My New Media Class So Far

In today’s society, new media is a commonly used term and applies to a lot of things we now take for granted such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Shutterfly, Twitter, etc. Technology is also part of the ever changing world of new media. Digital TV, DVR ("digital video recorder") boxes, computers, computer software programs (i.e., Adobe Photoshop) and digital cameras are just some of the technologies that we now use on a daily basis.
The internet is a major factor in making most of the new media possible. Without the internet, things such as blogs, emails, search engines and home shopping cannot exist. The world has now reached a stage where it can no longer operate without the internet and therefore we rely on it heavily. Having all these new technologies have now seen a decline and slowly a decline in old media. Newspaper sales, for instance, are no longer like they used to be. Unlike twenty years ago, people can now have access to any number of sources in which to get the latest news instead of waiting to the following day to obtain the news. With obtaining news online, you can instantly get the latest news. Post offices have also taken a hit as emailing someone takes seconds to arrive unlike a written letter which can take days and therefore is now referred to as “snail mail.”
Old media is slowly, but surely being edged out. Take TV for instance. Earlier this year, all TV stations have changed to digital as it is not possible to receive a signal through the old analogue aerial. Will radio go the same way? The disturbing thing now if the internet stops working, then the world is going to be set back many years as we all rely so heavily upon it. This is not a good thing. “You can watch the TV while you are using the internet, picture and picture, another section of it, you click on picture and picture and a little box appears in the corner, you can be chatting away or whatever and you can watch telly at the same time, you are not missing anything really.” Irish Communications Review Vol 9 2003.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Modeling reality with virtual worlds could be used by certain companies to give an indication of how the end product may look like. Take, for instance, a building company may want potential investors to finance/buy into. In order to do so, these companies may lay out a visual idea of how a finished project may look like. If it is potential hotel financiers, companies might want to give them a virtual tour around the hotel. They may provide the layout of what the front desk may look like, location of the pool, fitness center, how many rooms (small or large) there will be in the hotel and anything else that might draw these potential financiers in. This is a great way for companies to sell themselves without having to use a sales agent. The dark side to this would be that not everything you see in this virtual world will turn out as planned in months to come. There may by an unexpected situation or disastrous consequences that may not allow the company to complete the project as planned.

Aside from companies utilizing this virtual technology, there are people who go on to these virtual sites using characters that they have designed to interact with other virtual users. These "virtual" users are then realistically interacting with others in these virtual cities. What is normally done in real life can now be played out in these virtual worlds too! In this "virtual" world, you can be whomever you what to be. If you are a man and want to live and act out as a woman, it can be easily done in this virtual world.

An article in The New York Times talks about life in the virtual world which, to be quite frank with you, is quite frightening. When I read that a multimedia artist who was interviewed states that "you've experienced it as if it were real, because, in fact it is real" (NYT). Would you agree that this world is becoming a sad and pathetic place when people want to sit at home and pretend that they are at a bar instead of actually being in a bar socializing and interacting with other "real" people!?!?!? Where is the sense of joy and excitement in that? Or the thrill to be able to really sit next to someone and feel them and look directly into their eyes instead of pretending you are doing so in these virtual worlds. The real world can be difficult to deal with, but that is what makes us human. is it just me or is this world becoming a place for total one-dimensional losers!?!?!?

Social Networking

Using social networking could benefit corporate companies as it would allow them to advertise their services at a much cheaper rate than through the newspapers or media(i.e., television, radio, billboards, etc.). By companies using this type of technology, they have the opportunity to recruit potential employees geared towards a specific description given by these people. In doing so, these prospective employees are also marketing themselves by utilizing these social networking sites (i.e., LinkedIn, Craigslist, Facebook, Myspace etc.) to further their career. Up and coming and possibly even famous actors, artists and musicians are known to have websites providing fans the opportunity to see into their lives and what they are currently up to.

Companies and potential empolyers can use the opportunity to view these sites to learn more about these individuals and see if they are qualify for the jobs being offered. Also, in the case of corporate companies, if they are seriously condsidering hiring someone, they may run a backfround check as well as see if their personal websites, if any, may tell more or less about themselves.

Of course, to me, the dark side to publicly having these social networking sites is the opportunity for others to view your sites and gaining personal information that may be irrelevant to the company. However, in doing so, these companies may now view and judge you differently. Another negative aspect is the possibility for you to welcome unwanted visitors. For example, if you are underage person and being monitored by an adult, there may be some predators out there preying on innocent victims. What about that horrific incident that lead a massage therapist to her death for answering a craigslist ad.

An online article from Workforce Management states that IBM is already using a program that will allow people to train in virtual environments. IBM hopes to have a "virtual world" technology for emplyee training in the near future. In years to come, I believe numerous companies will follow suit and invest money in virtual technology. Sadly, if we opt for this virtual technology, our interaction with "real" people will become less and less frequent as it means people are opting to connect with a computer instead. What will this mean for the thousands of people whose job it is to train new recruits? There will no longer be "real" people to assist them.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

There are so many social networking sites these days that it's hard to keep up. Common sites that people tend to visit when they are on the internet are Facebook, My Space, Bebo, etc. If they have signed up on these sites, they can easily catch up with old and new friends, old and new, show photographs of their latest night out, vacation pictures and/or contacts as many perspective employers and/or recruiters seem to look at these sites often.

In the beginning it may have been fun, but some people may be waking up to the fact that this may be taking over their lives. I do think, however, that the hype of some social networking sites has passed. Hopefully, people will slowly but surely take a step back to realize that it requires a great deal of time and effort to keep up wtih hundreds of "so-called" friends. Is that really possible? If so, that means you have to forfeit some of your work hours to focus on maintaining your profile on these sites. Better yet, they may have to forfeit their "real" time with friends to be better spent in front of the computer in order to connect with "virtual" friends. To some degree, it's nice to be able to relay news/messages to all your friends at once instead of individually, yet at the same time, you lose the opportunity of seeing them face to face.

Blogs Vs Wiki

Blogs are people's opinion on certain subjects they feel strongly about. The creators of these blogs are the only people who can make these definitive changes to what they have written. Others may respond by adding to what have been previously posted on these blogs. In doing so, this can lead to a lengthy discussion which runs on for many pages.

Wikis are similar to blogs in the sense that anyone can initially provide their opinion and/or their understanding on certain matter. However, unlike a blog, anyone thereafter, can change what you have previouly written and/or the ability to delete the contents in its entirety. As stated by Jimmy Wales, the public face of a wiki project, in a New York Times article that "we are mostly male computer geeks" but he added that" there might be a measure of diversity, but only in that we are from differnt parts of the world." This goes to show that it is not commonly used by the general public, but instead, these wiki users are basically the computer geeks of the world (The New York Times; Wikifedia Looks Hard At Its Users by Noam Cohen).

Blogs, on the other hand, are written by anyone who wishes to share their thoughts or feelings on practically anything ranging from their love lives to neighborhood watches and anything else imaginable. These various topics, in my opinion, appear to generate a great deal of collaboration from people in similar circumstances and in doing so they're engaging others to provide their opinions and/or ideas.

As I am not an avid wiki user, I don't know if this may exist already, but perhaps wiki would be good for live sport. For someone like me who was living in Scotland and now living here, I would love to read what wiki users throughout the world have to write/say when a major key event is currently being played out live in their country. The ability to have these people update scores and leader boards as they change would be cool.