My New Media Class - So Far

In today's society the technologies that are part of new media are social networking websites, blogs, mashups. The internet is very important to us because it allows us to stay connected with others from anywhere. New media is enchancing old media for example like in Second Life which is in the article 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi which explains how Second Life helps kids with autism to act in the real world. That is new media in today's society.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds play a role in today's society. Both in our business lives and personal as well. In the article IBM's Virtual World for its Employees: IBM Learning Programs Get a 'Second Life' by Ed Frauenheim which tells how IBM employees under go training to learn how to do their job correctly through the virtual world of Second Life. Also in the article iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi tells us about kids with autism and how the world of Second Life helps them learn how to interact with people in the real world. The benefits of a virtual world is that you can try again and don't have to worry about messing up like in the real world like in both articles the employees and of IBM and the kids with autism get a second chance to learn and fix the mistakes that they did in the virtual world like Second Life. There is a darkside to this though, which is that it is time consuming. I have a feeling that this technology is going to be used in every business that requires training and help people with a mental illness like autism in the future, despite that it would take up time.

Social Networking

Social networking is a good way to help us in our daily lives, as individuals and as corporations also. In corporations they use a social networking site called LinkedIn to recruit people for a job when they are looking hire someone for a certain position. It can be seen in this article called Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting. This article shows how effective a social networking site is in the business world. They also use these sites to keep in touch with other companies like partners or suppliers like in the article What's Next: Your Future in Social Networking.









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.pdfSocial Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting by Frank Langfitt, NPR, March 16, 2008. available from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Social newtworking sites today have a great influence on our culture today, like facebook, myspace, friendster and Hi5. These sites allow us to stay connected with other people like friends, family, and coworkers for example. Friendster was popular in the US before but then when Myspace was being used by more and more people it lost its popularity here. Facebook now being used by mostly everyone in the US today. Hi5 though isn't popular at all over here. I had first heard about it from a friend of mine about two years ago but then after never heard of it again. In other countries thoug it is a popular social networking site. Social networking sites are a way for us to stay connected with people that we have met and others that we will meet later on in the future.