David Mathew's Blogs

I was able to create an avatar on secondlife.com I was amazed at the creativity capabilities on this website. Attached below will be an avatar I made. I even got a horse to ride on to get me to places quicker in this virtual world. :)

Advancements in new media has fostered creativity over the past decade. In the article "Creators, Audiences, and the New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment" the author says "the need to create art requires humans at every stage to utilize the technology to express information" (Pg 47). Technology has been growing over the past years and this growth has resulted in new forms and new possibilities of communication. One example of this seen prominent today is through personal video blogs (vlogs). Creators of vlogs are able to post videos of their daily life but also include interesting content that catch and keep the attention of viewers. To listen to an individual talk for a certain period of time may be difficult but creators, through the use of new media technology, are able to insert various creative forms of art into their videos to impress viewers. Many years ago this was not possible but now new media has engendered creativity to up-incoming 'cr...

Virtual worlds are changing the technology environment at a rapid rate. Our reality is also being shaped by the use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds can be used as classrooms, conference facilities, field trips, gaming, exploration hubs, etc. There are many pros and cons to this. The pros are that they make life so much more convenient. In the article "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life", Dave Itzkoff talks about his experience of going to a music club to listen to a band and not being able to stay because of the amount of people and the smell inside the club. So he went home, turned on his computer and went to the same club, but this time virtually. Talk about convenience! Here, Dave was able to enjoy through a virtual world. Now although this is a pro, this can also be seen as a con. The con is that he loses real-life interactions with human beings. It no longer feels real anymore. And personally, I would probably go insane with no human interactions.  Anoth...

Twitter discussions is different than Blackboard discussions because of the convenience twitter offers users to upload and read information at a quick pace. Twitter has an easy interface to use and this results in more interactions among friends and even strangers you don't know. Twitter discussions are open to the world if you are public, versus Blackboard discussions which are limited to your class.  Twitter in comparison to in-class discussions is totally different simply because you are behind a screen. You lose the face to face interactions which makes things less personal. For me, I am not a big fan of that. Also since twitter is on the internet, information can be checked, double checked and triple checked. In-class discussions do not offer that.  To compare these, all three discussions are ways to interact. And this is important. Hearing and learning from the view point of others help grow your knowledge a lot! 

My impressions on: Facebook: THERE ARE SO MANY ADS. The first thing I notice when I log on to Facebook is the amount of ads. When I watch a video, the first thing that pops up is not the video but rather the ads. This can be frustrating at times. Moreover, I realize that Facebook targets an older age group than college students. I use Facebook to stay in touch with all my uncles and aunts so for this purpose I enjoy it! Twitter: I find it so interesting to read peoples' tweets. You can understand someone's day by their tweets/retweets. There is so much interactions going on, on twitter. Everytime I refresh, something new comes up and it goes to show how many people are using twitter! Although it is not an in person interaction but real-time conversations are still able to take place! Instagram: This by-far my favorite social networking site. I love seeing pictures. People are so creative and fancy and its amazing to see! I find myself being on Instagram for hours. This pl...

Social Networking has revolutionized the media world and it shows no sign of slowing down. Everyday new improvements are being made to enhance the social networking world. People prefer convenience and the convenience of social networking is what has made it so popular. Social Networking can be used in many ways but one way is through job recruitment. In the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", Frank Langfitt mentions how LinkedIn has served as a platform to connect thousands of professionals together. Through LinkedIn, professionals are able to stay connected and have the freedom to explore opportunities.  I would say the dark side to Social Networking, specifically Facebook, is the privacy feature. In the article "Facebook Privacy is so Confusing even the Zuckerberg family photo isn't private", Rebecca Greenfield talks about how outsiders were able to retrieve personal information from Randi Zuckerberg. The issue was that Randi...

Blogs are a platform for an individual to share their personal news. It is also a platform to exchange views/perspectives amongst viewers so that it becomes a two way street. A community of bloggers can inspire and motivate each other through interactions. A Wiki is a collaborative platform where users can edit, delete or update content of other users. Shared content in wikis' are constantly changing but it is the best way to get work done together. In the article, "More on How to Build Your Own Wikipedia", Margret Locher talks about how wikis' make it easier to gather and share information as well as record discussions about a subject. This has become a valuable tool for managers in business to collaborate with employees. Furthermore, in the article, "Brooklyn Blogs Helps Lead to Drug Raid" by Michael Wilson, shows how blogging was used as a form of collaboration among neighbors to crack down on a suspicious drug dealing home. Because of the blogs of vari...