Creativity and New Media

I have not realized until I took this class, Principle of New Media that in one of my previous class, CIS 3367, I was using New Media to do more than showing what I have learned in that class. I created a video on YouTube named Miss Dorita's Income Statement where I showed how we could use Excel Tools to create an Income Statement. However, now I can say that with this video I could use New Media to share some of my knowledge to other users who might be interested to learn how to use Excel's business tools. One creative way to share knowledge is by using Social Media on different platforms. In this case, I used YouTube which is a dynamic way to explain something. To create the video that I posted, I used Screencast-o-Matic website which allow me to record what I was doing on a screen. Another aspect that I could do with this video was to promote Miss Dorita's channel adding her channel's name, Facebook page and her picture on my video. At the moment that I create the video, I did not realize that I was using Social Media to promote another channel. With New Media, I can also promote my video on different platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

HW Creativity

Social Media is an online platform where you can share and find anything that you can imagine. Social media allows us to give our opinion on any topic, and we can find other people who can have similar thoughts as us or completely different thoughts as us. Social media enhances our creative in the way that we can learn and expand our knowledge when we have to analyze a specific topic to exchange ideas, support our opinions, and debate them. In the article Twitter Serves Up Ideas From its followers, it explains how some Social Media let their users be the creators and let them redesign the platform. Much Social Media let their users be their source of inspiration. For example, Twitter added the @symbol to see every time they are mentioned, and that innovation was thank to one of their users. In the same way, Lego allows their users to create their own Lego design, and then they sell those designs. Also, Social Media is being used to promote brands, so more of the marketers can use those platforms to show the different ways they can advertise their brands.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

A virtual world is a dimensional environment where users can create whatever they want to. People can build an online version of themselves which is called Avatars, and they can construct a unique background or reconstruct a place that they would like to be. The virtual world can be used in different ways, and it depends on who is using it such as different fields: hospitals, office, schools or job sites. For example, the article, Going to the virtual office in Second Life explains how many businesses use the virtual world to cut down on travel expenses. Businesses use virtual worlds as a conference meeting where the different partners from all over the country and world can meet there without traveling to another country. They can interact in the virtual world in the same way as they would be in a specific location from the accommodations of their house. Hospitals are using virtual worlds to simulate situations where doctors have to make a quick decision to save patients' lives. Hospitals are using it to teach and train their staffs. 

As you can see virtual worlds can reduce travel expenses or help to teach and provide training. However, in the article In Room 100, It’s Sid and Nancy All Over Again explains how people can keep pictures of a place they like and reconstruct the exact location in the virtual world. The article describes that in room 101, Nancy Spungen was killed, and the hotel renovated that room, but in the virtual world of the hotel, they still showing the place as a crime scene. In other words, because users can use reality worlds as they want, they can create stories or reconstruct crime scenes which are already solved or forgotten. Another con of reality worlds is that users can be addicted to it, and spend many hours in it. It can reduce people's interaction in the real world.

In the future, virtual worlds would be a controversial topic because it is true it would help in education, but it is not the same practicing in a virtual world as doing it in real life. The same for traveling, it would allow people to go to different countries without leaving their house, but it will affect the airlines' business. For that reason, users should differentiate and use virtual worlds with the real world with cautious. 

Blog about Twitter

Having a discussion with my classmates on Twitter was more complicated than doing it in Blackboard because it takes me more time and I have limited characters. On BB, I could quickly go through all my classmates' opinions, but on Twitter, I had to search specific words that can help me to see their tweets. It was not that easy, , and it took me more time. Also, on BB I have all the space that I want to provide my opinion, and on Twitter, I had to limit it because of the character limit. I had to delete some words or tried to add another tweet to finish my sentence. The main difference between discussing BB and Twitter is that on BB only the professor and classmates can see our discussions; however, on Twitter, everybody can read them. 

Social Networking Sites

Wikipedia defines social networking site as an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.

For example:

1. Facebook: It is the online platform that I use most because it allows me to connect with my relatives who are in another country. For me, this social media is really simple, easy to access and easy to understand. You can simple share photos, upload and watch videos, exchange messages, post status and react to them. Also, Facebook has privacy controls that you can set, so you protect the information you want to share and with who you want to share it. Businesses use this social networking because they can analyze their target audience and deliver ads directly to them.

2. Whatsapp: It is an app which you can download for free, and it is used to send messages, images, audios or videos. I like this app because I can call a person in a different country for free because Whatsapp uses the Internet to do everything. I also like it because it allows you to make a group conversation, send voice messages and share your location. You can use this app on your phone, but also in your desktop.

3.Twitter: It is social networking where you can post short messages with a limited number of characters up to 140, and they could be delivered to the world. Those short text messages are called tweets. Businesses like this networking site because now Twitter offers the option to do shopping online, so they can promote their business and allow users to shop directly through tweets. 

4. LinkedIn: This social networking is popular for professionals people, and the reason most of them prefer to use this site is that it is available in different languages. This is an ideal platform to connect with various businesses, locate and hire ideal candidates because all types of professionals use it across the world.

Blog Social Networking

According to Investopedia, networking is a process that fosters the exchange of information and ideas among individuals or groups that share a common interest. It may be for social or business purposes. Networking could be a complicated task, especially for shy people who have a hard time trying to connect with other people who are strangers for them. However, the new media is here to help those shy people like me. New media allow us to create an identity online where you do not need to interact face to face with the people who are on the other side talking back to you. Social networking has become more popular in the last years where more businesses use it to advertise their brands, to do research about their sales, and to reach out to new employees.

In the article, how to use social media in your career, the author states Social media is now a critical part of the way people in most walks of life communicate and a key part of how work gets done — from corporations to government. Reflecting how point social media can be, the Department of Homeland Security is collecting social media profiles of potential immigrants as part of its evaluation process. It also mentioned that as social media has become more popular — an estimated 81 percent of Americans have a social media account — there are also more instances of people who have gotten in trouble for their social networking habits. The fact is that it’s impossible to separate the personal use of social from the professional, and everything you say online can and will be used against you. 

Everything has positive and negative aspects. In this case, the positive aspect of social networking is that you can promote, advertise, socialize and do networking in a faster platform like Facebook, Twitter, Linking and others. However, because social networking has increased quickly, most employers take a look into your social media to qualify the employees they migh hire. Social networking also can be used to commit fraud because you don't know who is behind the screen, some people can pretend that they want to do business with you, but at the end, they only take advantage of you. For that reason, you should be careful when you want to do social networking.