would anyone care if I went to the mall? I don’t really care about having a following or being friends with a lot of people online which is why I never used it at its peak. I only use Facebook if my parents need me to look up a family member from the motherland since they both don’t have social networking sites. My Facebook is filled with my family members posts. I had a Twitter account for about 3 years but got bored of it because it became repetitive. I never had anything to say. Although, sometimes I do miss using Twitter daily because it kept me up to date with a lot of current events. It helped spread news at a faster rate which is very helpful. All I must do to see what everyone is talking about is to click on the Explore page and look at the Trends and What’s Happening. What I miss most about Twitter is its funny content, but I don’t miss out on much since my boyfriend gladly shows me all the tweets he thought I would find funny.

In all honesty, I’m not sure why I still have Snapchat. Ever since Instagram added Instagram Story, which is basically Snapchat, I’ve noticed a lot of users stopped using Snapchat for Instagram. I don’t blame them since Instagram has everything in one. I occasionally post on Snapchat. I like Snapchat because of its face filters. It’s always fun to play around with them with my nephews. In the future, I will probably end up deleting Snapchat. Instagram has remained my favorite social networking site. I love it because of its clean format. The only complaint I can say about Instagram is that they stopped organizing posts in chronological order. Instagram is simple and easy to use. Who doesn’t like posting a selfie or posting photos of their awesome trip? I like it because its only meant for photos.

Social Networking Blog

Social networking and privacy do not go hand in hand. By signing up to a social network, one is essentially giving up their right to privacy. Nothing is private once it is posted on the internet. For this reason, it is encouraged to not post anything one doesn’t want the world to see. The social network site Facebook has a very faulty privacy system. Ironically, Mark Zuckerberg’s own sister fell victim to the lack of privacy enforced by his social network. In the article written by The Atlantic, “Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private,” Randi Zuckerberg had uploaded a family holiday photo onto her Facebook page believing it would be viewed by only her Facebook friends since she had clicked on Friends and not Public, but to her surprise it had spread to the public due to a flawed system. The issue on Facebook’s part is loosely defining the term Friends. It instead means “my friends and all the friends of people tagged in the post.” If one really meant just their Friends, then they’d have to click on Custom and uncheck “the friends of those tagged.” This is only a small-scale example of the dangers that surround social networking.

Despite its flaws, social networking has become a great tool for companies in need of workers and vice versa. Websites such as LinkedIn have emerged due to the rise of social networking. LinkedIn is a professional social network that is used to hire potential job candidates. According to the article “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting”, companies “have started hunting for job candidates using social networking technology.” LinkedIn is a great site for job recruiters because they can search for candidates by typing keywords into the search engine. The site is beneficial for both companies and future job candidates. Those looking for employment can easily market themselves by listing onto their profiles their work experiences and skills.

There are many benefits these technologies bring to society. I think the most important benefit is the efficiency and quickness the technology links its users. Information is spread instantaneously around the world. This is very important because with the old media information took longer to reach those who needed it. Eventually I think these technologies will continue to update especially in their privacy section. Privacy will always remain top priority as long as hackers exists.

Works Cited

Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private,” The Atlantic Wire, Greenfield, R. December 26, 2012 http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/60313/

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

Blog vs Wiki

Blogs and wikis serve similar roles in that they both provide information to its readers, although the kind of information can be different. Wikis tend to be used to gain more knowledge about a specific subject while blogs are used to express opinions on a specific matter. A key difference between them is who gets to edit their content. Wikis can be edited by anyone while blogs are only edited by its author. The only contributions that can be done on blogs are the comments by its readers.

Convergence in today’s networked world is important because it facilitates the consumer's experience. Wikis are a part of this convergence. We no longer have to go through multiple books or articles in order to reach the information we're looking for. Wiki has done this for us already and has even provided citations to the books and articles used in case we wanted to go more in depth with it. As stated previously, wikis are used to gain knowledge. There are wikis that limit who exactly is allowed to make changes to it. In the article “An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified,” they mention a wiki called Diplopedia that can only be edited by anyone who works in the State Department. Diplopedia contained biographies of the political figures the U.S. ambassador was going to meet. Instead of receiving biographies of people who were attending a political event and then having to print them, the ambassador only needed his Blackberry. This made his life easier and provided easy mobility of the information he needed to know. Eventually I think more governments will use wikis for this purpose.

Both blogs and wikis require collaboration. For example, a blog can provide useful information to a community for those who choose to participate in it. This was the case in Brooklyn. The article “Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid,” shows how useful and important a blog can serve. Community members participated in this blog to bring awareness of the illegal activities going on in their community. As a result of all their efforts they were able to persuade law enforcement to conduct a narcotics investigation which led to multiple arrests. According to the article, the “blogging turned to action, as neighbors started filing complaints with the 68th Precinct Station.” A single blog was able to unite a community to engage in community reforms.

Citation

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

An Internal Wiki That’s Not Classified by Noam Cohen. The New York Times, August 4, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html

Social Media: Useful for Some, Toxic for Others

I will be basing my research paper on social media and how it affects its users in many different aspects of their lives. My topics will range from how it affects us economically to mentally. Social media platforms have served as a great opportunity for those in the entertainment and marketing industry. Numerous companies use social media to bring in more publicity for their products, even going as far as paying celebrities to sponsor their product. There is no denying social media generates a lot of money for those who use it effectively in becoming “influencers” or entertainers, however, it is also responsible for causing anxiety and depression in others. One of the dark sides of social media is that it has facilitated cyber bullying from anywhere in the world. It is easier now than ever before to bully with the help of social media. I will study the pros and cons of social media. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Is it worth using?These are the questions I would like to find an answer to.