Creativity and New Media

My Second Life so to speak. This thing is weird. I don't really know what to feel about it. 

CREATIVITY

This is a funny topic to me, since I am not so creative. No matter what I can do, the new media that is available today for millions of people is most useful and efficient tool to brainstorm, come up with ideas, put them to a test and create all sorts of things. Creativity and imagination made the possibility of a technology without which we can't even spend a day. The technology in it's turn gave possibility to create even more ideas and new ways of doing things. Just like Tweeter and many other companies use their users and followers to come with new ideas and improvements, the new media allows to use collective minds of millions of people where one can't even comprehend. Anyone who has an idea or a question can put it out there ask people all around the world and get answers within minutes. Technology increases the creativity of a collected minds exceptionally. This allows us to come up with new ideas and improve the old ones faster then it was ever done before. The year or two year old technology is already too old. It was improved multiples times since it was first introduced. I think the world we live in now is on the verge of a huge leap into the future of our imagination. 

Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Create a new post on your blog with the above title. In your post, answer the following questions.

What are different ways these virtual worlds can be used? What are the pros and cons? Be specific. How do virtual worlds foster creativity? What do you think the future of virtual worlds will look like?

Cite at least 2 of the assigned readings.

Honestly, I thought virtual reality (VR) is used only in gaming and entertainment. Therefore, I didn't see any situation where it can be helpful. Unless, it is like The Matrix movie type of VR, where people can learn new skills by just uploading it to their minds. After reading articles like "iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction" by Nicole Saidi and "Avatar II: The Hospital" By Stephanie Simon, clearly theirs a potential to this technology. It can be used to learn and practice skills that are essential to real life situations to which is hard to imitate in classrooms. Nurses and any other skilled professional can benefit from practicing in virtual world. It can help people with brain disorders like of in autism spectrum. It can create a world where people who have problems socializing to overcome that barrier. 

VR can be used to foster creativity, allowing people speak out their minds and bring up ideas without a fear of being judged or humiliated. However, at this stage of technology of VR  there not many implications of it. Eventually, It will be very useful tool with thing like vr through smartphones, Microsoft's HoloLens, but it's still in the future. In the mean time we can use them for entertainment or to waste time with virtual worlds like There.com, IMVU.com or Second Life.com. It's all described in the article "No Budget, No Boundaries: It’s the Real You" by Ruth La Ferla. Services that I find useless and wasteful, but they can be a stepping stone for something greater. 

Blog About Twitter

Discussions in Tweeter compared to in Blackboard, or to in-class is very different. While in-class usually, no one wants to say anything that will grab everyone's attention and be overwhelmed with so much pressure. Most of the time students will be thinking about getting out as fast as they can and do other "more important things." However, student that are interested in the subject will be actively participating and specially if professor encourages it.  On Blackboard discussion are very dead, much worse than in-class. The only reason student participate, well everyone knows why, is to earn the credits and nothing more. The problem of discussions on Blackboard is that, it feels like no one cares, no one is reading the posts, even if someone responses, it is because they have to. So, no one really likes to post anything knowing no one would read or care about it. Tweeter, on the other hand, has much more people that will read and notice your opinion, but at the same time does not have those eyes staring back at them. It combines the freedom of saying whatever you want knowing people will notice and the privacy that will protect from being humiliated or embarrassed. 

Social Networking Sites

Social Networking is everywhere, obviously it has good and bad sides. Websites like Facebook, Tweeter, vk.com or Linkedin has different uses but having the same basic concept bringing people together. 
      I personally use facebook more often then any other social media website. Every time I get a free minute I go to my phone and check facebook feed. It is kind of addicting and annoying at the same time. Sometimes I hate myself for being on it so often. But there are useful sides to it, I check news through posting of various news portal. Be up to date with lives of my friends. I get a lot of information from facebook, and maybe that's why I am always checking the news feed. 
      Tweeter is actually new to me, it never attracted me for some reason. I understand that there is a ton information floating around on tweeter, and some of it useful. I never had a necessity of using it. However, just like any other popular website it has great implications and uses. It can be a useful tool helping people to get quick answer by just asking everyone who is connected. 
      Russian facebook many people call it, vk.com is Russian social networking website that connects millions of Russian speaking people around the world. Same as facebook, people can upload videos, pictures and even music, and use it as a streaming service without any payments. I get a lot of news and information about what's going on in Russia and surrounding countries. It is useful and also a time wasting.
      Linkedin is a little different then the website above, It is a professional networking site. It is most uses is to people who wants to expand their professional network, learn about companies and potential employers, promote themselves, and/or find jobs. By following companies you are interested in you can learn about policy changes, new business trend and etc. Linkedin has more serious tone, since it is used to connect with current and potential employers. You will not see anyone post about how drunk and crazy they were last weekend.
No matter how different these websites are, they all have the same idea behind it, to let people connect to each other, promote themselves and expand their network be it a professional or personal.