The Next New Thing

A new type of new media that I think will be a good idea can be a website where people can teach other students about anything they want. It would consist of uploading an instructional video. The idea is to build a community that promotes helping others learn. It can be like a ""How to Cook" video or even a "How to do Math or Science" lesson on video. It's a website specifically designed for learning. People who have trouble reading can benefit from this. Also visual learning may work better for a lot of people. You can comment on the videos. I think it would be pretty popular. It's a great way to receive free information and make new friends.

Our Wiki So Far....

So far I am still working on it. There is a lot that can be contributed to the page. We can add different segments on how New Media has benefited certain industries. We can put how certain industries will use the New Media. And of course we can add how the New Media has damaged other industries. The goal is to show how the new media has shaped the economy.

About my term project

I did my research on social networking and the social effects it has had on our society. Most of my research was done through the database of the baruch website but I had also found interesting articles from the Time magazines. A lot of my findings were interesting. Social networking is being used for many things. One thing is certain that despite the issues of privacy control, it is a fact that people WANT to expose themselves. They just want to have control of what they expose. Of course this could lead to problems such as harassment through social networking also known as "cyberbullying". It is also interesting to see that the police have been using social networking to catch predators. I think it is a good thing. Research has also been done and many people enjoy social networking because it removes social tensions that normal socializing would cause. So perhaps it is a good thing in that sense. Also, it has facilitated communications with a larger group by the use of group pages from Facebook or other similar tools. One thing is certain and that is social networking will not replace meeting someone face to face. Although other studies show that people don't add strangers. So meeting new people is still being done in real life rather than social networks. I think of social networking as a plus and it doesn't really damage our basic social skills. It is just a way of keeping tabs on our friends. Of course one has to use it the right way. Social networking is increasing in popularity especially Facebook and who knows where it will take us. Social networking truly has revolutionized our ways of communications.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Privacy has been an issue in the world of the New Media especially in the case of social networking websites. In websites such as Facebook and Twitter, sometimes people just give out way too much information about themselves. They don't think about the harm they could be doing to themselves. There could be stalkers checking them out daily and getting updated on their lives. And there have been situations where employers will check out employees' Facebook and judge them based on pictures and comments that could lead them to get fired. So it's more of a question of how to handle yourself on Facebook. Many people use Facebook to keep in contact with their friends from all over the world. But it is also a way of meeting new people. Because of this, people will try to portray themselves the way they want others to view them on Facebook and they will invent new ways of making themselves look better in their eyes. Perhaps they will use a picture of themselves as their profile picture from years ago that they look good in when they look completely different than they do now. There is a movie that just came out recently called Catfish. It was only played on selected theaters in Manhattan. Basically without revealing too much information to avoid spoiling it for people who may be interested, the plot is basically about a guy who meets this girl on Facebook and throughout time he would get to know her family through Facebook only. He would start a relationship through Facebook only. When he tried to meet her she always refused. Finally he decides to surprise her and go to where she lives to meet her. Everything he thought he knew about her and the family through Facebook just turned out to be completely different from what he thought. It's very crazy what he finds out about this woman. It's mind boggling what people will do on Facebook. You can never be too careful with the people you meet on Facebook. So it is important to handle your privacy very well on Facebook. I really think it's dumb to update my location on Facebook or Twitter every second of the day. I think it's annoying to see people of all, and t isn't very smart revealing your whereabouts to a bunch of people that you are friends with on the internet. Some friends you are with are close to you but there's a good amount of those "friends" that are really just acquaintances and have no business knowing what you are doing.  

Advice to Baruch College

If I was hired by Baruch College to use new media in Baruch, I would suggest more online courses because I feel it is something every student should experience. Baruch is a school where a lot of students commute to so I feel many students would benefit from having more online courses because instead of having to come all the way to school for 5 classes maybe they can not worry so much about a couple of classes that they know they can study at home on their own time. It would remove a lot of stress from them. I would also suggest maybe Baruch having their own Youtube channel or something to show the upcoming freshman students a tour guide of the school. This can be a way of letting freshman know what to expect, which places are good to hang out, and can show them the gym, etc. And perhaps Baruch can have a blog for all students to join and contribute ways to improve the school. This blog can also be used for students to advertise their clubs, events, or selling textbooks.

Twitter- Discussion

The most annoying thing about Twitter Discussion is the limited amount of characters allowed. You have to be very succinct about what you say. BB discussion you can say whatever you want without worrying about the characters allowed. And BB discussion is more organized since you can add a title to what you are talking about. Also people can still comment on your blogs. I think BB discussion is much more practical. Tweeting is for people to just ramble senseless thoughts. In class discussions is more personal since you are speaking your mind and you can see the expressions of one another. The only thing about in class discussions is that people can interrupt you and be rude.

Modeling Virtual Reality and Virtual Worlds

One way virtual worlds can be used is in the business world. They can use virtual worlds to hold meetings with people of other companies from around the world that saves a lot of travel time and money. "Parmar told CNN that he recently held a meeting with 12 technical leaders from across Europe and Asia. While that would typically involve flying everyone to a central location, he said the meeting was held using the new Sametime 3D." (Tutton, Going to the virtual office in second life). I think it's a more convenient way to interact with one another to share ideas. The virtual world also allows you to store files in them using "dropbox" and you can also work on projects together using "basecamp". It saves a lot of time having to travel to a specific location. Also, for people who are shy, perhaps using virtual world is more comfortable for them. A negative side to this is that it isn't the real world and certain expressions and conversations may be misrepresented in the real world as we aren't actually seeing the other person face to face. 


Another way it can be used is social networking. It's like a new way to socialize. People can use websites such as secondlife.com or ivmu.com. People can get away from the real world and join virtual communities and use their avatars to even buy products that they would never buy in the real world. “Ms. Rayna, an avatar on Second Life, and her free-spending cohort can quaff Champagne, teleport to private islands and splurge on luxury brands that are the cyber equivalent of Prada waders or a Rolex watch. Real-world consumers may have snapped shut their wallets.” ( Ferla, No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the real you). It's like creating your own world that you want. The bad thing about this is that people may get tool carried away with this and spend too much time and money on their avatar. 


I think virtual worlds do foster creativity. Especially in the gaming world such as role playing games where players can interact with each other online such as Warcraft, creators have to come up with new ideas to attract consumers to buy and play their games and keep them from other competitors. 


I think the future of the virtual world can be something like we see in the movie Avatar where we maybe can control it using our mind with a headset. That's a neat idea although I don't know if it's possible or if I am watching too many movies. In the social networking aspect I think these virtual world websites can possibly replace facebook or myspace and instead of having our own profile page perhaps everyone will have their avatars and socialize through these virtual worlds.