Creativity and New Media

            Second Life was a very interesting implementation of new media for me. For my creativity in new media example, I decided to create an avatar and see why it can be such a useful virtual world. My experience did not start off to a great one, on my regular computer the viewer would only show me a black screen. I had to borrow a friends laptop. Once you actually get in the virtual world, I can see why so many people enjoy using it. Immediately entering a new world, you have this small tutorial where you can get comfortable with the controls. In the bottom corner of the screen there is a chat box that shows the people online in your current world. I tried having a few conversations, but outside a few hellos and disconnects, that didn't bear much fruit. I can see why this application is so useful in a corporate setting. Seeing some of the worlds that are very vibrant and bright, it would make communication fun compared to more unappealing conference rooms.

HW Creativity

            The New Yorker article “1+1+1=1” was a very enjoyable read and for me, it was a walk down memory lane. The article is a perfect example of how new media fosters creativity, in this case with music and mashups. A mashup is a song where the vocals from one song is interlaced with the music of another. The real creativity comes from the types of artists that are sampled, the article mentions combinations such as Christina Aguilera and The Strokes, Madonna and the Sex Pistols and particularly important for me, Jay-Z and Linkin Park. The album Collision Course is an apt title because the styles of Jay-Z and Linkin Park are very different, Jay-Z’s music is more gangster rap while Linkin Park is more nu metal or rap metal. As a kid I was a fan of both musical acts and had heard on the internet so many people talking about their collaboration as well as listening to their works on both traditional radio and internet radio. Collision Course was the first piece of music I ever bought. It sounds like an bygone era but I saved up my birthday money and went with my dad and sister to the mall and bought it from Sam Goody’s.

            Now that new media is more integral in our lives, artists can more easily share tracks and create more music. Sites like “The Remix” were created so that people can share music the music they have created and grow an audience. It removes the traditional barriers that people had from creating music, all you need is a track and software to produce things you like.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

            Virtual worlds has been an interesting concept for a very long time. Even in the realm of science fiction, it has been a common trope where characters put on a headset and are suddenly in a completely different location and can interact with many people. Since the 2000’s technology has been very focused on the social aspect of our lives and virtual worlds have become reality. An interesting example of a virtual world has to be Second Life. Starting out as a game where people can live vicariously through their avatars, many companies have adopted the game and incorporated it into their corporate culture. Companies like IBM, the US military use Second Life to hold conferences and test new technologies with workers who are from many different places. While there are many different telecommunication options that also do the same thing, Second Life’s design is one where users can still have casual human contact and are not completely isolated. A major drawback is one faced by many multinational corporations. Users who are not face-to-face can accidentally incorporate their own organizational and national cultures that may not be understood or accepted by the people they are communicating with.

            A major problem that arises with virtual worlds are people’s identification with their avatars and the carry over effect into the real world. Researchers at the University of Illinois conducted a study where people were given good, bad and neutral people to play. Later, they were told to give spicy chilli or sweet chocolate to unsuspecting people. The people playing evil characters by far gave more spicy chili while the good conversely gave way more chocolate. This study highlights that what we do in virtual worlds can impact our thinking in reality. This is potentially a serious issue because virtual worlds tend to have no restrictions and barriers, a world with limited rules. If people ignore the rules in real life because of virtual conditioning, it can cause serious problems.

Works Cited:

Tutton, Mark. “Going to the virtual office in Second Life.” CNN http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html 9 Nov 2009

EurekAlert. “Virtual world may impact real-world behavior.” Health 24 https://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/News/Virtual-world-may-impact-real-world-behaviour-20140210 10 Feb 2014

Blog about Twitter

            It was an interesting experience having a discussion with my classmates over Twitter. Even though many of the accounts were new, I felt like I got to know my classmates a little better and it was easy to view their old tweets and see their pictures. Those things really gave me a solid understanding on who I was responding to. Blackboard discussions are good for certain things, posting longer responses, but the text options can be hard to use and it’s much harder to check for responses. Twitter has an easy feature to see new tweets as they are coming on and they are far more optimized than blackboard to check on your phone.

            Both these options are worse than an in-class discussion. To me, to have the most effective communication with the most ideal settings, few things beat a small class size with people face to face and everyone having a solid viewpoint of what we have to discuss.

Blog: Social networking sites

            Social networking has become an almost essential part of life. Most of our interactions have evolved to immediate communications with friends and family. For today’s blog post I decided to compare and contrast the experiences I have visiting various sites and how they are structured differently. The first, and one of the most popular sites is Facebook. Personally, I deleted my Facebook account close to 3 years ago. I found that I was devoting too much of my time in following other people’s lives. In a moment of introspection, I found myself having a tougher and tougher time being happy for people and I was envious of the lives people led on social media. Constant travel photos and new cars, clothing, pets hid the reality of people’s situations and I had to remove myself from that environment.

            Revisiting the site and most of my old impressions were pretty accurate. My feed was littered by people I had not spoken too in a very long time all commentating sage advice about the world while visiting foreign lands. It was striking and unsettling the nosiness the site created in me to find out what people I haven’t spoken to in years were up to. Compared to Facebook, I have a much better opinion of Twitter. Though there are certainly similar forms of envy, most of my twitter follows are based on sports, politicians and comedians who post entertaining and useful information. In the limited characters, Twitter gives me a brief glimpse into what’s going on in the world I am interested in.

            Another site I frequent is Reddit. Compared to twitter, it is far more involved experience, where I can have larger discussions with people. It is an experience very far removed from Facebook because the users have a level of anonymity where there words and ideas matter more than who they are. Additionally it is a site where you can follow and interact with people who have similar interests no matter how niche they are. I first found the site when I wanted to build my own computer and buy the parts individually. On Reddit, I found a community who were willing to offer advice and answer questions provided I put in the work to research things. The last social media site I want to blog about is called DeviantArt. I am not an artist but I do enjoy the works other people create. On DeviantArt people present what they have created and there are small communities of people who follow certain styles. I personally follow some pretty funny comics and I found the site when I was in middle school looking for wallpapers. It really is a creative-oriented site and what matters more than anything there is the art.