New Media Learner: Omar B.

I really felt bad for my pet chickens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKl1gSDrF5I

One of my favorite things to follow online in Internet culture. It's fun. Give someone a media platform like Youtube or Adobe Premiere, and they'll take it and make their own - People are artists after all; one should never underestimate the power of boredom either. I had the opportunity to read the article of music mashups - an interesting method of artistry for music composition. The article "1+1+1=1" from The New Yorker depicts musician Jeremy Brown, as he experiments with the rhythm, instrumentation, and song beats of a plethora of genres. He was able to mix Indie, classic rock and avant-garde music with contemporary feels of pop and hip-hop. He mixes artists like rap mogul Jay Z with British Invasion phenomenon group the Beatles to create new music. New accessible technologies in music fosters musician creativity and make platforms such as music mashups.

Virtual Worlds are an exciting media medium that can have many real world applications for problems. In the article "'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction", virtual world software Second Life has given people with autism the chance to re-represent themselves. Second Life is a software that acts as a sandbox experience, allowing people to make virtual avatars and interact with an ever changing environment. Communities are being created on these virtual worlds and can attribute to one of virtual's worlds biggest strengths. This strength is immersion, it allows people to experience a new interactive world. Another one of the virtual worlds' pros is unlimited creativity and applications. We are already saw massive virtual worlds such as Second Life, VR Chat  and Minecraft spark massive creative communities. For example, various articles including "Going to the virtual office in Second Life" all hint at Second Life's impact on the r...

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Reddit I chose these 4 as I use these 4 on a daily basis. I fit the trends of most social media usage - I seldom use Facebook, only for connecting with distant relatives and for event confirmations on campus. I don't use Facebook messenger and I don't like reading people's posts because it's either highly political or ads/spam. I don't like Facebook but I keep it in order to have the ability to connect to anyone from my past and present. Facebook in my honest opinion is used for posting pictures, and general conversations on people's walls. I see Facebook as a place for people to fight and argue about meaningless stuff. As for Twitter, I began using it about a couple of months ago. I only follow certain friends and a bunch of global politicians. For me, Twitter is basically the wall portion of Facebook but more focused. It's for companies to be alive and for people to share memes and the newest jokes. Instagram is anoth...

The differences between a Twitter discussion online and a Blackboard Discussion can be broken down to the differences in both Twitter's and Blackboard's purpose of being. BlackBoard is primarily a communication platform between professors and students, where students can supplement their in class environment with an external presence - hence the name "BlackBoard". Twitter is more broad - it is a platform for anyone with a twitter handle to have a voice on global internet conversations. Although BlackBoard is a more intimate environment, Twitter is more direct: everyone has a unique page, with a unique handle picture and background. On top of this, they have a post history that anyone can search. This makes @people ("at"ing people) more personal, it's like two people talking in public. This is the primary difference between the two platforms.

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used? What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific. Is there a "dark side"? Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future. Social networking has been shown to have both positive and negative effects on today's modern cultural landscape.  Thanks to social networking, companies can feel more alive than ever. For example, a company can create a livid community for its customers and personify their firm to increase outreach to consumers. For David Klonke, CEO of Right Hook Branded Merchandise, he created a community to increase his firm's visibility . For us, everyday users the benefits of social networking is apparent on the daily. We are able to rekindle friendships, stay connected instantaneously. There is an inherit dark side with social networking - the invasion of privacy. The invasion of privacy is the biggest threat to o...