Days

At 20 we take our lives for granted; days are just a representation of the numbers that are constantly adding to the infinite of life (or we thought so). One day we wake up to the blunt reality that those numbers are finite for our human bodies. Our ageless mind rebels to the fact that we will cease to exist. The convictions of our youth become nothingness as if we are lost at sea without the compass of our former presumed eternity to guide us and console us.

New Media

     With all the technological advances and the new technology and innovations the film industry has developed, for example IMAX, and 3D format, concepts like the movie Inception, and visual effects like the movie Avatar I think in the future we will be able to fully experience movies and trick the brain to believe we are in actuality participating in the movie not as an audience but as part of the movie. A company would develop special glasses, like 3D glasses but more sophisticated, and the visual effects and sounds would stimulate and trick our brains into not only thinking, but  actually feeling what is happening in the movie.

P2P File Sharing

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According to Wikipedia, File Sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways. P2P File sharing (Peer-to-Peer file sharing) is the distribution and sharing of digital documents and computer files using the technology of peer-to-peer networking.  Users can use software that connects in to a peer-to-peer network to search for shared files on the computers of other users connected to the network. Files of interest can then be downloaded directly from other users on the network. The following are some of the P2P file sharing programs:

·      Shareaza   (http://www.shareaza.com/)

·      BitTorrent   (http://www.bittorrent.com/)

·      Ares   (http://aresgalaxy.sourceforge.net/)

·      BearShare   (http://www.bearshare.com/)

·      Kazaa   (http://www.kazaa.com/)

·      Limewire   (http://www.limewire.com/)

·      eMule   (http://www.emule.com/)

·      isoHunt   (http://isohunt.com/)

·      The Pirate Bay   (http://thepiratebay.sx/)

BitTorrent is one of the most successful programs. On the article BitTorrent effect, Clive Thompson writes, “Bit Torrent, one of the most successful peer-to-peer programs ever. BitTorrent lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3”.

People used P2P file sharing to share movies, music, digital books, PDF documents, and videos.

Privacy

     With the surge of new media and the changes society is experiencing with the new ways of communication, privacy and confidentiality have become a great concern to Internet users. Every time we go online we leave behind our footprint and our information. From the information we share in social media to the footprint left behind online companies pay top dollars to have access to such information. Not only marketing companies should be our concerns, but also prospective employers, hackers, stalkers, and pedophiles. Whatever information we posted on the Internet is there forever.  We see in the news how hackers gain access to people’s private and confidential information; credit cards, medical records, bank accounts. For these reason we should be careful with the information we posted online and the transactions we make online everyday.

Creativity and New Media

Today for the first time I sign up to a virtual world. I went to the Second Life website and created my avatar. 

First, I google Second Life, the search engine returned 2,210,000,000 websites with Second Life being the first two websites. I went to the website and click sign up. Right away it sends you to a page where you selected your avatar. After selecting my avatar I created my account. It asked you to enter a username, your email address, date of birth, and password, then you can choose the type of membership. They offer a free account and a premium account for $6 per month.  I selected the free account. I was then send to the above page. In the menu you can choose your destination and interact with other players. It has a chat room. 

I got to experience snow in a hot summer afternoon. It's pretty cool indeed. It awakes the imagination and incites the creativity bug. 

Creativity

New media provides the user with tools that challenge one's imagination, innovation, and creativity. Let's take YouTube from example, people try to find ways to amaze and impress other users by creating innovative videos like the silence video by member MadV. His innovative idea is used by different companies to advertise their product. The latest company is allmusic.com TV's advertisement. In the past photography was an art for professionals and aficionados, but Websites like Flickr inspires users to develop beautiful and breathtaking pictures. Another example is the music industry. Now artist released their own material via social media like MySpace or other medium.  In the article The new math of mashups by Sasha Frere-Jones she writes, "Mark Vidler, known professionally as Go Home Productions, explained some other benefits of digital technology to me in London not long ago: “You don’t need a distributor, because your distribution is the Internet. You don’t need a record label, because it’s your bedroom, and you don’t need a recording studio, because that’s your computer. You do it all yourself"". People can develop their own musical beat, create amazing photos and innovative videos in ways they never had before.

Liz Ventura

Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in multiple ways by the private and public sector. In the medical field is used as a therapeutic solution for children whom lacked the necessary social skills to interact with others. In the private sector is used by architects to create a 3D model,  real state agencies for virtual open houses, universities offered virtual tours of their campus online. In the public sector is used by government agencies like NASA to prepare astronaut, or the air force to train pilots. Nicole saidi narrates in her article how virtual worlds are used to help children with autism. She states, "Savill has Asperger's syndrome and said he wanted Naughty Auties to serve those with autism spectrum disorders and their friends and family. Savill, who represents himself in the virtual world using an avatar named Dave Sparrow, said one benefit is that visitors can practice social interaction and find information about the condition. The graphical representations of real people create a "comfort zone" that can coax users out of their shells and get them communicating with others, he said". In my personal opinion virtual worlds fostered creativity. I have a daughter with social and developmental delays who has benefited from the game minecraft. The game allow her to see the world in a different dimension. It has enhanced her communication skills and awaked her imagination. One downside of virtual worlds is the chance of becoming addictive and sometimes the players can take their game to an extreme. Some people might even become withdrawn from reality. We can see an example on Dave Itzkoff article. There he states, "Despite knowing that its real-life inspiration exists right outside my door, I have spent the last few months making such visits to the Virtual Lower East Side (vles.com), a three-dimensional, Internet-based social network fastidiously modeled on a small but influential swath of Manhattan real estate". I think virtual worlds are here to stay. It will continue evolving and like social media it will become an intricate part of how society interact.

Liz Ventura