I believe the Next New Thing in New Media will have something related to virtual worlds. Something that currently exists only in science fiction. Where a person can use some sort of device to plug themselves into the virtual world. The device stimulates their nervous system directly and it feels like the real world. In the virtual worlds you can do anything you want. This will be especially useful to disabled people, this will allow them to experience things they normally cannot do.
Now it may sound something like Second Life at initial glance, but the virtual version will be so much better. It will allow the users to be fully immersed into the virtual world and users will be unable to determine between the virtual world and the real world. I imagine people will spend immense amount of time if such technology does become created. Life would never be the same once this comes out.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Privacy & Confidentiality
The thing about New Media is that anything and everything is easily distributed online. Including private information, pictures, and videos. Many people forget how easy it is for something incriminating or embarrassing can be spread around the internet by friends or complete strangers. This can easily lead to serious consequences, such as bullying, harassment, employment termination, and if you are well known in the real world or even virtual world it could result in harsh criticism by people all over the world.
Of course those aren't the only privacy concerns. There is also matters containing to finance and identity theft. Some websites sell the personal information they gather from people opening accounts, which causes a lot of unwanted junk mail or spam email. And in the case of security breaches such as someone stealing the data off of new media website's servers or hacking their servers, they can do a lot of harm with that data.
So confidentiality is clearly a must have for many websites. The websites should have sufficient security and data encryption to prevent people from stealing that data. And the websites should have clear privacy policies stating what they intend to do with any personal information they gather.
Of course those aren't the only privacy concerns. There is also matters containing to finance and identity theft. Some websites sell the personal information they gather from people opening accounts, which causes a lot of unwanted junk mail or spam email. And in the case of security breaches such as someone stealing the data off of new media website's servers or hacking their servers, they can do a lot of harm with that data.
So confidentiality is clearly a must have for many websites. The websites should have sufficient security and data encryption to prevent people from stealing that data. And the websites should have clear privacy policies stating what they intend to do with any personal information they gather.
Monday, April 19, 2010
About My Term Project
New Media’s Impact on our Social Lives
New Media has improved many aspects of our lives, especially our social lives. Social networking sites like Facebook allows people to instantly communicate all over the world, as well as share pictures and videos of their lives. Internet communities have sprang up all over the internet where people can socialize with people with similar interests. People with social disorders or physical disabilities can use new media to build or enrich their social lives.
Of course there have been negative impacts of New Media on our social lives. The anonymity of the internet makes it easy for people to don internet disguises in order to manipulate people for their own personal gain. As a result internet predators have appeared such as bullies, stalkers, and criminals. And there is the privacy issue. New Media has made it so easy to mass distribute content that anyone can do it. If you post an embarrassing or incriminating file on the internet, you may never know who is looking at it. And in some cases others will mass distribute your content themselves which could result in social embarrassment or harassment. The internet masses can serve as a magnifying glass putting unnecessary attention and scrutiny on a person’s social life.
But the worse thing of all is the fact that many people use New Media to waste time. While not necessarily a problem at first glance, but upon closer examination the potential implications speak volumes. Just look at how much children spend their time on New Media. Studies show that children are spending a vast amount of their exposed to media. And they are multi-tasking which means they are exposed to multiple forms of media at once. This is especially true in South Korea, where the government claims many of its citizens suffer from Internet addiction. What’s the problem you ask? How can we possibly expect future generations to become productive to society when they spend so much time entertaining themselves? Old habits die hard, and these children will grow up into adults with the same habits of spending a vast amount of time using the internet and New Media.
Neil Postman wrote a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. I believe that is a distinct possibility. New Media may become our version of the gladiatorial games in the Roman Empire. Something to distract us while hiding all the problems that exist in the world. Our society could become too obsessed with trivial matters and forget about the important things in real life. The unfortunate thing is that it seems like it is an inevitable product of technology. We create technology to make life easier for ourselves so we don't have to spend countless hours doing backbreaking labor on a daily basis. What else would we do with all that spare time we now have? The most appealing activity is entertainment. With New Media, you can be entertained whenever and wherever with all these internet enabled devices. Almost everything is just a click away. It can't be helped if people forget about the real world.
In conclusion, remember that the real world does indeed exist, and its more awesome than you realize. Never forget the dangers of doing anything excessively, especially the internet and New Media.
Bibliography:
Milton M. (Director). (2010, February 20). Homo Interneticus? [Television series episode] Crossley-Holland D. (Executive Producer). The Virtual Revolution. [Television series]
Reinberg S. (2010, January 20). U.S. Kids Using Media Almost 8 Hours a Day. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635134.html
Kessler, Jason. , & Snow, Mary. (2009, April 21). Med student held without bail in possible Craigslist killing. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/21/mass.killing.craigslist/index.html
Prairie, D. (2007, November 16). Mom: MySpace Hoax Led to Daughter's Suicide. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312018,00.html
Saidi N. (2008, March 28). iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
New Media has improved many aspects of our lives, especially our social lives. Social networking sites like Facebook allows people to instantly communicate all over the world, as well as share pictures and videos of their lives. Internet communities have sprang up all over the internet where people can socialize with people with similar interests. People with social disorders or physical disabilities can use new media to build or enrich their social lives.
Of course there have been negative impacts of New Media on our social lives. The anonymity of the internet makes it easy for people to don internet disguises in order to manipulate people for their own personal gain. As a result internet predators have appeared such as bullies, stalkers, and criminals. And there is the privacy issue. New Media has made it so easy to mass distribute content that anyone can do it. If you post an embarrassing or incriminating file on the internet, you may never know who is looking at it. And in some cases others will mass distribute your content themselves which could result in social embarrassment or harassment. The internet masses can serve as a magnifying glass putting unnecessary attention and scrutiny on a person’s social life.
But the worse thing of all is the fact that many people use New Media to waste time. While not necessarily a problem at first glance, but upon closer examination the potential implications speak volumes. Just look at how much children spend their time on New Media. Studies show that children are spending a vast amount of their exposed to media. And they are multi-tasking which means they are exposed to multiple forms of media at once. This is especially true in South Korea, where the government claims many of its citizens suffer from Internet addiction. What’s the problem you ask? How can we possibly expect future generations to become productive to society when they spend so much time entertaining themselves? Old habits die hard, and these children will grow up into adults with the same habits of spending a vast amount of time using the internet and New Media.
Neil Postman wrote a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. I believe that is a distinct possibility. New Media may become our version of the gladiatorial games in the Roman Empire. Something to distract us while hiding all the problems that exist in the world. Our society could become too obsessed with trivial matters and forget about the important things in real life. The unfortunate thing is that it seems like it is an inevitable product of technology. We create technology to make life easier for ourselves so we don't have to spend countless hours doing backbreaking labor on a daily basis. What else would we do with all that spare time we now have? The most appealing activity is entertainment. With New Media, you can be entertained whenever and wherever with all these internet enabled devices. Almost everything is just a click away. It can't be helped if people forget about the real world.
In conclusion, remember that the real world does indeed exist, and its more awesome than you realize. Never forget the dangers of doing anything excessively, especially the internet and New Media.
Bibliography:
Milton M. (Director). (2010, February 20). Homo Interneticus? [Television series episode] Crossley-Holland D. (Executive Producer). The Virtual Revolution. [Television series]
Reinberg S. (2010, January 20). U.S. Kids Using Media Almost 8 Hours a Day. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/635134.html
Kessler, Jason. , & Snow, Mary. (2009, April 21). Med student held without bail in possible Craigslist killing. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/21/mass.killing.craigslist/index.html
Prairie, D. (2007, November 16). Mom: MySpace Hoax Led to Daughter's Suicide. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312018,00.html
Saidi N. (2008, March 28). iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTCText
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
Friday, April 9, 2010
Advice to Baruch College
My advice to Baruch College on using new media would be creating their own wiki for its home page which should only be allowed access to its staff members. This way they can easily provide updates, and changes to any information. While allowing an easy to navigate website for college students and others. I personally liked using the wiki for my New Media class, and would not mind if Baruch allowed professors to use wiki instead of Blackboard for posting course documents, assignments, and etc. Although students submitting assignments might be a problem.
Baruch should also create accounts for social networking sites if not already. I did not find a Baruch account on youtube, and youtube is a high ranking website in terms of daily visitors, so by creating an account there and posting relevant videos about the college they can boost exposure of the Baruch college attracting new students and staff.
Baruch should also create accounts for social networking sites if not already. I did not find a Baruch account on youtube, and youtube is a high ranking website in terms of daily visitors, so by creating an account there and posting relevant videos about the college they can boost exposure of the Baruch college attracting new students and staff.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Our Class Wiki - So Far
Creating content on the wiki is much more difficult than I imagined. So far I have created the e-sports page in the gaming section. Since the only current video game article on the wikipedia is about MMORPG's. But there is much more than mmorpg's. New Media has allowed competitive video game communities to thrive since they can easily communicate and coordinate tournaments. And other users like to commentate and upload videos of e-sports competitions. It's fanbase is growing, and New Media may very well allow e-sports to rival real life sports in the coming decades.
I have also edited a few typos in the New Media & Social Change, and New Media and Privacy Issues pages. I wrote the Potential Issues section in the New Media & Social Change page. It is it bit of a bleak outlook on the future of New Media and society, so it should not be taken too seriously. But it wouldn't hurt to keep those issues in mind. It serves as a brief preview of my presentation.
I have also edited a few typos in the New Media & Social Change, and New Media and Privacy Issues pages. I wrote the Potential Issues section in the New Media & Social Change page. It is it bit of a bleak outlook on the future of New Media and society, so it should not be taken too seriously. But it wouldn't hurt to keep those issues in mind. It serves as a brief preview of my presentation.
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