New Form of Social Media

One form of new media that would exist could be an interactive storytelling mechanism which would be truly robust.  Whether based on complicated AI and simulations or based off of aggregated responses of lots of users/players, there would be a scenario created that players would then create events of their own design, rather then the common pre-chosen menu, to create a new situation.  There would then be responses from simulated characters who would advance the story, again within a robust rule set as created by the designers of this new form of media

Class Wiki Progress

I have yet to contribute to the class wiki as I have been incredibly sick this semester and am trying my best to keep up with assignments.  For the remainder of the semester though, I hope to add some interesting material on social media that I come across.

File Sharing

1.  File sharing is often viewed as when a view is made accessible from within a set 'network' that others then have access too.  It can be something posted online or accessed through the internet.

 2.  P2P file sharing stands for peer-to-peer file sharing which became to be known during the days of Napster and Morpheus.  The way it worked was a user could "share" a file, be it a movie, song, anything really.  You would then be able to download the song through the client and have it on your own computer.  It was deemed highly illegal and the source of numerous lawsuits.

3.  The most recent edition to the P2P file sharing area seems to be the "torrent" (Thompson 2005).  The way a torrent works is you find a file you'd like to download from a site such as PIrateBay which then is downloaded to a downloading client such as Transmission.  Transmission then parcels together thousands of pieces from thousands of users in order to re-create the file.  It's very similar to the Napster and Limewire of old except much harder to track down due to the way it downloads thousands of pieces from thousands of users rather then Napster which was strictly from one person to another.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality are often the first critiques pundits use when debating social media sites.  The internet is a scary place and with the recent celebrity phone hacking, there has never been more attention on privacy not just within social media but across the internet.  Each new social media service generally now offers users extremely customizable settings that fit the user’s own criteria for privacy and confidentiality.  On my Facebook account for example, I have it set up so that only my friends can view my photos.  I’m old-fashioned in the sense that I believe less is more when it comes to my usage of social media.  I don’t put out anything private, I don’t have any remotely scandalous photos but at the same time, I think what is considered “scandalous” has become an incredibly grey area.  Another interesting aspect to privacy and confidentiality are in the new social media “dating” applications such as Tinder or Hinge.  Both of which try to connect you to people who both parties want to match with and then are able to converse through a proprietary messaging platform within the application.  As the user’s populations for these applications swell, so do the complaints of harassment, often of sexual nature.  Social media is a dangerous world and one must take every precaution in order to maintain their privacy when it seems so vulnerable in this tech age

Baruch New Media Advice

If Baruch hired me to improve new media use at the school, my first idea would be to make a more efficient and quick way to communicate with classmates.  Blackboard makes it simple enough to email the class roster but a messaging client similar to that used in Facebook would be very useful. I would also heavily recommend that all classes switch to the dynamic syllabus class model used in this class.  This class is by far the most comprehensive in terms of viewing what we have to do, when we have to do it, and how to do it.  It really greatly enhances and improves upon the incredibly dull and antiquated version of a printed lifeless syllabus often handed out in the beginning of the semester.  Going back to the idea of a messenger client, I think a social network of sorts for each class could be fantastic.  At a school like Baruch, we are often running from place to place and don’t really have time to connect with fellow classmates.  Being able to socialize through a class-specific network could be an interesting idea.

New Media

In my view, one of the coolest parts about social media is the way that we can update old content and comment on it. Everything from Star Trek to Star Wars to G.I. Joe has been nitpicked endlessly on the Internet decades after those shows stopped their original run. It’s possible for people to make all sorts of content that pairs continuities or comments on what was always charming. The classic Star Trek had a lot of episodes that were fairly silly in their basis. “Roman planet”, “mobster planet”, “Nazi planet”… 60s and 70s sci-fi was willing to explore a silly premise if it meant commenting on an interesting or fun idea. The consequence, though, was that The Original Series only had a few episodes where it really felt like they were actually meeting new civilizations. I decided to make a play off of that concept. This kind of fandom and commentary often has a lot of sarcasm for things that they love. Just like the old playground wisdom that only I get to say something bad about my Momma, sometimes it’s the fans of a show that are exactly in the position to comment upon and appreciate the flaws.

Creativity

                  Powerful art often comes about as a result of collaboration. New media is almost entirely about collaboration: It facilitates nearly infinite dyads of cooperation, letting people work together in whole new way. YouTube mashups are a primitive example (Barnes, 2007). They let people blend together videos in order to create humorous effects or parodies. This is not new, of course. The Internet has always had such parodies in GIF, Flash or other forms. But what Youtube has allowed is the mass creation with ease of these kinds of mashups. With a simple video editor, one can make all sorts of content. In the future, this content will increase in complexity and artistic value. The present state of the remixed video is likely similar to the very beginnings of moving pictures. The Citizen Kane of YouTube is still probably around the corner.