Creativity and New Media

The best result of new media fostering creativity for me is the abundance of DIY projects posted on the internet. As a person who loves to build things, anytime I have an idea or thought, I research the web. First to see if there is something just like it. In most cases there isn't an exact replica however there is a platform. For example a car build, you wouldn't make an exact same car as someone else but there will be lots of info on what works and what doesn't work on the model you are planning to work on. 

One of my favorite hobbies is reef keeping. It takes a lot of research and education of marine biology to be successful in the hobby. As with anything, there are pros and cons. The pros of this hobby is simply: just looking at and admiring your aquarium especially because coral life has rapidly become endangered (honestly, that's it). Cons include the expense, space, and the addiction. Through reef keeping communities, we collect ideas from one another along with experience to create our own reef tank. 

It's quite bizarre that reefers who literally look up info online through forums, social media, and YouTube videos are able to collect and possess the knowledge that marine biologists study. Some of the interesting creativity at its peak involves learning about pH, minerals, nitrogen cycle etc. And combating or contributing it to the ecosystem you try to create. Through out the years and thousands of aquariums that I've seen, each is unique and creative. 

Taking into account the excessive hobbies that I have, I'm working on putting together a social media page along with a YouTube channel showing DIYs and time lapses on different builds from hobbies like reef building to car building to construction building. The Facebook page link is below. YouTube coming soon.

https://www.facebook.com/Build-Everything-249814909306199/

HW Creativity

New media technology is unlocking  new ideas everyday. 

Advanced new media networks such as social media and/or search engines that increase connectivity and research along with the continued innovations in technology create a synergy of creativity. This synergy makes both the producers and end users crave more. There is a constant thought of what can be done that is different, better, and provides easier accessibility than what already is. 

A great article of from our class readings which explains new media fostering creativity is 1+1+1=1 "The new math of mashups" by Sasha Frere-Jones. To think, there once was a time where we recorded radio onto cassette tapes to be able to listen to music "on demand." Creatively, new media moved this action from "old media" radio and cassette tapes to new media social media and downloads/streaming. In the article Sasha quotes Mark Vidler saying: 


“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.”

He sums up the extent of new media technology on creativity. The reason why it fosters it is because it allows for it to happen in the first place. Without new media, ideas would not be able to reach the masses as they do today. The word of mouth that new media offers allows for quick updates, quick rebuttals so to speak of any and everything that is done; constantly innovating. In a nutshell, The article sheds light on how advanced music industry has become where we are able to dissect a song down to its single instruments, take those samples and relay them onto a new spread creating "Mashups." Doing this however leads into a bunch of copyright issues where credit needs to be given to the original, even if the new does not sound anything  like it.

There is however a balance to maintain between being first vs being correct or beneficial. At times new things are released which are actually detrimental instead of beneficial. A good example of this can be something as simple as an application upgrade of Facetime, a video call app by Apple. Video calling has become a standard with all messaging apps no so there is a constant battle to be #1. This involves new and creative ways to appease the audience and staying one step ahead of competition. Unfortunately there was a glitch in one of Facetimes recent updates where a users speakerphone started even before the video call was accepted causing massive privacy issues.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Create a new post on your blog with the above title. In your post, answer the following questions.

What are different ways these virtual worlds can be used? What are the pros and cons? Be specific. How do virtual worlds foster creativity? What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?

Cite at least 2 of the assigned readings.

For many, virtual worlds can be a pass to another life. It allows the user to experience and/or feel outcomes to actions that can't be taken in real life. Virtual worlds are widely used for video games today. Role playing video games have been around for quite some time but todays graphics have made it more realistic than ever. To take it up a notch, it is now embedded into a virtual world that doesn't just cycle the same levels repeatedly.

Instead, virtual games carry a continual variety of an ongoing actions based on mines of data from the real world. These actions don't stop when the user stops, they continue creating algorithms based on previous and current data collected. But do the actions of role playing as a hero or villain reflect onto the users actions in real life? There are cons to the pros of all this excitement. According to the News24(.com) article "Virtual world may impact real­world behavior," the answer is yes!

In a study of virtual video game players, those role playing a hero handed out twice as much rewarding items in real life afterwards where those playing a villain handed out twice as much punishments. Sound cliché? Perhaps you can try it. This was an article published 5 years ago, virtual worlds have more than doubles twice as much. In fact, the recent New Zealand mosque shooter is bringing video games into the forefront as a direct motivating factor of his actions.

Virtual worlds are also widely used in many other aspects. Diane Metha in her article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?" states "You can use virtual worlds in education, in delivery services, or as an advanced form of tele healthcare that offers so much more than videoconferencing. Virtual worlds can give us social connectivity, built ­in support groups, and ways to avoid ever being alone again."

Possibly the most result driven use of virtual worlds can be seen in real life simulations to predict end user turnout. For example, virtualizing a business process model in a simulation can help determine what manpower/material would be needed to handle a certain amount of customers. Basic supply and demand. The most apparent fact of this process is that no two interactions are the same. Building a virtual world around this process with life like results irons out many issues which would be encountered without it. 

What stands out about this simulation is that it isn't just a two hour training. It isn't just an instructor teaching the ropes. Simulations can run through millions upon billions of varying cycles with in or out of a normal distribution which is ongoing as long as desired. The customer or employee can experience the process, give their feed back which is ultimately cycled back into the virtual world data which continues to seek improvements.

I believe the in depth future of virtual worlds is still years away. What I believe will be a game changer for virtual world technology is the Google glasses which were due to be out years ago. When that form of technology actually surfaces, it will link all actual life to virtual. We will soon be attached to the glasses as we are to our phones but it will be in our direct line of vision. The same way Americans are worlds apart from certain thirds world countries, we will be virtual worlds apart.

Social networking sites

I decided to review a few social media sites chronologically which have surfaced through the developing technology my generation has experienced. To my knowledge, my first encounter with a social media site was Xanga. In a nutshell, each user had a weblog, which was not considered simplistic at the time. In todays phone app days, a 13 year old facebook user wouldn't even consider spending time building a blog. But in 2000, being able to setup your own webpage with newly popular 3d backgrounds, colors, personal photo, font styles, and music.... it was epic.

I actually remember starting mine, and constantly put it off for one of 2 reasons. One was I had to get off the dial up. Second, thinking of it in hindsight, I thought it would last forever and I can always get to it later. Clearly that was not the case, and right before we noticed Xanga was history and in came a new craze: MySpace. It combined what was offered by multiple sites like social networking, fan clubs, and "friendslist-based journal keeping" all into one on a hosted webpage! It was a social revolution. Never had we been so involved with people we didn't meet on a daily basis.

In the next few years there was a major innovation of smart phones which opened room for best social networking site known to date: Facebook. At first thought to be just a copy of Myspace, Facebook quickly overpowered Myspace with a more stronger social connection of its users profile being their actual identity. Facebook features include posts of photos, videos, polls, status updates, pokes, embedded game shares like candy crush and apps like messenger. It works flawlessly as a smartphone app and even includes polls, fan pages, even a market place. Everyone and everything has been linked with Facebook. All major businesses and celebrities you can think of. From kids to adults, Facebook has completely revolutionized social networking. 

Another platform that developed through smartphone technology is Twitter. It is geared more towards simplicity. Its created a way to share thoughts, current events, pretty much anything and everything with a limited character space. Often times referred to as microblogging. In a nutshell, its a way to keep contacts informed without actually setting up a blog or webpage.

What will be the next craze?

Blog about Twitter

How does a Twitter discussion compare to a BlackBoard Discussion? To an in-class discussion?

What separates a Twitter discussion from any other is ofcourse its limited character space. Twitter discussion is more so a quick spurt of words where as blackboard will take a more in depth strategy. Twitter will help in avoiding a long introduction, body, and conclusion and will be straight to the point. A Twitter statement can reach an infinite spread where as blackboard will only be associated to the limited user access. There will also be no moderator to a Twitter statement unlike a blackboard discussion which will be overseen by an instructor.

Blackboard has similarities to a classroom in the idea of it being a educational platform. However speaking and typing are on two seperate platforms and worlds apart. Speaking in a classroom takes, to some degree, a whole different thought process. You are not able to type out a statement and think twice about it. You cannot take back what has been said. There is no delete button. There's also the barriers of accents and punctuation. Ofcourse there is no auto correct which is probably one of the leading factors to a lack of spelling now days. There's no emojis to represent a feeling, just your face itself...

Blog Social Networking

Social Networking has increased and enhanced the relationship between consumers and brands. A corporations online presence increases its interactions with customers. This provides much needed feedback to understand how and where to drive and grow their products or services. Without this feedback, corporations would be using estimates and probability at best in moving forward. Explored in "What drives consumers to interact with brands through social media? A motivation scale development study," there are "five distinct motivation factors" which link consumers to the brands on social media: " 'Brand Affiliation', 'Investigation', 'Opportunity Seeking', 'Conversation', and 'Entertainment'."

The benefit of social media can go above and beyond corporations and as discussed in "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power" by David Carr, help political candidates. Carrr states that Obama got all the things that are boght to the table through a candidates political party: supply brand, ground troops, money and relationships, through social networking. He was the first "post-boomer candidate for president" who successfully tapped into its potential. Through social media, Obama was able to raise a records breaking six hundred million dollars for his campaign. “Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, F.D.R. used radio to change the way he governed, J.F.K. was the first president to understand television," and Obama has used social networking to raise awareness, money, and ultimately win the presidency. 

Ranjit Mathoda, a lawyer and money manager who blogs at Mathoda.com states “But Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.” Social networking has created a "post-party" era, where it is not necessary for the democratic or republican party to back you in elections. Candidtes need them much less than the parties needing candidates at this point. We see this with Trump being a backed by republicans as embarrassing as it may be at ties, but trumps successful campaign to Make America Great Again made him republics only hope in winning. We also see this with a democratic party backing Bernie Sander who is an outright socialist, but can be the winning ticket which allows democrats to in the seat back. Social networking might just be the outdated right and left parties worst nightmare who only exist for their network of contacts as their networks becoming less and less powerful due to the utter reach of online networks. 

Another connection that social media creates is employers to potential employees which is talked about on NPR's morning edition titled "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting." Social media profiles like Linked In, a network of 8 million professionals, help connect job hunters to recruiters. These sites help market employees and allows users to share their online rolodexes. People can be found faster and connections are made easier. One contact can lead you to 100s of others who might share the same job ethic and/or education. All this information or this this entire network is right at the users fingertips through basic keyword searches. This not only helps unemployed candidates which are actively job hunting but also employed candidates who don't have the time to job hunt but would like to keep the door open for potential opportunities which might pay more or require less travel time. By simply creating a profile, you will always be on the market so to speak. But does this mean we shape and mold our life to what we want others to think about us? Where can we draw the line and keep what is ours within us and not display it worldwide?

So is it a win/win situation? On the top layer it is as corporations are making higher sales by providing products and services which customers want. However if you dig deeper, it seems as if corporations are able to get the upper hand as they are just getting richer, and increasing the gap between poverty and wealth. It can even be seen in politics as social network campaigns can rally up new voters, and target populations for their potential but also for their weaknesses. As we become more and more dependent on Social networking and open our mind to what it is out there for us, it seems we loose more and more of who we are and what can become on our own through our own thoughts and ideas instead of what popular on a network. Do we still have our own lives or are we hung up on others? David Carr summarizes it best stating: “yes, we have met Big Brother, the one who is always watching. And Big Brother is us.”