Privacy & Confidentiality

New media is all around us. We feel like it is a new way to speak our minds and to connect socially to others. But, there are some major issues regarding privacy and confidentiality.

With our facebook, twitter and blogs, we reveal so much about our lives. But did you know that virtually anyone can have access to your pages? With the click of the mouse, your own page can be found and depending on what you put on your page, someone can know your birthday, address, phone number, email and where you reside. Your identity can be taken justl like that. You don't even know who actually goes on your pages so you can have someone stalking you without your knowledge.

Fortunatley, there are ways to protect yourself. On facebook, you can prevent people from going on your page if they are not your friend. Also with twitter, you can block people so they can't follow you.

You let the world gain a lot if knowledge about yourself through new media. Sure new media is what's in right now but you must remember you have to be careful. Do not post private information on your pages because it can definitely be used against you.

Advice to Baruch College

If I was hired to use new media to improve the college, I would be up for the task. I think the way we do things in this online CIS class is very reliable and not too difficult to implement. Having online classes can help us save time by not showing up physically to class. All assignments are posted in advance and you don't have a professor nagging you to turn it in on time.

If each class had their own wiki pages, there would be no need to send emails to each other. Instead the wiki page can be edited by anyone so everyone can see it. Wiki pages would be very useful in many classes.

Also, blogging should be required in classes. It will help everyone communicate with each other. I think it is cool to have everyone blog about what they learned from class so you can get someone else's perspectives.

It would be a step in the right direction to use new media in our college. It is the wave of the future and what better way to adjust to it then to use it for all the courses.

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

With the advancement of technology, it is quite simple to live in another world. The virtual reality world is your great escape from the torture of present life.

When parents hear the words video games, they think it is all bad. I mean virtual reality fits into that category. But it is not all that bad. According to the CNN article, Naughty Auties is a site that helps those with autism. It creates a world where they can interact with others with the same condition and also learn more about it. It helps get those people out of their comfort zones. Also, virtual reality allows you to communicate with others. This is just another tool of social networking.

Virtual reality does have cons to it. You may be in reality but your brain may be in virtual reality. You may do things that you wouldn't do in reality like beat someone or say something inappropriately. Another issue with virtual reality is the fact that dangerous predators can communicate your kids. Webkinz made the creation of avatars easy for kids. But what is dangerous is the fact that they can communicate with some pervs. Parents must keep close watch.

The virtual reality world will phase out soon. "The Sims" isn't even popular really anymore. Whae is so cool about virtual reality is the fact the makers are so creative. The places look so real. It made me want to enter this fake world. But, thank goodness I'm not a gamer and will not enter this world.

Social Networking

There are various uses for social networking in our daily lives. From the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting," companies are using these social networking sites to find future employees. Linkedin is a site that allows you to connect with others in the corporate world and creates them to take a look at your resume you post. I don't have a Linkedin account but I heard everyone somehow has one which is kind of scary.

Facebook is another social networking site. I'm sure it is the most popular social networking site. It allows you to connect with old friends, post pictures, and update statuses. I think that is a positive. I, myself, connect with my friends from elementary school. But on the other side, it is negative. Many people nowadays are deleting their facebook accounts. From the article "Facebook Exodus," people believe the site just sucks you in. Once you start an account, you are instantly addicted to it causing you to forget about anything else in your life.

In the future, I believe there will still be social networking sites. Not that there will be new ones, but the ones that are present right now will continue to grow in popularity in the future. I don't see an end to these sites. I know once I get older, I might not use my sites that often, possibly deleting them. But once I delete mine, I'm sure that those in the younger generation will then start one. How much more innovative can you get to create a new social networking site is to be determined.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

So I've had facebook my whole college life. I go on it everyday. At first it was cool because I was able to keep in contact with old high school friends and actually speak with new college friends. You can post comments on other people's walls, post pictures, update your status, and just connect with anyone. But now that I am busy, I don't care much about facebook. I still go on it, but I don't really speak to my friends through it. There have been a couple of changes made to facebook but it still does its job at stalking others haha.

I never had a myspace account. I was not too into social networking sites back then except facebook. In my opinion, myspace is quite similar to facebook. They both do the same things. You can post pictures, comment on someone else's profile, and again, stalk others.

I have heard of friendster but don't know anyone with an account. I did create an account but I felt that there were too many steps. Now that I skipped all the steps, the homepage looks very foreign to me. But after observing it, I see that it is similar to the rest. There are so many varieties of social networking sites but none of them stand out more than the rest.

Blogs vs Wikis

The news used to be given to you by professionals. But now in the 21st century, they can be professional and personal meaning even you and me can give the news on our own blogs. We can share news about anything from sports, weather to what's going on in your life.
Blogs are websites organized by blog posts. This is equivalent to articles in the newspaper. The posts will be in reverse-chronological order. The key button is post in blogs. Other people can also comment on your blog posts. Blogs can connect so many people as it can be read, quoted or linked together. I guess that is how blogs are collaborated in a way. It is not as easy as editing and saving like a wiki but still has a sense of collaboration.

Wikis are also online based. The main difference between wikis and blogs is that people can actually collaborate to edit articles. The two important buttons with wikis are edit and save. With the click of those two buttons, you can instantly change anything you want. You can also add links in your wikis which creates a new page where anyone can edit and save changes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki This site definitely explains wikis.
There is much collaboration within wikis. Anyone can edit a page. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/internet/25wikipedia.html?_r=1
It has gotten so easy to edit wikis, they are now limiting the editing of famous people.

I think wikis should be used more with shopping centers. Too often I go to outlets to find a store I really want to go to. But then, when you go, the store is closed. It would be nice to have shoppers go on the wiki and edit the store listings so I don't find myself shocked the store is not there.

Old vs New Media

Old media consists of books, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, telephone and film. This was how it was back in the day. But now, that new media is taking over the world, there have been advancements made. Basically, new media is a more advanced and better improved form of old media. There are ways to distinguish between old and new media.

Books used to be a physical item you had to bring with you to read. You had to actually purchase the item in stores. But now, there are new ways to get your books. eBooks are a new form of books. You can now buy books online and not have the physical book itself. Instead, you have these online texts you can read on the computer, print it out, or have it on your Kindle.

The news was something you could get from watching television or listening to the radio or reading the newspaper. I guess it was more like you are given the news and you yourself was not able to update it even though you knew it changed. That is why now in the days of new media, you can no get the news online from different blogs made by anyone in the world. People can now change the news. You can also read articles on different newspaper websites and comment about them right then and there.

If you missed your favorite television show back then, you were out of luck. You would not be able to watch that episode until the reruns appear after the whole season finishes. But today, that has definitely changed. While we are in our night classes or hanging out, we may sometimes miss our favorite television shows. But now worries! We can watch the show online whenever we want on television channel sites or on Hulu.com.

New media is just a form of old media that is more advanced. Basically, the difference is that we can now be involved in media in different ways thanks to advances in technology. The internet has definitely helped and I can't imagine living without it.