Creativity & New Media

For virtual world, I decided to do my assignment on an iPhone app called “Episode Interactive”.

This is me. 

In a virtual world of “Episode Interactive”, my name is Naomi. I am a college girl who dorms with a spy friend named Angie and tries to solve the mystery at her school. This is my exciting second life away from my mundane college life.

In “Episode Interactive”, I can write the story or play a part in someone else’s story. Either way, there are options that I can choose such as what I want to wear or what I want to do next. 

Just like in real life, I can choose different paths in life. Depending on which path I choose, my future changes. Thus, writing a story for this application is very time consuming. Besides, I can’t use my phone to write the story. I can only play written stories on my phone.I have to use my laptop for writing new stories. I have to use certain formats to create the scenes and dialogues or else, it will keep showing errors. For example, if I want to use the blue bed for my background, I have to type in "INT. ANGIE BED - DAY”, and for red bed, "INT. ANGIE BED RED - DAY”. For more advanced story writers, there are options for the characters to do certain animations or movements such as blinking, turning around, walking in/out the room. I love how I can also invite friends to play in my story or let strangers play in my story. Because of new media especially virtual worlds, I can be creative and write stories of my own with animation.

Creativity

     As globalization allows people to open their minds and challenge the impossible, it is important to be unique and stand out from the rest of the crowd.Creativity is one of the most wanted skills in the market today. New media encourages our mind to explore new ideas and imagine the unimaginable. According to New York Times article from October 25, 2009, companies use social media such as Twitter to find out the customers’ preferences. It is impressive how people came up with ideas such as photo sharing sites, voice-activated system in the car or a software that lets the fans design Lego models and makes money from it.
     Without new media, we wouldn’t be able to extend beyond  old-fashioned ideas. The birth of new media allows younger generation to discover their potential and passion.  From an article about “Disney rappers”, it is interesting to note that Disney tolerated the case because of the creativity of parodies. The world has become an exciting place to live and learn. Nickelodeon spokesperson actually praised the person who used SpongeBob in his mashup as  a “nice editor”. Because of YouTube and editing softwares, people can create and share their creativity with the rest of the world. New media undoubtedly supports creativity and fosters a learning space for innovative mind.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

    Is it better to live in virtual world than real world? To be honest, I think I want to live in virtual world where everything is under my control and in my favor. According nytimes.com, there are sites like there.com, secondlife.com, in which we can create avatars and live in Prada and Rolex world. As a child, I have always had an active imagination and lived in my fantasy world. Just like childhood daydream, virtual worlds on New Media can be escapes from realities. Especially in recession or recovery period, we can live in virtual world as our alter ego who can splurge on $1000 shoes. I believe virtual worlds are necessary to release stress and escape from burdens of everyday life.
     But, the bad comes with the good. Virtual world can also make us feel inadequate and insecure.  Another New York Times article “I’ve Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life”  tells us that some people draw back from social life in real time because virtual world has become substitute. The author says he feels more comfortable going to the club on the screen at his home than actually being in the club. Are people going to withdraw from social life because of virtual worlds? No, some people actually enjoy having fun in the real life but people like me enjoy the control and comfort of virtual world. 
      Virtual world also fosters creativity because in gaming virtual worlds, we can create our avatar and change outfits or create the storyline. The future is bright for imaginary world online. The example of Heron Sanctuary proves that virtual world is bringing the community closer. People will use virtual world more as they can be creative and strengthen their imagination or even get a second chance in life and live our dream online.
        In brief, I am really fascinated by the idea of virtual world and I support the concept of getting to know our community by intersecting each other’s path in our second life. I love interactive gaming episodes so I believe virtual worlds will continue to grow and help us overcome real life situations and  learn more about different situations through living another life. If you know any good virtual world that is fun and exciting, please comment below.
     

More details :
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html

Blog about Twitter

Twitter discussion is concise and exciting compared to Blackboard Discussion. Although they are both online discussions, being able to type on my phone than on a computer screen makes it more interesting and fun. Compared to in class discussion, Twitter has more succinct discussion because there are word limits so we have to say something meaningful within certain limit. I really hate how sometimes people digress during discussion in class and talk about something very off-topic or boring, but during Twitter discussion, the whole conversation seems alive and exciting. However, the word limit also throws me off because I can’t say what I want to say all in one tweet. I have to tweet multiple tweets for one argument. In brief, I would rather do twitter discussion than blackboard discussion because it does not seem like a task but rather a casual conversation.

Social Networking Sites

       Today, I would like to compare Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and Tumblr and share my impressions. Facebook is the most used social networking site undoubtedly. Facebook has higher privacy compared to Twitter or Myspace, which are more frequently used to make friends with strangers. I love Facebook because it is safe and easy to use. I have the option to filter the securities on everything. If there are photos that I want to share with only 10 friends out of my whole friend list, I can change the setting to “custom”.

         I am not really good with Twitter and Myspace because the functions do not appear as easy as or as attractive as Facebook. However, I really like Twitter’s hashtag, which Facebook recently has updated to attract more users.  From hashtag, we can find the similar topic/ trend to discuss about. Sometimes, we can also learn different perspectives from different people. Myspace is similar to Facebook but it is more focused on music and file sharing. But, not many people use it anymore. I have stopped using it after I started using Facebook.

          Tumblr might be my second most favorite place on internet after Facebook. I love reading people’s blogs especially my close friends’. Tumblr keeps me updated with my friends’ feelings and likes. What is really amazing about Tumblr is that we can also make private blogs that are protected by password. Thus, Tumblr can be our online diary where we can write down all our secrets ( from who you don’t like  to who you have a crush on) and keep safe. While physical diary can be accidentally discovered, Tumblr diary can never be found without a password. Besides, the use of hashtag in Tumblr also makes it easy for users to find their interests. My favorite hashtag on Tumblr are #healthyrecipes and #diygifts.

Social Networking

Social networking has become increasingly popular in 21st century. From dating to job search, people use social media as a main tool to discover the future. Social network such as LinkedIn helps your potential employer find you and connects you with friends from educational and professional places. According to an article by Frank Langfitt, the professionals and recruiters hunt job candidates from popular social networking sites. One recruiter says , “ Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to ever happen to recruiting”. From LinkedIn, the recruiter can easily pick the best fit for the job by simply typing in keywords. Once he/she finds the potential candidate, he/she sends an email to the person to ask for interview. Thus, the use of social media has definitely made our lives easier and our future brighter.

However, these crucial technologies can be misused just as any beneficial products in our lives. According to Chicago Tribune News on January 15, 2013, Facebook announced a new feature that helps people search friends with similar interests in that week. The dark side of this feature is that strangers can easily find and stalk their predators at their favorite restaurants or bars that show on the query. Unless one makes his/her account private, one’s name will show up on Facebook search feature. Everyone deserves freedom but the changes can actually bring dark side to the new technology. Also, cyber bullying and child predators are not to be ignored. A lot of kids all over the world use internet and social media to spend their past time. Kids at such young age don’t really understand the dangers of online networking. If cyber social networking did not exist, there wouldn’t be cyber bullying or cyber harassing either.

If we weigh both the advantages and disadvantages of social networking, there are more benefits to social networking than dangers. The technology will continue to grow and the needs of people in workplace and home will eventually be satisfied. People will date more and make more friends through social networking. They can also search their long lost friends through Facebook. All generations will depend more on social networking sites in the near future. I can see that technology will bring more convenience to our lives and aid release stress.