With the creation of the virtual worlds, the landscape of social connectivity as we know it can change drastically. The creation of a virtual world allows individuals to share their creativity and thoughts with others in a meaningful way, offering ways to socially connect with others.
For example, minecraft is a gaming virtual world that allows an individual to share with others their architectural and creative view of a landscape. Through communication, they can share with others how they envision the world can be built, and why it is so, creating a connection with another person through the virtual world.
In other cases, a virtual world can be used for hypothetical training and stimulus. The government already has such a program running to help prepare soldiers for certain conditions and precautions. By creating the virtual world to interact with, the soldiers are able to explore the surroundings of an area before actually going into the area physically. Pretty neat stuff.
And in a completely different spectrum of virtual worlds, people can catch up with old friends and families through a more engaging way than a video-conference or phone call. So many different dimensions can be expressed through a virtual world than can be expressed in other traditional mediums.
Virtual worlds has an interesting way of fostering creativity. The main thing is that people really feel like they can establish a good connection and vibe with others through the virtual world. This in turn allows them to work together more cohesively, and have the thoughts build off one another. It is no secret that creativity is generated easier between individuals who have a sense of connection between one another.
In the future I think virtual worlds will be the new market to be tapped. Seeing as how it can literally be created to substitute any social interaction, I think it will be a topic of extreme interest for nearly stagnant technology companies. I can see it being used for educative purposes, and even therapeutic services (helping to get over social anxiety). The educative aspects to such a growth is definitely intriguing, however I fear that the next generation of kids will start reverting to be more socially awkward seeing that they might one day live in a world where virtual interaction is more prominent than physical interaction. Let's hope there's a balance to be found!
Links:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/
Monday, March 17, 2014
Monday, March 10, 2014
Social Networking Sites
Hello fellow bloggers,
I recently visited 4 different social networking sites and wanted to compare my first impressions of each! The four sites are: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Tumblr. Here we go!
Facebook: I have actually used Facebook for years. My impression is that it is a great way to establish social connections with friends, or people you haven't actually met yet formally. It is a great way to share thoughts or feelings through status updates, profile pictures, and cover photos. It also lets your friends see what you've been up to through regular picture uploads, or 'photos of you'.
Myspace: One of the pioneers in social networking along with Xanga in my opinion! Myspace was definitely cool, and ahead of its time. Myspace design scripts are definitely unique for social networking because it lets the users be more expressive when sharing thoughts or posts! Colorful backgrounds? Check. Trailing mouse designs? Check. Automatic music player? Check. Fancy digital clocks? Check. Whatever you can think of for your Myspace design, there's probably already a a script for! The creepy thing is the ability to check who has viewed your Myspace though.
Twitter: Definitely a new concept! Allows users to have conversations through #tweets. Unique limitation to 140 characters, forces users to be concise on what they want to communicate. The use of hashtags definitely has #revolutionized #socialmedia though. #twitter #hashtag #abuse. It seems like Twitter is not staying stagnant either, as they look to expand their platform to be more versatile!
Tumblr: Different from the rest, being a blog site. Aims to be more private, yet still is social media through the use of followers. Like Myspace, it offers a customizable background for the blog, and offers twitter-like #hashtags. Overall, it's the concept of an open diary. I like it!
How are your social media experiences? What different social networking sites do you guys use?!
I recently visited 4 different social networking sites and wanted to compare my first impressions of each! The four sites are: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Tumblr. Here we go!
Facebook: I have actually used Facebook for years. My impression is that it is a great way to establish social connections with friends, or people you haven't actually met yet formally. It is a great way to share thoughts or feelings through status updates, profile pictures, and cover photos. It also lets your friends see what you've been up to through regular picture uploads, or 'photos of you'.
Myspace: One of the pioneers in social networking along with Xanga in my opinion! Myspace was definitely cool, and ahead of its time. Myspace design scripts are definitely unique for social networking because it lets the users be more expressive when sharing thoughts or posts! Colorful backgrounds? Check. Trailing mouse designs? Check. Automatic music player? Check. Fancy digital clocks? Check. Whatever you can think of for your Myspace design, there's probably already a a script for! The creepy thing is the ability to check who has viewed your Myspace though.
Twitter: Definitely a new concept! Allows users to have conversations through #tweets. Unique limitation to 140 characters, forces users to be concise on what they want to communicate. The use of hashtags definitely has #revolutionized #socialmedia though. #twitter #hashtag #abuse. It seems like Twitter is not staying stagnant either, as they look to expand their platform to be more versatile!
Tumblr: Different from the rest, being a blog site. Aims to be more private, yet still is social media through the use of followers. Like Myspace, it offers a customizable background for the blog, and offers twitter-like #hashtags. Overall, it's the concept of an open diary. I like it!
How are your social media experiences? What different social networking sites do you guys use?!
Blog About Twitter
I have to say, after my initial with Twitter I was utter intrigued to this new concept. In Twitter people around the world can pretty much engage in a conversation through "tweets", which is limited to 140 characters. This sets a very different type of conversation than a blackboard discussion or a class discussion because you are limited to what you say. Therefore, more thought is required into what you input to the conversation to make sure you stay within the limited characters. In a blackboard discussion, or class discussion you have no limits other than time limits. Also, in twitter you can unite with others posting about the same topics through hashtags, which pretty much is the best way to read through the conversation of a certain topic. Today is my first time using Twitter, but it seems it will not be my last!
Monday, March 3, 2014
Social Networking
With the evolution of the Internet, a new world has emerged: Social Media. Basically setting up ways for all Internet users to communicate with one another through various online mediums, social networking is starting to become an integral part to our society. And like everything else, there are pros and cons to this prevalence in society.
Social Networking can have many usages. First, it can simply be used for the purposes of social interactions. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allow its users to communicate emotions or messages to friends or followers through its 'status' updating capabilities, allowing users the chance to 'be there' in each moment. Yet through these very same platforms, others may use it to advertise products and services, and even search out potential candidates for various job or service positions. In a way social networking has allowed its users a new way for instant and effective, electronically written communication. From being a world that only allowed communication face to face, social media has shrunk the world to the point where it does not matter how distant you are from another person. As long as an internet connection is available, they are only seconds away from having a conversation. And because of this, it benefits society with these technologies because people can be more time efficient with instantaneous communications, while being able to be utilized for bigger tasks like advertising.
However there is definitely a dark side. Because the Internet and social media is so huge, it is very hard to stay hidden from unwanted viewers. The whole issue of privacy, and to whom content belongs to once it is posted online is always a subject that causes controversy. Just like there are beneficial uses to social media, there are also detrimental side effects. For example, people like to use social media to carry out scams online, through the use of social media the growth of cyber bullying has emerged, and even using social media to stalk unsuspecting individuals.
The Social media is new, and it definitely has long ways to go. The benefits are definitely there; real time communication has unlimited potential. In the future it can be used to help find items, find missing persons, or even plan events for communities. What must be remedied is the detrimental side effects that are present now. Filter out users that do not contribute, or are using the platforms for malicious intents. If that happens, I think the landscape of our society will drastically change. There will be less time spent for experimenting or thinking, and more time for doing.
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15wwln-medium-t.html?_r=0
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf
Social Networking can have many usages. First, it can simply be used for the purposes of social interactions. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allow its users to communicate emotions or messages to friends or followers through its 'status' updating capabilities, allowing users the chance to 'be there' in each moment. Yet through these very same platforms, others may use it to advertise products and services, and even search out potential candidates for various job or service positions. In a way social networking has allowed its users a new way for instant and effective, electronically written communication. From being a world that only allowed communication face to face, social media has shrunk the world to the point where it does not matter how distant you are from another person. As long as an internet connection is available, they are only seconds away from having a conversation. And because of this, it benefits society with these technologies because people can be more time efficient with instantaneous communications, while being able to be utilized for bigger tasks like advertising.
However there is definitely a dark side. Because the Internet and social media is so huge, it is very hard to stay hidden from unwanted viewers. The whole issue of privacy, and to whom content belongs to once it is posted online is always a subject that causes controversy. Just like there are beneficial uses to social media, there are also detrimental side effects. For example, people like to use social media to carry out scams online, through the use of social media the growth of cyber bullying has emerged, and even using social media to stalk unsuspecting individuals.
The Social media is new, and it definitely has long ways to go. The benefits are definitely there; real time communication has unlimited potential. In the future it can be used to help find items, find missing persons, or even plan events for communities. What must be remedied is the detrimental side effects that are present now. Filter out users that do not contribute, or are using the platforms for malicious intents. If that happens, I think the landscape of our society will drastically change. There will be less time spent for experimenting or thinking, and more time for doing.
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15wwln-medium-t.html?_r=0
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Blog vs Wiki
In today's world, blogs and wikis are prevalent on the internet. A huge portion of the information on the webs can be found through both forms of internet writings. However, it is important to note the distinctions between the both of them.
Wikis are defined as a form of collaboration software that is a database that could "work". That means that the database can actually be used to perform work through the constant editing of the information. It allows anyone with access to the wiki to edit the wiki as desired, to update information and collaboratively create a body of information. There are multiple authors to a wiki, and the information is constantly changing. This can pose certain issues for very open wikis, as shown in a well known wiki known as Wikipedia. There are constantly immature individuals who edit blogs for laughs, misconstruing information as a hobby. Often, the edits to the original blog completely destroys all traces of hard work put into it. In other cases, the edits are completely inappropriate. This has led to the evolution of Wikipedia, since its reputation was being tarnished. Now the wiki has many more additional functions, such as indicating the last person to update the wiki, and an option to restore past versions of the wiki.
On the other hand, Blogs are similar in usage but have very key distinctions. First off, blogs only have one author to a piece of information. Through collaboration, people with access to the blog can post comments to further continue the conversation of the information trying to be communicated. However unlike the wiki, the original blog can never be edited by anyone other than the author. In one example, a person started a blog about his own neighborhood as a way to help others find their ways around the neighborhood. However, it gradually evolved into a blog that allowed a neighborhood to collaboratively gain traction against the criminal doings happening in their front doors. The collaboration through the blog eventually led to the arrests of local drug dealers, showing the impressive capacity and power of blogs.
As shown, blogs can be used to offer tips to those in need of advice, or can even expand to help catching criminals. All it takes is someone to initiate the collaboration, and the rest is simply collaborative input through comments to the original blog by its followers.
In the future, wiki can definitely expand in usage. I think in the future, wikis can possibly be used by education systems to provide cheaper and more expansive information to its students. If done correctly with the right moderation it is possible that the future can host educative institutions without the need for textbooks, perfect for the lower-middle to lower class families that carry a huge burden with every textbook purchase. This in turn can inspire future generations to actively expand their knowledge, and allow motivated individuals to continue their pursuit of information.
It is exciting what the use of the internet has done to the landscape of the world. I can't wait to see where it takes us, and to experience it first hand.
Citations:
http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html?_r=0
Wikis are defined as a form of collaboration software that is a database that could "work". That means that the database can actually be used to perform work through the constant editing of the information. It allows anyone with access to the wiki to edit the wiki as desired, to update information and collaboratively create a body of information. There are multiple authors to a wiki, and the information is constantly changing. This can pose certain issues for very open wikis, as shown in a well known wiki known as Wikipedia. There are constantly immature individuals who edit blogs for laughs, misconstruing information as a hobby. Often, the edits to the original blog completely destroys all traces of hard work put into it. In other cases, the edits are completely inappropriate. This has led to the evolution of Wikipedia, since its reputation was being tarnished. Now the wiki has many more additional functions, such as indicating the last person to update the wiki, and an option to restore past versions of the wiki.
On the other hand, Blogs are similar in usage but have very key distinctions. First off, blogs only have one author to a piece of information. Through collaboration, people with access to the blog can post comments to further continue the conversation of the information trying to be communicated. However unlike the wiki, the original blog can never be edited by anyone other than the author. In one example, a person started a blog about his own neighborhood as a way to help others find their ways around the neighborhood. However, it gradually evolved into a blog that allowed a neighborhood to collaboratively gain traction against the criminal doings happening in their front doors. The collaboration through the blog eventually led to the arrests of local drug dealers, showing the impressive capacity and power of blogs.
As shown, blogs can be used to offer tips to those in need of advice, or can even expand to help catching criminals. All it takes is someone to initiate the collaboration, and the rest is simply collaborative input through comments to the original blog by its followers.
In the future, wiki can definitely expand in usage. I think in the future, wikis can possibly be used by education systems to provide cheaper and more expansive information to its students. If done correctly with the right moderation it is possible that the future can host educative institutions without the need for textbooks, perfect for the lower-middle to lower class families that carry a huge burden with every textbook purchase. This in turn can inspire future generations to actively expand their knowledge, and allow motivated individuals to continue their pursuit of information.
It is exciting what the use of the internet has done to the landscape of the world. I can't wait to see where it takes us, and to experience it first hand.
Citations:
http://www.informationweek.com/how-to-use-wikis-for-business/d/d-id/1034971?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/nyregion/26bayridge.html?_r=0
Monday, February 10, 2014
Purpose of this blog
Hello fellow bloggers,
The purpose to this blog is explore the new trend in today's society, a trend that was set forth by the advancement of social media. I will blog about the willingness of individuals in today's societies to purposefully lose their privacy over the internet for a variety of different purposes. This will be a fun ride, and I can't wait to take it with you guys!
Best,
Kenny
The purpose to this blog is explore the new trend in today's society, a trend that was set forth by the advancement of social media. I will blog about the willingness of individuals in today's societies to purposefully lose their privacy over the internet for a variety of different purposes. This will be a fun ride, and I can't wait to take it with you guys!
Best,
Kenny
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