Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality is one of the most important things to people nowadays because of their high use of New Media. Identity theft is a serious problem in today's world. Everybody remembers those commercials with a sweet old lady sitting in a chair and instead of her talking, you hear the deep voice of a man talking about the awesome truck he just bought. Unfortunately, that represents something that happens everyday. Almost every site we use requires a username and a password in order to protect our information. However, most people have trouble remembering these passwords so they use something like PASS123 as a password. This is one of the most common passwords in the world and as a result people have fallen victim to countless amounts of criminals. Also in our highly connected world, we try to retain as much privacy as possible while still trying to keep up with our friends. This is why many users of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to private. But this isn't enough. One still needs to have secure online connection, virus-free computers, and good passwords to retain their privacy.

Advice to Baruch College

My advice for Baruch is to actually use the New Media resources that are available. While some professors use blogs, YouTube, etc. to teach and reach their students, most still don't. I have had numerous professors who haven't even touched the computer that's three feet away from them a single time for all 5 months of class. How can you teach Physics and not show some of the concepts visually? How can you teach WW2 history without showing a clip from the battles? I can go on forever. I've even had several professors that haven't used BlackBoard a SINGLE time? What is the point of having all of these resources that the school spends thousands of dollars on if you aren't using them. I understand some professors don't use these resources simply because they don't know how to. There's a solution to that as well. TRAIN THEM!!! It's time Baruch not just recommend that professors use these tools, but requires it and ENFORCES it. It's great that we have these expensive new laser projectors in each room, but now it's time to make sure they're put to use. Some things just can't be taught through words. WE DEMAND VISUALS! Not only will this get people to pay attention, but it well help students learn, get better grades, and will make the learning process a much more pleasant experience for all.

Twitter: Discussion

What a terrible site!!!! If it wasn't for this class, I would never use Twitter. I'm stumped at why it's so popular. The discussion is akward, weird, and not really a discussion. It sort of just screaming something out on a packed train and hoping someone hears. A blackboard discussion is better because you can easy go back and forth between one another and everything about the discussion is structured in ONE place. However, an in-class discussion is definitely the best type of discussion. When it's in-class, there's no wait time for somebody to respond. It's quicker and more detailed. There's something about talking in person that no technology can ever replace. But this is just my opinion. =)

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds have many different purposes these days and people are coming up with more and more ideas for them. Virtual worlds is a similar concept as the game ESims, but with a lot more customization and reality. A lot of people use virtual worlds as an escape from the real one. While somebody who is a librarian in the real world, that same person could be a tattoo artist in the virtual one. While some escape their problems, others try to solve their problems through virtual worlds. The CNN ireport, iReport: 'Naughty Auties' Battle Autism with Virtual Interaction, tells how a virtual world built specifically for people with autism. Autism is a disorder that makes social interaction difficult, but through the virtual world people are eased into interaction by the fact that it's not in-person. While these show that it can be a good tool for getting rid of daily stress and helping with disorder, virtual worlds can also have down sides. Virtual worlds can become addictions to some people. Just like drug and alcohol addicts, some people get so hooked they need to be on it. They refuse to return to real world. Another dark side is that there are a lot of illegal activity going on through virtual worlds. People are constantly being scammed and become victims of identity theft, while some fall victim to harassment in the one place they hope it wouldn't exist. Virtual worlds inspire creativity because people choose how they look, what they do, and more. The entire experience is based on their creative minds. I think future virtual worlds will actually become more realistic. They will have better graphics and have more things you can do in the real world. However, they will still be very unique and retain their ability for people to escape the real world.

Social Networking

Social networking sites have a lot more uses than simply keeping up with somebody you haven't seen in 10 years. As mentioned in the NY Times article, "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power", these sites can build campaigns for the politicians that are smart enough to use them. During the 2008 presidential elections, Barrack Obama was everywhere on Facebook. There were hundreds of groups dedicated to promoting him. Companies love social networking sites for several reason, the biggest one being the fact that it's the easiest way to reach millions of people. Anyone that uses Facebook or MySpace knows this because there are ads on every side of these sites. On Facebook, you can now become a fan of Coca-Cola, which sends a notification to all of your friends that you have become their fan. In other words, you just promoted the brand for absolutely no cost to them. Companies are also creating their own social networking sites such as the case with Nissan in "Why Is Nissan Mimicking MySpace?" This is a cheap and efficient way to build moral in the company and help bring ideas from everybody to the table. Another way companies use these sites is to check up on their potential and current employees. Everybody has heard of a story of how someone didn't get the job they wanted because the recruiter saw a picture on their profile of them smoking marijuana or someone getting fired because they called in sick and then their boss went on their profile and saw pictures from last night's crazy party. This would probably the dark side of these sites. Another dark side, is there are a lot of sexual abuse on these sites. MySpace is notorious for having people pose as somebody else by creating fake profiles and hitting on 15 year olds. I think social networking sites still have a lot of untapped potential for the future. I think a great way they can evolve is by combining themselves with retailers or auctioning sites, bringing a new way of shopping and promoting products to consumers.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are probably one of the most popular past time activities found on the internet. There are hundreds of millions of users. The three biggest ones would have to be Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster. Another very popular social networking sites is Google's Orkut, which according to Wikipedia, has 90 million users. Facebook is the most popular one simply because it is very user friendly. It's very easy for first time users to navigate through the site. Facebook is build more on the notion of keeping up with all of your friends. As soon as a friend post something or comments on something, it is seen on your news feed. The ability to maintain relationships with people you haven't seen from the past, helped Facebook gain a lot of older users that other social networking sites didn't have. MySpace gained its popularity due to its easy navigation and complete customization. Nowadays it's all about individuality, so the ability to customize EVERYTHING about your profile made it extremely popular with teens. Also MySpace has a huge focus on the entertainment industry. Many artists post their new songs on the site, film studios post trailers of upcoming movies, and more. Friedster focuses a lot more on the relationship between you and your friends. Besides the classifieds section, which to my surprise was very impressive in size, Friendster doesn't offer anything else. Orkut is a typical Google site. It's easy to use and for those with a google account, easy to sign up for. Orkut is more of GChat addition. While you still have your typical profile where you can post pictures, videos, and status updates, the chat side of the site takes a lot of emphasis. So while all four have their own benefits, it all depends on what the individual is looking for to choose the social networking site that is right for them.