Creativity and New Media

          In doing this assignment, I tried to take a look at a virtual world platform. It's my first time living this experience; I created a free account in this app called Avakin Life. The app tools enable me to create and navigate a world of mine. I was able to create an avatar and customize it. Bought a house that I can't afford in my real life, hang out in a café place, made some friends, and what I liked about this app is that users can choose the language of the communication. I used French, and I was able to connect with people that also chat using the same vocabulary. There are also many other options such as traveling, create a business, etc. but these options require the user to pay a premium to gain access. It was a great experience, and I may probably go premium, I think it worth it.

HW Creativity

People use technology to create social media platforms, which initiates another form of creativity among users by extending the original idea into many. These social platforms that were originally designed for users to share photos, videos, and thoughts. Creativity gives room to people to see the massive potential of these platforms and come up with new ideas. So social media now are used by businesses to promote their business, posting ads, used by politicians to reach out to their audiences, used by recruiters to find candidates, and candidates to find jobs. This was just one example of how new media or technology in general foster creativity. Bell, Isaac. In his study “Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment,” states that “We already know that an accelerator for creative efforts is the capacity to locate, study, review, and revise existing projects and performances, such as open-source software modules. Web page source code, architectural drawings, or music scores. The Web has done much to make existing projects and performances accessible and search engines like Google have helped innovators to quickly find what they want.” In other words, Bell believes that the Internet/technology enables creativity. Besides, it provides people with tools that make them release their imagination and think outside the box.

                                                                   Works Cited

Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment  by Bell, Isaac.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

In a virtual world, people connected as an avatar in a computer-based community. Moreover, they can pick characters that look like them or something else and do activities. Virtual world technologies are widely used in the gaming realm. Now it may become common for businesses using this technology. Furthermore, schools also can use this technology, such as holding an online class through a virtual world.
In the article “Vitual World May Impact Real-World Behaviour “, Yoon states that: “virtual environments afford people the opportunity to take on identities and experience circumstances that they otherwise can’t in real life.”  After leaving the virtual world, people might take on some of the game behavior into their real life, and that’s what the study in the article revealed. And this one dark side of the virtual world, that it might affect users psychologically. Also, users might develop an obsession that could lead to addiction. The virtual world enables users to connect with others on the same platforms. I think it is an excellent tool for socially isolated people. Using these platforms, users live great experiences as they could be anywhere and be anyone they want. Even Businesses start adopting these technologies into their organizations, for instance, holding meetings through virtual worlds. In the article “Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life” Tutton emphasizes how useful and cost-saving a virtual world in holding a meeting. Tutton says, “As travel budgets are squeezed and slashed in the recession, companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees together for conferences and meetings remotely.”
In a virtual world, there are fewer boundaries, so users do not pay much attention to the consequences of there actions. So I think fear jeopardizes creativity. In a virtual world, there is no fear, and it is a place where users can explore and be creative as much as they want as long as they consider the society’s principals and ethical codes of the virtual world.

                                                                    Works Cited

Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, CNN.com: Nov 5, 2009http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html or below.

http://www.health24.com/Mental-Health/News/Virtual-world-may-impact-real-world-behaviour-20140210 or below.

Social Networking Sites

"LinkedIn," as one of the largest social networks that connect people. LinkedIn usually designed for working professionals. As one navigating in "LinkedIn" he or she notices that users set a professional profile, professional profile picture, mention their career of interest, discuss the area of expertise, work experience, and education. LinkedIn algorithms connect these people with recruiters, job opportunities base on their profile, and usually within the user career interests. 
Twitter also is a platform that connects people, but it is usually used for news and information, and it is common for politicians and leaders. Facebook seems to be the most popular platform; users usually post things about their personal life, such as pictures and videos, and share places where they go. Instagram is very popular among teens and young adults. I would say that Instagram mostly used for posting photos and stories. Businesses also use Instagram to post ads and target different customer segments. Furthermore, influencers use Instagram to post links to drive more traffic to their YouTube channels and websites. 

Blog about Twitter

Discussions on Twitter are constrained by limited characters, which makes the publisher compelled to be more concise in their posts. Also, Twitter is an extensive network with millions of users. If the author of the discussion made it public and assigned a specific hashtag to it, then anybody within the Twitter network would have access to that discussion. Furthermore, he or she would be able to like, comment, and share that post. Along the same lines, Blackboard discussions are very limited to the School use. Usually, the instructor sets the terms and limits of the discussion. In a blackboard discussion, students can write as much as they want, and it is usually among classmates, and they can reply to each other discussion. On the other hand, the in-class discussion is face to face interaction with the instructor or classmates. Students can talk, share their point of view at that moment and within the classroom only.

Social Networking

Other than socializing and posting pictures and events, Social networks are used in many creative ways. From a business perspective, these technologies are considered a great tool for recruiting; many employers find these platforms useful for finding candidates. For instance, Linkedin, one of the professional social network, uses an advanced feature that connects recruiters and candidates based on their portfolios. Usually, it matches employers with the right candidates or at least narrows down the list of candidates that meet the required criteria. In the article Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting, Langfitt says, "Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting ever." This is one way of many that corporations now are adopting social networking technology as part of their organizations.

One of the Social networks' dark side is privacy. This issue became maybe the first concern of users, and as you might be familiar with a recent Facebook personal data breach that raises a concern about how social networks handle confidentiality and deal with sensitive information. In the same context, people might use social networks to deceive and scam others. Facebook and Instagram now have this new feature where users can post ads and sell stuff online; scammers are hiding behind screens; they can assume any profile they want and use their own tricks. Facebook is raising concerns about scammers. In the Article Multi-million Dollars Scam Being Used In Facebook,  Polansky states that"While you're searching for deals in a neighborhood garage sale group, you might think you're talking with neighbors, but you could be talking with crooks." But sometimes scammers are really hard to detect, and they usually come up with new ways, creativity in scamming people.
Social networks can be used in so many good ways. ways that would benefit us as users and help the society as well. social networks can be used to spread awareness and knowledge. it si up to us to decide how are we going to use these platforms.

Works Cited

Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

NBC2 Investigators: Multi-million dollar scam being used on Facebook. April 27, 2018.