Creativity and New Media

Below is a little digital scrapbook that I put together.  Sports are a big part of my life and I felt I should blog about it.  The program is called smilebox and its extremely easy to use.  Theres a ton of layouts to choose from, and you just drag your favorite pictures and videos on the layout.  You can then post it directly to Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Free digital scrapbook created with Smilebox

Creativity

The article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers" by Claire Cain Miller may be the most interesting article I've read for this class.  Its so interesting how users developed and created most of the way Twitter works today.  A guy named Chris Messina was actually the one to introduce the hashtag symbol, #, onto Twitter.  This is used so much to relate to Twitter now its not even funny.  People are even using it outside of Twitter, on Facebook for example.  The hashtag helps to mark a conversation about a certain topic, and Twitter linked the hashtags so you can easily click them to follow the topic.  Its genius.
      There are a few other user developments that creatively enhance Twitter.  These are Lists and Retweets.  Lists help see who to follow easier and retweets helps you to send someone elses tweet through your Twitter.  They are both convenient shortcuts.  Many people think that producers and such create new ways to develop their product.  In Twitter's case, users give feedback to help create new ideas and shortcuts, which I believe is an effective way of creating a good product.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Ill start by saying my lack of knowledge about virtual worlds is second to none.  I have never once looked into this until now.  After reading the article "I've Been In That Club, Just Not In Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, I found out you could be in a virtual world relative to a club, as opposed to actually being there.  He explained how he went to one to see a concert, but was not pleased with it.  He decided to go home and make an avatar and go into a virtual world of the club he was just at.  Now, he could meet the same people, but not have to be in the actual place.  This is a pro for David because he didnt like the atmosphere and felt more comfortable at home.  A con however, is that you dont literally get to be in contact with the people and surroundings of the real world.
        Another great article was "Avatar II: The Hospital by Stephanie Simon.  Nurses enter a virtual world of an emergency room to help practice for real life situations.  Its almost ingenious to think how beneficial it could be, especially with other fields of work.  I never really thought about it.  The NYPD and FDNY might find this useful as well.

Blog about Twitter

The beauty of Twitter is that you can link so many people together onto one discussion by using hashtags.  You can get a lot of input and insightful thinking on there.  Its obviously pretty different to an in-class discussion.  People are often shy when discussing things in front of others.  I, for one, am not but I still understand where people come from when they get nervous.  I wish I could help.  Twitter is also advantageous because you can do it from your bedroom, the train, the bathroom, or at dinner.  An in-class discussion is in boring Baruch and nobody enjoys that, not even me.  Go Twitter.

Social Networking Sites

Right off the bat I have to announce Facebook as my top soical networking site out of the 4 I will discuss, which are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Tumblr.  I just made a Tumblr two seconds ago to see what its like.  I have all of the other three, even though I dont use myspace anymore.  Its extremely outdated and is really facing heavy competition nowadays.  Facebook is just plain addicting.  Im not fully used to Twitter yet, but sadly I feel I may throw this in my repertoire of daily things I do.  Twitter is quick and easy which is good.  After playing around with Tumblr, I noticed its extremely user friendly and customizable.  I probably wont get into it, but it does seem pretty fun.  Overall, I think Facebook has way too much power over the rest, and with a new generation (age 50+) coming on, I dont see it slowing down anytime soon.

Social Networking

     Facebook, Twitter and the like are slowly taking over the world.  Its almost ridiculous.  I completely put myself in the category of people who are hooked to Facebook and/or Twitter.  While it is fun to talk to friends and post pictures etc., these sites can be helpful in society, namely the corporate world.  The article " Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt discusses tactics that companies use to recruit employees via Facebook.  In a bizarre twist, a recruiter for a global lighting company came across a Facebook profile of a man who she believed would be perfect for a job with her company.
     With that being said, privacy is more important to users than we think.  Marc Perry's article "Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do", hits on that.  Study shows, according to Danah Boyd and Eszter Hargittai, that most teens modify their privacy settings on Facebook at some point.  Between 2009 and 2010, this action increased significantly.  
       I truly believe that Facebook is a psychological test for all users.  They modify the layout and such for a certain period of time until they believe that we have all adapted to it.  Just when we think we've got it down pat, they change it again.  Its a test to see how long we are going to give in to them before we stop using it.  Its hilarious, yet sad at the same time.  Whats even sadder is that I am a part of the movement, and I dont plan on leaving just because the layout changes every twelve seconds.