Privacy & Confidentiality

New media has become a big part in the lives of our generation, and will continue to do so. As new media becomes more and more popular, the issue of privacy and confidentiality comes up. Many people refuse to be involved with social networks due to this privacy issue. Although this may be a big issue, many sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace implemented privacy settings, where you are allowed to choose who is allowed to view your information.

People need to always use new media with a slight caution. They need to make sure what they're posting is appropriate for everyone who can view your post. Many times you hear about how companies can now search the internet and bring up basically anything you posted online. This can affect if you get a job or not. Although I don't believe that everything a person posts tells what type of person they are, it is not a smart idea to handle new media without caution.

Advice to Baruch College

If I was hired by Baruch College to use new media to improve the college, I would implement some great ideas. I would push an idea to get a social networking site similar to Facebook, where students can interact with other students taking the same courses. The social networking site would be linked to Esims so the schedule would automatically put you in a group with all your classmates. This idea would also be good because I would implement a feature where you can talk to guidance counselors through an online chat. This would be useful because many times students do not have the time to physically go see a counselor so this gives them the opportunity to do it right at home or at a place of their choosing. There will also be another feature where students can discuss to trade courses with each other since there is always a limited amount of seating in each course. If I were to receive a job like this I believe I would make positive changes in the college.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds, to me, is a really fascinating subject. They can be used in different manners, such as for business, games or just communicating with other people. Many businesses use virtual worlds because it helps push productivity. Being that a lot of companies have employees all around the world, virtual worlds helps them work together even though their not in the same location. "Technology could help engage a generation of workers who grew up playing games with 3-D graphics"(IBM Learning Programs Get a "Second Life", Ed Frauenheim). On the business side, virtual worlds can be seen positive because it is very cost effective and easy to hold meetings. Although this leads open to the chance misunderstanding certain information, it allows people to be more creative because they might feel more open in a virtual world than they would feel in reality. Also another distraction might be the moral conduct your company usually has might not be represented in the virtual world. For an example, someone may have an avatar that is not appropriate.

Virtual worlds in general pushes for greater creativity. For an example, in the article "Toys with a Second Life" by Brian Hindo, the creators of Webkinz allows people to alter their toys so they would be unique from the rest. You can also look at virtual worlds in the sense of video games such as The Sims. Many people play The Sims for hours on hand, simulating their characters life. Many people life their dream lives through their characters and really gives them something to cope with their reality.

I believe that as the years go by, technology will only get even better. Soon we will probably won't even have regular video game consoles as we have now. My take on it is that we will soon play our games through virtual reality.

Twitter Discussion

I really liked the twitter discussion experience because it felt free, like an open conversation. I think a twitter discussion is different from a blackboard discussion board and in-class discussion because with twitter I feel that it's more freedom to express your feelings. With twitter it doesn't really feel like a class setting.

Social Networking

In this world of new media, social networking plays a big factor. Social networking has become really popular now and the wide range of ages who use social networking sites has increased greatly in the last ten years. Although social networking has many benefits, it also has its downsides.

Social networking allows many people to stay in touch with friends and family, as well as meet new people. My experiences with social networking sites has been good. Social networking has allowed me to be up to date with different information concerning my "friends" and "followers". Many people have stronger relationships because of social networking because it is so easy to just turn on a computer, go to a site like Facebook.com and post on a friend's wall.

Many corporations benefit a lot from social networking. In the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", Maureen Crawford-Hentz says "social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting--ever." For an example, many marketing companies love social networking because it allows them to get information on the consumer world and allows them to see what people like.

Even though social networking has became so popular in our generation, it still has its downsides. Privacy is a big issue when it comes to social networking. In the article titled, "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy" by Clive Thompson, he says, "browsing Facebook was like constantly poking your head into someone's room to see how she was doing." Many people refuse to get participate in social networking because they don't want their lives to become public. Also it is possible for companies to search the internet and find information about a possible candidate, making people cautious to what they post online.

I believe that social networking will only continue to evolve. As it evolves more it leave open the debate of privacy, but I'm sure these issues will be addressed. I believe that Facebook will eventually add a video chat option. This would be really beneficial because it will really differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

In our world today, it is so easy to stay in contact with your friends and family by using these social networking sites. I am currently an active Facebook and Twitter user. I used to use Myspace until I got tired of it and deleted my account because it became to childish to me. To me it seems most people now use Twitter and Facebook most often. A lot of the users who use Twitter and Facebook migrated over from Myspace. While on Twitter I actually saw Tom, the creator of Myspace, plead to Twitter users to come back to Myspace.

It seems like when these social networking sites first become popular they start at the college level, and as its popularity progresses, the user age level continues to become lower. For example, when I first joined Facebook, I was a freshman in college and was required to have a college email to join. Now I see they allow anyone to join. All these social networking sites are different in many ways. For an example, many music artists and television shows use Myspace as a way to market their works.

Facebook is different from the other social networking sites in that it allows you to install many applications and games to your page. This has been a big hit for Facebook because many people find themselves logging on to Facebook just to play a game such as Cafe World or one of the big hits Farmville.

Twitter is different in the sense that it is a much simpler form of interacting with other users. With twitter you can easily post new status updates and reply to other user's status updates. I really enjoy Twitter because it gives you the opportunity to "follow" celebrities and newspaper analysts. I enjoy this fact because I am allowed to get up to the minute information from the many sports analysts that I am "following".

Friendster is similar to Facebook to me in that it allows you to share links, videos, and music with your friends or anyone on your network. In my honest opinion I believe all these social networking sites do the same things, it's just that some do it better. I wouldn't see myself using Friendster because it doesn't seem to have anything significant for me to feel I need to be apart of the Friendster community.