Next New

It's hard to predict the future of new media with something that hasn't be thought of or attempted. I would like to imagine that retail will change very soon, and be more connected to the internet with augmented reality, maybe fitting rooms can be online dressing rooms, where you can wear nodes on the fabric you're wearing and they display a different color than the item you are wearing, so you don't have to bring 5+ of the same item but in different colors to your fitting room, just bringing in one white object and having different colors virtually projected through the mirror for you. New Media has always been experiential based, and you give something to get an output, so I feel like places like Sephora with their lip color interactive mirrors are getting it right, but people will still want to come in store for things like trying them on, or using augmented reality for real estate, viewing homes without physically being there.

Wiki So Far

I have contributed a few things to the class wiki, including the following;

~Contributed to the section of Technological Singularity, added in interview with Elon Musk and Joe Rogan to a new section of Public Discourse (also edited my existing reference links! wiki is a learning process)
~Added to New York City page- discussing different museums where one can find examples of art relating to New Media. We can agree to disagree here, professor, but I think that it is relevant to see examples of places where one can be inspired by works of today.
~Updating Gaming website by moving the main image over to the right so it would not distract from the subsection breakdown.
~Added to Art and Technology under Ipad Pro and Procreate application.
~Added to Augmented Reality section, bringing more of a distinction to what was written, checking for grammar and also adding a non-broken photo link to the existing page.
~Added myself as a user, with a photo of myself in sunglasses.

P2P

File sharing is the process of sharing information, compacted in the form of files. Different file forms may be .mp3, compressed music, .pdf, .jpg, etc. P2P file sharing is . Examples of P2P file sharing include peer to peer lending like with Lender's Club, offering users lower rates than what banks would give them for loans, while investors gain profit from working in this marketplace style scenario. (Kaufman). Another version of P2P file sharing is Limewire, where users were able to post their copies of songs and others were able to download to their devices for easy listening. Not all P2P filesharing is legal, because it may run into issues with copyright. It's definitely interesting though!




Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other May 10, 2013 http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/10/182651552/peers-find-less-pressure-borrowing-from-each-other

Privacy

Privacy can be a slippery slope with social media. Different social media websites prompt for users to share what is going on with their lives, and users constantly see others sharing what may be intimate details about their lives online. For websites like Linkedin and Wayup, users make virtual versions of their resumes, building profiles that can potentially land them employment. The flip side to this beneficial use of social media, is that with a quick google search of one's name, people can easily be found by their area, approximate age, job, and potentially even their address, depending on what whitepages can catch about users. Sometimes privacy settings like "look me up by my phone number" on facebook and instagram can be sure helpful to boost follower count, or to provide close friends with the option to look you up. But what happens if you text someone off of tinder and it doesn't work out? People believe to have a veil of anonymity when it comes to the internet, but the scary truth is it can be so easy to look a person up, just by knowing their full name and something like what area they live in, or their phone number. In cases like these, we are willingly posting our private information in hopes that the 'right' person sees. We rarely think about what one can do with information like this. There are also cases where we may be sharing our information willingly but without knowing what the consequences are. This can be something like not deleting metadata on shout wiki photos, or quickly agreeing to privacy policy's giving away location information to websites that can then sell this raw data to others. Social media is the opposite of private.

Advice

If I was hired by Baruch to improve the college with new media, I would make use of social media. I would watch over the pages that students frequent most on Facebook, follow trends with student favorites, whether its memes commiserating finals or complaints about registrar, and create more with Instagram to improve the sense of community with Student Life. I would try to make Baruch's community more inclusive by hearing what students have to say on Twitter about the old building elevators every few minutes, and try to invigorate a conversation. I would also hire someone to clean up CunyFirst and different websites across Baruch's online website that need better UI.

Creativity

New media can foster creativity through platforms like Flickr, where people can create new area names and descriptions through metadata and tagging, seeing places and describing them in ways that they may not have otherwise done before. Also, regional differences for referencing downtown areas can now be cross-referenced and traded through the www, and potentially influencing AI with personal geotagging for likes- with Flickr users unknowingly gathering data for full research projects based on descriptions.






Exploring place through user-generated content: Using Flickr tags to describe city cores 13-96-1-PB.pdf

Creativity and New Media

It's me!

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used as retail sales platforms, games, and spaces for communities to thrive. Prior to this week, I was not aware of Second Life as a platform. You know how you try compare/relate new topics to things you have experienced before? Second Life reminds me of Sims (avatars and limitless possibilities for creativity) mixed with Animal Crossing (more business oriented/ focused on everyday activities), with the ability to capitalize on your unique designs for customizations or virtual real estate. Virtual worlds give their users the power to create unlimited circumstances for their users.  Attached is a link to the Youtube playlist for Drax Files, an online persona interviewing different business owners on Second Life. When browsing through this mini series, you can see that a lot of these webtrepreneurs have their sense of community down pat. They are creating for Second Life members and providing endless possibilities for niche markets like 1920s Berlin with Jo Yardley, or Elie Spot with her posh virtual marketplace.
     Some critics believe that virtual worlds are outdated, and a sign of the early beginnings of online networking, as hinted by in Diane Mehta in Forbes. She interviews Jacki Morie, who says "You can use virtual worlds in education, in delivery services, or as an advanced form of telehealthcare that offers so much more than videoconferencing. Virtual worlds can give us social connectivity, built­in support groups, and ways to avoid ever being alone again." This online community aspect allows for   deeper interactions between users that might be separated around the world, disabled, or otherwise unable to experience certain spaces in their own lives- the chance to work collaborate, heal, and grow together. I am most familiar with virtual worlds in the form of games- an escape from reality while using critical thinking skills to beat challenges and create exciting spaces, like Dark Souls, Skyrim, Minecraft and more. I even remember being in my teens and frequenting Gaiaonline, with their own MMO, zOMG! I would spend hours online exploring what felt like an endless world with friends. Giving people a whimsical realm full of surprises is beneficial for enriching their ability to escape from the rules and limitations of their daily lives and live vicariously through these beautiful personas they create. This can  even affect how people interact with others in real life-as research has found that players that chose evil characters seemed to be more mischievous toward other research participants in a study where they were asked to pour chocolate or chili sauce for later participants. Their choices in an inconsequential realm seemed to have an impact on their behaviors outside of virtual worlds.
Virtual worlds in the future may be used for visual displays- like walk-throughs for real estate open houses, or interactive rooms with VR headsets. VR Worlds allow for interconnectivity within one online space, regardless of your location, so this is helpful for business ventures reliant on location, or wanting to open their audiences to be more global. I think that virtual worlds have come a long way in the past decade from the blocky, limited beginnings they came from, and are becoming more and more easily accessible. Soon we'll all be able to interact virtually through our cellphones, making augmented and virtual reality more mobile.
 
After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/
http://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/News/Virtual-world-may-impact-real-world-behaviour-20140210

Blog: Social Networking Sites

Please note that I am accessing these sites on an Iphone, in their apps.

Facebook- I have the what's on my mind status bar, stories my Facebook friends have posted in the past 24 hours, and half of one photo post, encouraging me to keep scrolling to view the rest. My Facebook lately has resorted to dog photos, ads, and meme pictures in the form of videos (just a one slide-slideshow) to generate ad revenue.

Twitter- * The only website out of these four that I don't have an app for. Personally I don't use twitter. It makes me feel like I have to constantly post about my day in a stream of consciousness way and I am more embarrassed by the tweets when I look back at them. Has a newsfeed style interface, I am met with posts of people I directly follow. After a few scrolls, I get suggestions for people to follow as my list is fairly small. As far as the posts themselves, Twitter tends to be the hub for punny and witty commentary or reaction memes, and sometimes latest news or exhibitions trickle in in a 140 character fashion.

Instagram- Cleanest and most appealing UI in my opinion. Stories at the top bar and a most recent photo my friend has posted.

Linkedin- Lots of Inspirational lists and speakers appealing to my network, as friends and former coworkers alike are interacting with these posts. Here and there, my newsfeed has internship recaps with a selfie in front of the company's perks or logo and expressions of gratitude for time well spent. I use Linkedin for browsing job applications and cheering friends on with their promotions- but I usually don't stop to browse this side of it. Linkedin shares many relevant business savvy articles about latest trends- and marketing reports on the latest trends that you have to pay for.

While many of these sites have many of the same users, they have their own unique purposes and communities. The culture varies by the platform and you see this in the form of posts.

Blog About Twitter

Diamonds are forever, Twitter discussions are forever. Blackboard discussions are more private (only visible to students taking that course) than Twitter discussions and less limiting (140+ characters), and they can be accessed after their posting date. In-class discussions are only amongst the students present, so if you're absent you can only get a second-hand account of what goes on. It seems like there is a progression in privacy when thinking of Twitter discussions vs. Blackboard discussions vs. in class discussions.

Blog Social Networking

Social networking can be used to build communities, make friends, maintain friendships, share ideas, and take action. While Thompson notes that the amount of close family and friends you have tend to stay the same, even with social media, your interactions with them become richer with the addition of networking tools. He mentions that people that you would have easily fallen off with BIE (Before internet era), you are now constantly being reminded that they exist. You can even become closer to others that you otherwise would not have built strong connections with.

In my experience, I believe that social networking may be a great tool for shy people, as at first glance, they may not be comfortable with approaching others, but with the ability to think before acting, and edit their thoughts they can now reach out to people that they otherwise would not have spoken to. This translates to confidence through numbers, and those numbers can be the amount of followers one has, or likes on their posts. We validate each other and start to create a new system of values and assumptions, like "Oh, this person only has 100 followers, they must be weird" to "Well, this person has 50,000 followers, but they're following 100,000 so they must just be superficial and follow for the number."

Students at Baruch can know way more about me before I even open my mouth, just by looking me up on Linkedin and browsing my Instagram. The thing is- I consider that I am posting for my group of friends and some other stragglers that follow me; but having a public account I am really posting for anyone to see, no matter if they even have a Facebook or Instagram account or not. In the future, I think that we will have a new social media platform that is mainly focused on video. In a way, we have Youtube and Vine (sort of, RIP) but you can definitely see that Instagram Stories and Snapchat (more intimate, close knit groups of viewers) have taken over- with less frequent POSTS and more instant, 1 day only posts. This security in having one day for a post to expire helps with indecisive poster, people who want more privacy, users that have in-the-moment concerns or happenings. Even with all this, you can quickly tap/flip through hundreds of stories or posts and not absorb anything that the users are doing. But what leaves you sitting in your seat is video. There is definitely money in video production right now, and apps stay successful where the advertising goes.

In the corporate world, social networking helps brands stay relevant and maintain customer engagement. Information we share on social networking sites can be used to create profiles which can then be used for marketing purposes, or data mining and identity theft. People can pose as a harmless friend request with many mutuals, and use your data for information. Personally, I set all of my Facebook photos and posts to Friends only, but I also have over 700 friends on Facebook, not all of which I am aware of. Knowledge@Wharton raises a point where someone I don't really know can find my name, age, and area where I live- even zip code and piece together all of my information besides my credit card number. It is important to be mindful of what we post to the internet, and how we share our lives, because you never really know who you're reaching.

1. "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy " by Clive Thompson, NY Times, Sept 7, 2008 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html
2. Knowledge@Wharton, "Leaving 'Friendprints': How Online Social Networks Are Redefining Privacy and Personal Security http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2262