An earlier one of my posts is talking about new media and how it goes hand in hand with creativity.  A couple months ago i actual practiced using youtube for the first time.  I believe my eleven year old niece has an amazing singing voice and i knew my family knew it but I wanted to whole world to know so I took a video and posted it.  And this is it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoDznHMQn1g&feature=share

Creativity

New media fosters creativity in so many ways.  Opposed to sitting at home with a pen and a paper, the new media that's available lets us blog, tweet, you tube, write in color, produce images.  New media has allowed people to produce "mash-ups", an example is included in this article: Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of Its Critters. But Why? The New York Times, September 24, 2007; available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html. 
Bringing together an old movies that most people can relate to the new music from today's world, tell a lot about the creativity that new media has brought to the world.  More possibilities allows more room for imagination, and that is what creativity is all about.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are online communities where people of all different types can do different things they like without actually having to be involved in their own outside community.  Virtual worlds can be used for school projects, learning to be more social, a way to connect to other people online, or even helping business' go through a trial run to know the right decisions they should make.  An example of how business' can be positively inflienced by virtual worlds is including in this following article:
Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, CNN.com: Nov 5, 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html

A con to virtual worlds can be the influence it has on people, this world that is not real can make people think a certain way about a community they may not be completely true.  There is an example of something along these lines in the following article.
"I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, January 6, 2008, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html*

A pro to virtual worlds can be giving people the ability to socialize to learn how to make certain decisions in certain situations.  It can also give people who don't have chance to get out because of their busy schedules a chance to live a little. 

Virtual worlds help foster creativity by allowing people to think outside the box.  By being in front of a computer screen instead of being in the real world environment, people can more easily express themselves.  When a person is more comfortable in the environment he or she chooses to be in their imagination can run further then when they are confined to a specific places especially at work or even school.

I believe their is a lot of potential in the future of virtual worlds.  The amount of scenarios, and places that are included will grow.  More detail, more opportunity will be involved within these worlds.  There will be less limitations. 

Twitter

The way twitter compares to blackboard is that the assignment that is being asked of can still be done.  Although twitter is less demanding.  The fact that the number of characters used is limited, forces students to get their point across much faster.  The way twitter can compare to an in-class discussion that that students can still express their feelings however with twitter you can say whatever is on your mind whenever you want.  The discussion never has to end, if two people feel very strongly about a topic they can continue that conversation while the rest of the class is involved with something else.  Whereas with in-class discussions when the conversation is over and the assignment is ended, that tends to end the discussion all together.  Twitter can be easier for some students who rather not speak in public.  Through twitter those students can forget about how nervous they are or what they are wearing and really focus on the topic that is being spoken about.  I think that technology has helped students in a large amount of ways, especially when broadening their horizons to topics they would have never taken interest to in the past.

Social Networking Sites

After visiting four different social networking sites, I noticed many similarities.  All of these sites ( Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Bloomfire are used to express peoples hobbies, and passions.  In all of these sites I noticed people expressing who they are and what they believe in through pictures, comments, and links.  What I noticed about Bloomfire the most was to me it was the most professional, I noticed a lot of videos as well.  No matter what age, race, or nationality all different people in some circumstances have similar likes and dislikes. When communicating through the web, judgment is less evident then when speaking to someone face to face.  All these sites are very common however based on the persons likings they choose whatever site it is that allows them to express what it is they want to get across to the rest of the world or just to a circle of friends.  

Social Networking

Social networking is used within business' and companies in many ways.  One being allowed them to communicate openly with all different types of people from anywhere.  This allows the company's to understand better what people are looking for and what their like and dislikes are easily.   This is very beneficial because without social networking it would be much harder to reach out and get comments on such large groups of people.  Instead of hiring multiple people to go out on the streets and get feedback, they can save money by having a couple employees managing the networking site.  There is an example of this in this question and answer article:  Social Networking at IBM: Maclean's Feb 4, 2008 "What's Next? Your Future in Social Networking" vol 121, p. 42. http://ibm.rogersconsumerpublishing.com/macleans/downloads/social.pdf. 

A negative side to this would be the loss of face to face conversation.  Getting to actually know the people that the company is communicating with. Another problem could also stem from people trying to sabotage a company and not being completely honest. The article that follows touches this topic a little when considering the face to face confrontations.  Is MySpace Good for Society? A Freakonomics Quorum by Stephen J. Dubner. NYT Feb 15, 2008 http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/is-myspace-good-for-society-a-freakonomics-quorum/

I believe in the future there will be more video interaction, so the people that are voicing their opinion can be seen while doing so.  I also do believe that social networking is an amazing aspect to a lot of modern day business'.  Finding out what makes your buyers, followers, etc. is essential in continuing to be successful.