Next New

People nowadays are concerned about their health and their figure now more than ever. Don't get me wrong- I'm all about being confident in your own body and loving yourself, but people still want to maintain their health and watch what they consume. With the new technology- HealthBelt, it'll tell the wearer about their body mass index, the number of steps they took that day, the percentage of fat gained or lost, and much more. The belt comes in all different styles with a sleek design. The HealthBelt correlates with its own app and is compatible with iOS and Android devices. On the app, the user can set a goal for themselves and track their daily metrics. The HealthBelt can link up with other wearable tech, such as smart watches. It's basically like the Fitbit, but in another stylish alternative- a belt. I think this app/invention would be a good idea for those into fitness and tech or those who simply want to sport something sleek and futuristic.

Wiki So Far

So far, I've made a few contributions to our class Wiki. My first contribution was in the YouTube section. I added information about YouTube creator iiSuperwomanii under YouTube Stars & Advertising. She creates comedic content and inspires her viewers, especially girls, to dream big. My next contribution was in the IoT section. I added information about the company, Nest Labs under Smart Home. Nest Labs is a company that produces home automation products, such as thermostats, smoke detectors, and security cameras that connect over Wi-Fi. Lastly, I contributed to the Photography section. I added information about the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and iPhone X under Cellphone and Smartphone Cameras. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus both have portrait mode as well and provides ISP Portrait Lighting using A11 Bionic, which is a chip installed into the phones by Apple. The iPhone X has all the camera features from the iPhone 8, with the exception of facial recognition. I also added a little information to the iPhone 7 in that section.

P2P

File sharing is the sharing of computer data and files within a network. This allows for multiple people to view the files. Each user may have different levels of viewing privilege of the files. P2P file sharing is peer to peer. The only way to have access to files in a peer to peer network is through an Internet connection or a P2P software. Through the network, one can share books, movies, games, or music. Examples of P2P file sharing are LimeWire and BitTorrent. They're a network where people are able to share music and movie files. LimeWire has been shut down, however. I remember using LimeWire to download music many years ago and thinking back, it actually wasn't the safest option. For all I know, people could've uploaded files with viruses. Other file sharing sites are Dropbox and Google Drive. These networks allow people to customize who can view, edit, or share the files. Based on the NY Times article, "The Dark Night" film was pirated over seven million times, which poses a huge problem between Hollywood and the video piracy. People figured that if it's that easy to pirate videos, then it can't be illegal. However, it is. As a result, Hollywood is trying to tackle the problem by limiting ways people can pirate the films as well as offering films on-demand.

Sources:
1) Digital Pirates Winning Battles With Studios

Privacy

Privacy is something that everyone is concerned about, even more so when they have social media accounts. It's always a concern, especially when one shares any sort of personal information. Every company has different privacy and legal terms that's available for people to see if they're curious. This is to provide transparency since it's an ongoing issue nowadays. In the article from The Washington Post, Svitek and Anderson discuss how approximately 300,000 students and faculty from the University of Maryland, College Park had their information compromised. A hacker breached into the system and made copies of records and information of the victims. No information was changed or removed, but it's definitely still unfortunate and alarming how someone bypassed the system. Despite how great of a school UMCP is, it'd make me question whether its systems are safe and trustworthy, even after the incident.

Regarding social media nowadays, companies have "beefed up" their privacy settings. On every social networking site (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), one is able to customize the way their profile is viewed and to who. In this day and age, nothing is private anymore. Even though we may delete or remove a post, the information is stored somewhere in a system. New media and privacy are definitely a concern, but the use of new media is so common among society, that it's sometimes something we don't really think about, but definitely should.

Sources:
1) University of Maryland Computer Security Breach Exposes 300,000 Records

Advice to Baruch College

With all the new media, everyone is taking the initiative to maximize their marketing and outreach efforts by using the social networking sites to its fullest potential. There's a lot Baruch has already done to go about trying to spread as much information as they can throughout Facebook and Twitter, but there can always be improvements and suggestions.

Advice I'd give to Baruch College regarding new media would be to perhaps create a twitter account for each department within Baruch and post things specific to their departments, whether it's responding to students, posting interesting articles, or retweeting other students' posts. A faculty member (or members) within the department can run the accounts, whether it's something strict or not. Regardless, I think it'd make the students and faculty more integrated and interactive with one another. Plus as we've looked into for an assignment, Twitter is a more casual platform, so faculty would be able to respond to tweets in short and simple terms. I think this is a great idea because most of the time, students check their social media accounts before checking their school emails.

I've also noticed that some professors at Baruch use blogs to outline their course schedule and post updates regarding the course. If the more of the professors at Baruch utilize blogs as well, it'd increase the use of new media. Plus, there are times where BlackBoard acts up or is undergoing updates and I think for times like these, posting on blogs would be most useful. I believe students would enjoy having Twitter accounts for specific departments especially because as students, we need to have a minor and there are many different subjects students choose to dabble in and it'd be a great opportunity for students to learn more about and keep up to date on information regarding their minor(s).

Creativity and New Media

Summer 2016- My Cruise to Alaska!

Hello, that's me right there. 🙂 Maybe you're wondering why I'm wearing a hat when the video is titled "Summer 2016". Well, I took a cruise to Alaska back in August of last year. It docked from Seattle, but unfortunately my flight going there was cancelled (by American Airlines) and my family initially missed the first day of the cruise, where the ship leaves the dock. So, we had to take a flight to Alaska, with a layover in Seattle, to catch the cruise at it's first port in Ketchikan. A big misconception is that Alaska is an icy place with a lot of snow, but it's actually really beautiful. It was rainy and cold the entire duration of the trip, but I definitely did not see any town covered in ice! We did see some glaciers, however, and if I had to opportunity to go back, I wouldn't have to think twice!

My trip to Alaska inspired me to create a montage of clips to save as a memory. I saw a lot of my other friends creating and posting their vacation videos on social media, which inspired me to do the same. Uploading my video on YouTube or any other platform allows for people to view my trip and share the experience I had while I was traveling. It also allows for people to comment and provide feedback on what they saw.

--> Feel free to watch my journey by clicking the caption or here! 😁

Creativity

New media sparks one's creative mind and inspires people to express themselves. It also invites others to share their opinions about other people's creativity or ideas. Feedback like so can either be positive or negative, depending on how the person feels towards something. With the Internet nowadays, it's hard to avoid negative feedback. However, good feedback and suggestions can help people improve on themselves and grow to be something better.

In the New York Times article, Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers, Miller talks about how Twitter listens to their users' opinions and feedback about the platform to see what the company can improve on. Twitter allows for user feedback because they want to cater to what users like since they're the ones using the platform. This act is like YouTube and how YouTube creators asks their viewers to leave video suggestions down below on what the viewers themselves would like to watch. An idea brought up by a Twitter user was the use of hashtags. At first tech people were skeptical about it because they felt that only "nerds" would understand the reference, but soon other companies caught on to the ease of hashtags that allow one to be able to search similar past posts. Another suggestion by a Twitter user was Lists. This would allow one to be able to accumulate all the tweets of other users.

Ideas suggested by users can help improve the platform and make everyone happy at the same time. Who knew user feedback could be so powerful? (Hint: Twitter!)

Source:
1) Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds help foster creativity in a way such that users are able to create an ideal world and life all through simulated environments on the computer. One pro is that it makes reality simpler and education and can also mimic activities people wouldn't be able to do with ease, such as surgical procedures or astronaut training. However, virtual reality may backfire such that time lags and one may come to lack awareness of the real world. With the use of virtual worlds, it's very easy to get lost in the computer simulation activity.

In the New York Times article. "No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You," Ferla explains how users of "Second Life" use real money in exchange for the virtual currency in order to purchase things in the game for one's avatar to wear. One pro listed was that in the virtual world, clothes always fit and they don't wear. The avatar would never have to throw away their clothes because it's become worn or too small to wear, as opposed to the real world, where one would end up having to do so for those reasons, becoming costly. The article mentioned that over 150,000 items were created by users in the game, which depicts creativity. Users would build 3-D objects to sell in the virtual marketplace. Through "Second Life," users are able to live vicariously through their avatars and live as lavishly as they want. "It's the newest manifestation of how people live vicariously: if I can't afford a Bentley, my avatar can."

As a pro, in CNN's article, "Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life," Tutton explains how virtual worlds save travel time when avatars want to meet up with one another to collaborate on a project, which is beneficial because it makes for an engaging environment. However, if one would want to know how to operate a brick-and-motar place, then virtual worlds wouldn't be the place for demonstration. Besides, there are other ways to collaborate on projects such as Dropbox or Google Drive. A con the article states is that virtual teams fail to imitate the company's work culture, especially "water cooler" conversations where in the real world, workers would gather around it to share additional thoughts and ideas that might not have been shared at a previous meeting. This interaction creates bonds and relationships, where one may not be able to achieve in virtual worlds and suffer isolation.

Virtual worlds have already come into existence in today's society, especially with virtual reality electronics. Perhaps, they'll further share the virtual world by bringing virtual reality into everyday classrooms to foster a creative and innovative way of learning. I definitely think technology would only move up from here. It's exciting to see what the future has in store for us!

Sources:
1) No Budget, No Boundaries: It's the Real You
2) Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life

Blog About Twitter

Each discussion invokes a different feel. Whether it's the sharing of ideas or information, the way discussions are developed and carried out are all different. Twitter discussions are limited. Users are only able to create a tweet of up to 140 characters. This limits the user's creativity range as well and makes them keep their ideas short and simple. The limit may make the user's tweets appear casual as well since it's a more personal platform.

Unlike Twitter, BlackBoard discussions don't have a character limit. One is able to express their ideas in as many characters as they want. However, BlackBoard discussions are more formal since it's classroom-based and is shared with people of your class as well as the professor. This has its advantages, however. Discussions on BlackBoard foster more education-based responses and collaborations between groups.

Although both of these forms of communications have their pros, the one disadvantage they both have is that the face-to-face interaction is missing. In-class discussions allow people to show emotion while they're speaking. This creates more depth to what the speaker is saying and is easier to empathize with them. In-class discussions are usually also casual as well. Comments by other people in the class may also lead to tangents as well as create a stronger personal bond between everyone.

Social Networking Sites

Society practically lives on social media nowadays. It's the main form of communication between one another, unfortunately. People look at their phones more than the environment around them and they interact with others via social media instead of actually talking to someone one on one. I can't tell if it's fascinating or scary, but one thing's for sure- social media and social networking sites are taking over!

Facebook is, without a doubt, the most popular social networking site operating today. With over 1.2 billion users, Facebook continues to grow. People use Facebook to interact with the world around them, literally. The site broadcasts news and trending topics to keep users up to date with current events.

Like Facebook, Twitter also leaves users in-the-know about trending topics. The site even customizes the trending topics by naming it "Trends for you". Both Facebook and Twitter allow people to leave hashtags on their posts so that others may look through the tag to read more about the topic. One thing that's differs between these two social media platforms is the length of the posts. Twitter only allows users to have posts 140 characters long, whereas people are able to post paragraphs of text on their Facebook posts. As far as privacy settings go, Facebook's privacy settings are more complex whereas Twitter's privacy settings are simply to have one's tweets public or private.

YouTube is a little different from Facebook and Twitter. Unlike posts or tweets to express one's self, people express their creativity and ideas through videos. One can subscribe to their favorite content creators and upload as many videos as they want, whenever they want. Creators are also able to use hashtags for their videos, so their content is together with similar content users may search. They can also create playlists to further narrow down and filter their video uploads to make the viewer's search easier.

Although Facebook and LinkedIn are both popular social networking sites that connect people, the main difference is that LinkedIn is more of a professional platform. The site is mainly used to connect with employers, recruiters, or companies in hopes that the user will find a job. The connections, interactions, and posts aren't as casual as Facebook since users like to keep it professional on the site. As far as job hunting goes, I'd say that LinkedIn is the most helpful of the four social networking sites discussed, to look for a job. LinkedIn exercises privacy in means that users are able to make themselves anonymous when looking through the profiles of others as well as decide on how much of their profile they'd like to make public.

Blog Social Networking

Ah, social networking- where everyone is friends with everyone, despite where they live. Whether they've known the person they added for years or they're a mutual friend you've never met, the entire world is connected through social media. There are upsides and downsides to social networking. In NPR's article, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting," Langfitt explains how the professional networking site, LinkedIn, has become a huge help in the process of recruiting as well as for users to find a job. Users are able to market themselves and list their background and previous job experiences when job hunting. LinkedIn also allows users to simply look up the professional contacts people have connected with to find someone of their interest to reach out to, as opposed to manually calling or emailing people for someone else's contact information. Privacy can also be adjusted by the user, like any other social networking site. For example, one is able to decide how much of their profile they'd like for the public or their network to view.

There are many downsides to social networking and privacy plays a significant role. In The Atlantic's article "Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private," Greenfield explains the extent of a simple post on social media and the scare it may cause. In the article, Zuckerberg's sister posts a photo to Facebook that depicts the family's holiday. However, the photo was leaked to Twitter due to the host of the post being a mutual friend to Zuckerberg's sister, giving her the ability to view a photo since her friend was tagged in it. In this situation, Zuckerberg's sister was uncomfortable about the leaked photo and eventually asked the host of the tweet to delete it. To further add on to the downsides of social networking technologies, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article about university campuses creating campus gossip sites to speak poorly about students on the campus. Examples include JuicyCampus, CollegeACB, and Peoples Dirt. A question was posed in the article stating if colleges are required to act. In my opinion, I do believe colleges should take action. Students gossiping about other students may hurt feelings and cause people to become depressed or suicidal. It's the school's responsibility to exercise respect, especially to students towards one another.

To conclude, there are positives and negatives to social networking. Social networking can help one extend their professional network and find a job and connect with other professionals, or it can detriment one's privacy and emotions that may lead to more serious consequences (the "dark side"). The evolution of these technologies would probably improve on its privacy boundaries and monitoring what's being posted to the internet. Anything can easily be accessed with the simple click of a button and for that, we must be cautious.

Sources:
1) Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting
2) Facebook Privacy Is So Confusing Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private
3) They're Back, and They're Bad: Campus Gossip Web Sites