Creativity and New Media

The example I will be using to show how creativity is fostered through media is with an avatar of myself that I created for another online course at my previous college. The avatar was created through the website called levelfly. Since it was an online course this website became the virtual world where our classroom would be held. When you first start you are given a minimum amount of freedom on how your avatar looks, dresses and the accessories it acquires. As you go throughout the course you get points and badges for the work you do, the more points you get the more options you get in choosing how your avatar looks. You begin to unlock clothing, hairstyles and accessories. This avatar was the representation of myself in a virtual world, my fellow classmates in that course only knew me by how my avatar looked. The website encouraged creativity on how you would like for others to perceive yourself as it gave options to dress your avatar in causal, dress, or career like clothing. Giving options of watches, jewelry, backpacks, briefcases to choose from. The website encouraged efficient work and creativity.

This is the list of options it would give for you to edit and change to your desire:


Here is the actual avatar and overall page view of level, xp points and badges:

Creativity

Creativity is said to be the use of imagination or original ideas to create something that captures and represents that imagination and original idea. In todays world new media has allowed the encouragement of creativity. Through uses of new media and technology creativity has been able to reach new heights and has been able to reach people on a global scale. A perfect example of new media being able to foster creativity is the concept of digital technology talked about in the article titled "1+1+1= 1 the new math of mashups" written by Sasha Frere-Jones.  This article talks about how digital technology has allowed for mashups of songs to become a new form of music. It goes in depth talking about a DJ who goes by the name Jeremy Brown. It talks about how he used digital software to isolate different songs and combine different parts of songs together to make one mashup song. He worked on it for months and once completed it posted it on his website and from their it was made available on iTunes. Using new media and digital technology as shown in this article encourages creativity as stated in the article " You don’t need a distributor, because your distribution is the Internet. You don’t need a record label, because it’s your bedroom, and you don’t need a recording studio, because that’s your computer. You do it all yourself.” Having places to post your creativity on the web whether its your own website or a social networking site, it allows for you to encourage others to become creative as well, while also encouraging your own creativity. I believe the way new media allows us to foster creativity is by creating something using our imagination and ideas, and being able to share it with the world through the inter web. 

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Technology has advanced to a point where you can be somewhere without your actual presence. This is achieved through virtual worlds. A perfect example of this is in the article titled "I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" published by the new york times and written by Dave Itzkoff. It talks about how you can place yourself somewhere virtually, basically living reality virtually. In the article it talks about how through VLES.com you can explore the lower east side from a virtual world. This is one of the ways that virtual worlds are used to explore and be part of a virtual reality, "the Virtual Lower East Side (vles.com), a three-dimensional, Internet-based social network fastidiously modeled on a small but influential swath of Manhattan real estate." (Itzkoff)

 Another way virtual worlds can be used is to train nurses to better equip them for emergencies. In an article titled "Avatar II: The Hospital" written by Stephanie Simon and published by the wall street journal it dives into this concept. The concept is of creating virtual worlds of hospitals and having emergency situation to train nurses. "This chaotic scene isn't real its part of an online simulation designed help nurses make quick, sure decisions in emergencies." (Simon) This is a major pro that a virtual world brings; it allows people to use virtual worlds to help better prepare for reality. The previous article that talked about VLES.com shows a con of virtual worlds. It makes us lose touch with reality when there’s no need to. In the article the person lives in the lower east side and knows that reality is right out the door but still choses to live through the virtual world. I feel this can cause some people to become dependent on virtual worlds, which can harm interpersonal skills.

 I believe virtual worlds allow us to experience new things and also through a different perspective. The future of virtual world is advancing; I just today tried the Samsung gear vr. You put on a headset and you are taken to a virtual world. The one I did was on a roller coaster, I wore the headset and sat on seat, put on my seat belt and began slowly rising to the top of the roller coaster. I rode a roller coaster in the meatpacking district in Chelsea through virtual reality. I believe this is a prime example of where virtual worlds are headed, allowing us to travel and experiences things without actually having to do them in reality. That may be good to some and bad to some, but one shall decide for themselves. 

Blog about Twitter

Twitter is a social networking platform that has allowed people to connect on a global scale. It is used for various purposes such as personal, business and educational purposes. Twitter is widely used as an education purpose in ways that it allows students in an online class to connect, such as this class. I believe twitter allows a discussion to be a bit more exciting and more interesting than a regular blackboard discussion. I believe twitter allows people to discuss in a way that’s a bit more relaxing and user friendly. When doing discussions on blackboard the only thing that runs through your head is "this is for a class I need to be accurate and precise on every little thing and I’m being graded on this." While on twitter that type of thinking is eliminated because of the ability twitter has to make it feel as if this is just like talking to a friend. Twitter allows everyone to discuss with one another, in some cases people who are shy don't tend to speak during in class-discussion, which can really affect their grade. On twitter that fear of talking is eliminated and the person becomes incorporated within the discussion. Overall, I see twitter as a platform that makes the discussion relaxing, friendly and interesting.

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites have become an everyday thing for many, from the young people to old people. It has become something that society can't live without, it has in ways brought the world closer by connecting millions of people but has also harmed in some ways, such as a loss of social skills. However, it is something that is used and will be used by millions on a daily base. The four different social media platforms I visited were Facebook, twitter, Instagram and Tumblr. All of these social media platforms I have used and become quite familiar with.

The biggest connection I see with all these are the ability to connect with one another globally. These platforms becoming a way to express ones own personal thoughts and thoughts on everything on the smallest to the largest scale possible. Another similarity I see is that all these platforms let you re-blog and chat privately with users on the platform. Facebook seems to be the platform that covers everything, lately it seems to have become a news network, you hear news faster on Facebook than on actual news channel. Some Facebook postings have become inappropriate, violent and just something that should be left of social networking. Twitter is a place to let people know what you're doing, what you're thinking and expression your personal opinion. I see twitter as a more professional turn on social networking as it used for job searching and job recruitment. Twitter started the hash tag phase, which has gone on to become a usage on all platforms. Instagram is the platform to show your life in pictures and recently added videos. The ability to show your life instead of write it made instagram what it is today. Tumblr I believe is the least expressive social networking, writing wise. Tumblr is a platform where reflagging is essential. You express yourself through re-blog other things such as quotes, pictures, videos, etc. All four of these platforms have changed social networking and continue to do so each and everyday. 

Social Networking

Social networking has become an essential in today’s world, from being able to connect with a friend or the ability to connect with someone across the globe. The social network is a breakthrough technology because of its multipurpose characteristics and abilities. These types of technologies have made it into the business world as explained in the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt. It goes into depth on how social networking as changed the platform of job recruiting. For example a website talked about in the article is LinkedIn which is the worlds largest professional network that allows them to connect with one another. "Using LinkedIn, Steckerl says he can scout a group of job candidates in just half an hour."(Langfitt) This website has become a way to find people for the job and it makes it quicker as well.

Another example of the way this technology is being used is shown by New Delhi. In the article "In India, Using Facebook to Catch Scofflaw Drivers" by Heather Timmons it talks about the how traffic police in New Delhi are using Facebook to catch drivers who violated traffic laws. "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."(Timmons) As we see even law enforcer are using social networking to better the driving situations there. This is a benefit to society as well as law enforcers. This use of social networking allows the officers to do their jobs better while also connecting the community and helping them with the unruly drivers, overall it betters the society.

While social networking has its benefits and allows us to connect with people it also has a dark side to it. This dark side of social networking consists of things such as cyber bullying and inappropriate connections. We all know on social media people tend to easily bully other people because they are protected, they are sitting behind a screen and there’s no immediate threat to them. By inappropriate connections I mean when people on social network seek underage children for their sexual desires. This is a huge problem with social networking and something has to be done about it. I personally believe these technologies will evolve to a point where you will be able to present yourself as a hologram to others. Your hologram would be able to travel across the globe, connect with people. It sounds crazy but hey, social networking once was also just a crazy concept.