The next new thing

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, they suggest this idea of a company advertising something on television and being able to grab it and try it out for yourself.  In the movie, the commercial was advertising chocolate and the boy reached out into the TV and grabbed it and was able to eat it.  Although I think something like this is impossible, it could be really revolutionary.  Think about it, you’re sitting at home and a beer company advertises a new brew of their beer, it looks good but you don’t want to go to the store to buy something you might not even like.  Before making your decision to go to the store and buy it, you can reach out and grab a sample cup from your TV and make your decision from there.  It would be great for both consumers and producers.  This would also be the start of a type of teleportation.  People always think about teleportation as teleporting themselves from one place to another, but it can be used for so many other things.  Instead of ordering food and waiting for the delivery person to come, imagine you order food and as soon as it is done they teleport it right to you while it’s still fresh and hot!

Wiki so far

I have yet to contribute to our Wiki page but I do have plans/an idea on what I will be contributing.  I plan to contribute to the automotive section.  I decided this before I even looked at the Wiki page because I saw we could write about one of our hobbies.  I then clicked on the Wiki page and saw there was already an “automotive” category so I can contribute something I know which is a lot.  There wasn’t much under that category so I want to contribute a large chunk of what I know, while also doing research and adding stuff I didn’t know.  I also plan on going through the other categories and editing/adding things to things I might know about.

P2P file sharing

File sharing is something that I partake in almost everyday.  Thanks to file sharing things like music, movies, class notes, applications etc become very easy accessible.  File sharing is basically public or private sharing of computer data or space.  There are many examples of such things, YouTube, thepiratebay, utorrent etc.  Some are done legally while others are done illegally.  Peer to peer file sharing, or P2P sharing, is defined as computer systems that communicate to each other through a network without passing through a central server, each computer on the network communicates with each other's computer.  Basically everyone who is connecting has the same power as everyone else.  The Internet as a whole is technically an example of p2p sharing, other examples would be Skype, Omegle, Kazaa, etc.  A lot of people see P2P as a bad thing because it stops big companies from making money.  According to the New York Times, “the American industry says accounts for the loss of 20 billion dollars in a year of sales thanks to p2p.”

Privacy

Privacy and confidentiality are a very real problem in todays new media. Because the internet is so accessible to everyone, young teens and preteens have access to these new media sites; and because these kids are so young they’re putting all their information out there for everyone to see. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all give you the option to show your location, making you easily traceable. There have been many cases of break-ins to houses because someone who has looked at their online profile knows the owners are on vacations, and other cases of stalking, kidnapping and assault. Although these platforms are a great way to express yourself and feel connected, there is a responsibility that comes with what you put out there.  Not to mention Facebooks feature of checking in, sometimes Facebook will "check you in" without giving you a notification and give away your location.  This posses as a huge problem and makes a lot of users feel uncomfortable. 

Advice

If hired by Baruch College to improve the college’s use of new media, one of my first suggestions would be to create an online friendly and interactive profile. With social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, it’s become a lot easier to stay connected to people. I would suggest closely looking over the content of your posts - if what your projecting comes off to harsh/strict, if the quality of an image is dull, etc. For instance, Twitter is a place for short and to the point “microblogs” called tweets. Each tweet you send out can be retweeted and favorited by anyone that views it. So if Baruch sent out a tweet about finals or admissions or something of that nature, adding an emoji, a pun, or a joke would get more of a response from the youth of today than from a more to the point tweet. With Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, you also have the opportunity to hear feedback from anyone who visits your page.

Creativity

How can we foster creativity through new media? With access to millions of links and pictures at our fingertips is it hard to be creative? Right in front of our eyes everyday, on multiple screens, we see thousands of flashes of different images. So if we’re watching, scrolling, and swiping all day, is it so hard to find something original? Well according to the New York Times, no it’s not. In a 2007 article, Nickelodeon spokesman Dan Martinsen says, “Our audiences can creatively mash video from our content as much and as often as they like”; referencing the recent pop music mash-up video of the popular kids television show, SpongeBob Squarepants and rapper Soulja Boy’s, “Crank That”. “The postings (called mash-ups) are made by editing together snippets of animated movies and TV shows. The finished products look like music videos in which the cartoon characters do the singing.” – Brooks Barnes (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24crank.html). Since the 2007 article came out, there’s been an outpour of newer content and phone apps that let you use that creativity. Some examples; Vine, a smartphone app which features 7 second clips created by the user, mostly for funny and quirky content. Instagram, another smartphone app, let’s you uploads 15 second video clips and photographs taken by the user. As the newer media expands and grows larger, so does our curiosity and our need to be apart of things. We use these creative outlets to feel relevant and show the world the parts of us we want them to see. So, I feel if anything the newer media has given us that stepping stone to see others creativity and to become more creative.