CREATIVITY AND NEW MEDIA

New Media has allowed me to share my artwork online across many social platforms for not only my friends to see but also the general public. I have posted my artwork across Deviantart, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr. It makes it more fun to know that I can share my work and get feedback from it at the same time. These platforms has encouraged meto continuously share  my artwork and creativity online. 

I use my Wacom Intuos tablet and draw through paint programs onto the computer to create illustrations. With a tablet, I can easily draw digitally and manipulate my work through Adobe programs.

As a New Media Arts minor capstone, I created an animation with video and illustration and it was exhibited in the New Media Artspace exhibit at the Baruch library. I used Adobe Photoshop, After Affects, and Final Cut Pro to create the video.

https://vimeo.com/116280084

New Media is a great way for people to expand their work digitally while gaining exposure instead of the need to print and publish work. Money is saved and views continue to increase.

CREATIVITY

New Media has encouraged creativity with more opportunities. With New Media, we have been able to share photos, videos, artwork, and even music towards a bigger audience of people.  During the time before Youtube and came about, people had a difficult time sharing themselves playing music to the world. However, with the new media age everything has changed. People would post up originals or cover songs of themselves playing their guitar and singing at the same time on video websites. Videos become viral and they would start earning millions of fans. Youtube would also pay them according to the amount of videos, views and likes they get. With this, people gain more exposure online and has the chance to become extremely famous depending on their talent. They don't need anything fancy or expensive equipment in order to get views. For example, according to Mark Vidler, known professionally as Go Home Productions, says “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.” (Frere-Jones, 2005)

Frere-Jones, Sasha. "1 + 1 + 1 = 1 - The New Math of Mashups." The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 10 Jan. 2005. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/01/10/1-1-1-1>.

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds has become a part of many people's daily lives, whether it is through the computer, the iPad, the iPhone, or on Android. Examples are online games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, and mobile games such as Clash of Clans or LINE Play. Virtual worlds create a fictional environment where people interact online instead of in person. People are in their own space while at the same time somehow connected to millions of other people. Virtual worlds are a form of escape from reality, where you are capable of doing things you normally wouldn't be able to in real life and it puts us more at ease.

There are different ways of using virtual reality. Besides using it during our leisure time from work and school, it has been used as a healing platform for the U.S Army. The soldiers are constantly on the alert in a tough environment. According to Jacki Morie, a virtual world designer in telehealth care he used virtual reality to create a stress-free environment for a soldier. One tester entered the virtual world and was surprised at how calm everything was with no harmful NPCs. (Mehta, 2013)

Virtual reality also helps with autism. People with Asperger's Syndrome has a range of brain disorders that restrict them from social interaction and communication. However, in virtual reality games where people get to customize their own character like a real person, use a wide range of emotions and communicate through chat boxes allow people with autism to practice and get more comfortable with social interactions. (Saidi, 2008)

However, these are only several of the pros. There are also cons to virtual reality. Virtual reality online games contain all types of people, including people that like to bring others down. People can be constantly harassed in games, and leave them emotionally distressed. This is what they call online bullying. People have committed suicide as a result of online bullying, and it is not only through virtual gaming but online in general. Another thing is that there are some people that want to meet these online people in real life, and they come out not what they expected to be. They can be a threat to your well-being.

On another note virtual reality also fosters creativity. There are games such as Minecraft that allows you to build your own world, your own town and houses. There are also games such as Maplestory or World of Warcraft that inspires people to imagine a world with all these fantasy elements of elves, orcs, angry mushrooms that attack you, and you end up creating a story for yourself. The vast customization allows you to create every characteristic on your own and to your liking. Speaking from personal experience, online games was one of my inspirations when it comes to drawing and creating my own stories when I was a child. Therefore, I do believe that virtual realities foster a lot of creativity.

The future of virtual reality has already began. Oculus Rift has been introduced and it is a headset that allows you to see virtual reality and mentally feeling its emotions at the same time. For example, a virtual reality game where you are on a roller coaster ride and feeling as if it is actually real. This is only a start and I believe it has potential to help with further healing and autism.

Mehta, Diane. "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/>.

Saidi, Nicole. "IReport: 'Naughty Auties' Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Mar. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText>.

ABOUT TWITTER

Twitter is a social media site where people would post up short statuses about their opinion on things or something that happened in the very moment. However, unlike other social  media websites their posts are limited to only 140 characters.

 A Twitter discussion is very different from a blackboard discussion. One, because you are not under a website monitored by an education system, and two is that Twitter posts are very short and sweet. You get information a lot quicker and with easier access. On Blackboard we have to constantly click to reach our destination and the way we comment is less casual compared to Twitter. Twitter also makes use of hashtags while Blackboard does not. Blackboard is more private and the general public can not read your posts while on Twitter you are given the option to private our make your posts public.

Twitter is different from an in-class discussion. Twitter is all digital and online based while in-class is in a real-life setting. On Twitter people do not have to talk face to face with each other while an in-class discussion requires it. On Twitter, people are more prone to voice their opinions because everyone is behind a screen while in an in-class discussion people may feel too shy to raise their hand or speak up. With a Twitter discussion, people are less afraid to actually engage in a discussion.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Four social networking sites I will be comparing in this post is Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

Despite how all these websites contribute to social networking on the internet, they are also very different. On Facebook, people would post up statuses about how they felt about things or something that major happened that day while people would easily comment on the post with a click of a button. It gets numbered "likes" for the amount of people that like it and usually the posts with the most likes are the  ones that get the most attention. There are also sticker options where people can comment with a sticker resembling an emotion or an action. On Facebook, people can also privately message each other and also create group chats.

On Twitter, people would do the same with posting statuses of something they did or happened, but with less words. On Facebook you can type a whole essay while Twitter you are only limited to 140 characters. This makes Twitter more of a quicker way to read messages and receive news.

On Tumblr, users can also create posts about their day or something interested, except it is on a more personal level. Tumblr is more like a blog, a journal entry where many people post up their personal feelings. It feels less public compared to Facebook and Twitter. However, you can also reblog and "likes on other people's posts.  The amount of reblogs and posts would then turn into the amount of notes on the entry. For example, if there were 5 reblogs and 5 likes, that would be 10 notes. Most oftenly, people will post of photos or gifs of things related to their hobbies or TV shows.

Instagram is the most different of all the social media websites. People would only post photos with a comment that goes with it. The photos are in a square format and most people access it through their phones. People can also "like" it or comment on it. Unlike Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, Instagram provides the ability to edit your photos a lot. They include settings such as changing the saturation, adding filters, straightening the photo, increasing the brightness/contrast, and many others.

All 4 social media websites may be different platforms but they are still connected to each other. When you share a post on sites like Tumblr and Instagram, you are given an option to also share it to Facebook or Twitter.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social networking has become quite a big deal in our lives. People are constantly using them at home, when they go to school, when they are AT school, or on their way to work. It is a way for people to connect to each other, network, and spread the news quickly.

For example, as a student in Baruch College, students are always taking advantage of event pages on Facebook to promote their club's events. This is how they get the word out on promoting events like, meeting the CEO of burger chain, Bareburger, the Big 4 accounting firms, open-mic events, and even cultural events like the Lunar New Year festival.

Other than for promoting events, and updating friends about our feelings and thoughts of the day, social networking contributes greatly to the job market. Places like LinkedIn serve as a networking site for people to showcase their skills and specialties towards their career, "One of Crawford-Hentz's favorite sites is LinkedIn, a network of 8 million professionals spread across the world. Linkedin says users include executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies. Typing keywords into a search engine, Crawford can scrape the entire network to dig out high-quality candidates that she can't find elsewhere." (Langfitt, 2006) LinkedIn allows employers to easily look for suitable employees and offer them a job.

Furthermore, privacy will always become an issue in social media. As many may have heard in the news, nude photos of celebrities are always being leaked and spread on the internet. One example of a private photo being leaked would be the sister of Facebook's founder, Randi Zuckerberg who posted a family photo from Christmas onto her Facebook. However, a fan of her re-posted that photo onto Twitter, cause Randi to tell her to take it down because it is a private photo. Apparently she only posted that for her friends only, but it does not mean that friends of friends cannot see the tagged photo. She would have to create a customized list so that friends of friends can not see her photos. It has come to a conclusion that even a family member of the Zuckerbergs  would be confused and not aware of Facebook privacy settings that has to be changed so others can not peak into their private life. (Greenfield, 2012) Thus, the truth is that once a photo is on the internet, it can always be shared and re-shared across the net for the world to see.

A way to expand on social media is that professors or teachers can add their students to a LinkedIn group and post up interesting and helpful tips for students to explore and learn from. These students don't have to be in just one class, but students from all classes so they can contribute in sharing ideas. This way students can be pushed to be more involved in a social network solely for job hunting and discovering career paths, while being continuously mentored at the same time. 

Greenfield, Rebecca. "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private." The Wire. The Wire, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2015. <http://www.thewire.com/technology/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/60313/>.

Langfitt, Frank. "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting." WBUR - Boston's NPR News Station. WBUR - Boston's NPR News Station, 22 Nov. 2006. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.wbur.org/npr/6522523>.

BLOG V WIKI

With the technology we have today, people are constantly sharing information; whether it is on the phone, desktop, or tablet. Two of the most common platforms for sharing and attaining information would be through Blogs and Wikis. 

Now, what are the differences between Blogs and Wikis?

Blogs are generally more personal and opinion-based. They are outlets for sharing feelings and thoughts. People may write a review on movies they have watched on their blogs, talk about their pet cat, or even write reviews on the newest electronics. One example of a blogger, would be Alex Cook from Walmart. He criticized Microsoft's Vista on his blog and yet Microsoft is one of the biggest suppliers for Walmart. However, Walmart saw it as a great way for customers to voice their opinions and buyers to obtain feedback to improve their products. (Barbaro, 2008)

On the other hand, Wikis are more strictly information based. It is a platform for people to collaborate and share updated information. They are also not posts like blogs, but pages for people to easily edit. Schools, classes, students, government organizations, and businesses can use them to help put together their projects.Wikis also allows easy access to references all in one website. For example, Tony Pagliarulo, VP of application development with information technology vendor EMC needed a place to organize all schedules, codes, and details of a knowledge management system project with his team.  He was able to successfully use a Wiki to manage and organize all their information. The Wiki allowed him to make quicker decisions and get through projects faster and he's been using it ever since.(Locher, 2008) Wikis can also be applied to classroom settings, for students to work together on projects or even creating study groups. This way everyone can research a certain chapter or topic to put together a master study sheet for a midterm or final.

Barbaro, Michael. “Wal-Mart Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 03 Mar. 2008. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/business/03walmart.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1425402039-itdjk2lYYn2j11se5Sz43A

Locher, Margaret. "More on How to Build Your Own Wikipedia" CIO. 17th April 2008. Web. Accessed 2nd March 2015.
http://www.cio.com/article/2436789/time-management-productivity/more-on-how-to-build-your-own-wikipedia.html