The Next New Thing

One suggestion I have for a new type of “new media” is the virtual reality concept. The concept was introduced recently where people can put on a pair of Goggles and they are able to see things 3D based on prerecorded videos. Perhaps the next live news media can have drones go into dangerous locations and one can put on the goggle and see things live. Maybe news can now be covered using live camera and transmitted directly into these goggles so that the person viewing the content can also experience it live and 3D. What if I were to see a concert but its located half a map away, this 3D concepts allows me to experience the “live” concerts without physically being there.

P2P File Sharing

According to technopedia, file sharing is the practice of sharing or offering access to digital information or resources, including documents, multimedia (audio/video), graphics, computer programs, images and e-books. File sharing connects users to users on the computer from both online and offline. One can simply share online using upload sites or share offline using removable storage devices.

P2P file sharing according to Google dictionary, it allows users to access media files such as books, music, movies, and games using a P2P software program that searches for other connected computers on a P2P network to locate the desired content. What this mean is what I mentioned above, online file sharing through upload sites. It can be either from one to one which is when one user sends files to another user, or it can be one to many whereas the user upload files into a public site and many other users can feed off of it. With all this information being transfer from one person to another/others, are there any restrictions one might ask. According the NY Times “Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access” written by Eric Pfanner, ““If you put 200 VCRs in your garage and start making and selling copies of films, you will get a visit from the police,” he said. “If you do it from a Web site, everybody says, ‘Hey, freedom of information’ ”. There are many risks that come with file sharing, and one of the biggest is online piracy. Are things uploaded online consider free or is it properly copyrighted and anyone who uses without authorization is subject to criminal charges?

Some examples of P2P file sharing include downloading music or videos from ITunes or Apple music. These website acts as an online storage and when purchased, you can directly download the content off the website. Other’s includes applications like Google Doc or Dropbox, where as one can store information into their accounts and it can be shared through links or access to the drive.

Eric Pfanner. “Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access?" The New York Times, April 13, 2009. Web. June 22, 2016.

Privacy & Confidentiality

The issue of privacy and confidentiality that are related to new media is trending in the recent years. We are no longer keeping our identity on cards and on paper that’s stashed in our safe. With the explosion of new media and social networking websites surfacing, people are pouring in their personal information without regards of who might be on the receiving end. We must be careful on what we post on social media websites as well as how we allow our information to be transferred. We can’t simply enter our house address and name because we would like to sign up for a random poll that’s requesting these information. Social media is constantly talking about people’s identity being stolen and people having access to other people’s social Medias accounts. I believe everyone must find a way to secure their information one way or the other from getting into the hands of the wrongdoers.

Creativity and New Media

World of Warcraft was one of my all-time favorite MMORPG (massive multi-player online roles playing game) game that I spent a lot of time playing when I was younger. The game allows me to become someone that I will never be able to be in my or anyone’s life time. For example, if I want to go rogue and sneak around killing monsters, this game allows me to do that just be creating a character equipped with rogue-like features and skills. Perhaps one day I am feeling helpful and want to help out people, it allows me to become a healer or paladin which enables me to recover other players’ health bar as they go into battle.  The game not only allows me to become who I want to be based on my imagination, it also allows me to interact with people from around the world. I get to dress up my character in any ways I feel like as well as tell my avatar to do whatever I wish.

Here's a screenshot of the paladin I created in World of Warcraft. I equipped myself with the choice of armor along with the Hammer of Justice as a weapon.

CREATIVTY

Creativity is defined as the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work according to Google dictionary. One is only as creative as their imagination can be. In order to be creative, the more someone is exposed to certain things, they better they think of ideas to incorporate into other things. People’s imagination is endless and with the right tools, their imagination only that far away from becoming reality. New media fosters creativity in many ways. One way new media encourages creativity was mentioned in The New York Times article called “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. Buy Why?” by Brooks Barnes. “Anthony Falzone, a copyright expert at Stanford, said, “Media companies have been fairly tolerant of Internet mash-ups and parodies so far.” Part of the Disney contents were edited as a music video similar to the one call “Crank that”, yet Disney took no actions to take it down or press charges for copyright violations. This shows that there’s a fine line between encouraging creativity on the internet verse using someone’s original ideas for profit getting. New media is like an encyclopedia of resources for people to use, it allows people to search up anything they wish and turn ideas into different ideas in many ways. As long as you can imagine it, you can look it up on social media and use it to create something completely different based on your own imagination.

Brooks Barnes. “Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why?” The New York Times. September 24, 2009. Web. June 22, 2016

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

What's a better way to escape the reality world than to dive into the virtual world which allow us to be someone we can't in the reality world? A virtual world can fill in gaps that we cannot fill in real life. Since it's based on computer simulated technologies, we can create who we want to be and do what we want to do in a virtual world. This all can be done through the use of avatars. Games like MMORPG and Grand Theft Auto allow the users to do things that is almost impossible to do in real life. It allow us to express ourselves in ways that only our imagination can imagine. If you can think of it, the virtual world can do it. Similar to what it's mentioned by Diane Mehta on "After Second Life, Can virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” But 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. This agrees to what I mentioned earlier, if you can think of it, the virtual world can do it. Another example written by Stephanie Simon "Avatar II: The Hospital", which allows nurses to act as if they are on duty and performing emergency decisions to better prepare them for the real situation.

There are pros and cons to everything, and this includes the virtual reality world. Pros to this is that it allows one to tackle real life situation before it happens which gives the user an insight of how to react and the decision it makes to complete a mission successful. Another pro is that it allows the user to express their feelings and actions that they held inside in which is not allowed to be performed in the real world. The cons to the virtual reality world is that it can lead to addiction. Someone can become so addicted to the virtual world that they lose a sense of the real world along with the necessity needed to interact with humans normally. This can be seen with kids who are playing games constantly and never go outside, it tends to lead to isolation, trouble finding friends, and may even lead to having hard time communicating through human interactions.

Virtual worlds foster creativity in a way that it allows the users to create anything they wish that is on their mind. As I’ve mentioned many times previously, it allows the user to do things that they simply cannot do in real life. One can show off their personalities in terms of avatar in the virtual world, they can be as creative as they want in terms of decorating their avatar. They can also speak in ways that they want, or test certain personalities and see how others reacts in a virtual world. They can talk in a way they never thought they would do when face to face with someone else. One can simply do something and just disconnect from the virtual world as if nothing has happen. To many users, virtual worlds allows second chances where the real world does not.

Diane Mehta. “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” Forbes. April 30, 2013. Web. June 20, 2016

Stephanie Simon. "Avatar II: The Hospital". The Wall Street Journal. April 13, 2010. Web. June 20, 2016.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook is one of the social networking site that I am very familiar with. This platform is one of the most successful social networking site that's still popular. It allows users to share anything they wish and connect with friends and families. I found that website along with its phone application to be very organized and easy to navigate. Everything can be reached within a touch of a button; without any major redirection. I love the news feed function as it updates instantaneous which allows you to keep in touch with the current news of your friends. One of the major advantage to Facebook is that it does not allow you to edit its page like Xanga or Myspace, which keeps the page very clean and it’s not messy. Facebook is one of my favorite social media to use and I'm not surprise that it last longer than most social media websites ever created.

Second to Facebook is Instagram. Instagram allows the user to upload and view photos and videos at a touch of a button. The design of Instagram is simplistic and it’s very pleasing to the eye. One simply choose a picture and uploads it and people around the world can see it when you use hashtags (#). Instagram definitely a great entertainment if you are looking to scroll through pictures of different people and it sparks a lot of DIY ideas and it also allows the users to see what other are capturing with their camera. One major plus of Instagram is that the filter features, it allows the uploader to edit photos with the lighting of their choice which enhances their photo.

The third is LinkedIn, similar to Facebook, LinkedIn allows the user to connect with people in a more professional setting. Although it can be sociable, people in LinkedIn are more sophisticated and the overall setting of the page is towards professionalism. LinkedIn is great if you are looking to know someone professionally, it allows you to see their work ethics, current employments, career goals and the type of technical skills that they have if you are looking to employ someone. LinkedIn is definitely a great tool for me to look for someone if I need to connect with someone professionally and looking for someone with the right skills to help me do the job. 

Last, I was reintroduced to Twitter in this class. I tried using Twitter a year or two ago and I didn't really like the feel of the site and found it hard to use. At first view of the platform, it seems like a news site where people upload their message quickly and short as its limited based on 140 characters. Later looking deeper into this social media website, it allows people to talk to each other public and allows other to see as well, to me it feels like this is a baby version of Facebook since Facebook also allow people to update status and have people comment on it, whereas this is allows people to update news and people retweet it.