Blog: Modeling Reality With Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are definitely interesting. New York Times says, “In most virtual worlds, memberships are free, but players trade real money for virtual currencies, used to buy products, save up in an account or eventually redeem for real money”. People are finding themselves spending a lot more money virtually, indulging in their favorite luxurious brands. On the plus side, shoppers have significantly cut their spending in the real world. In the Forbes article, they explain an interesting fact that virtual worlds can help bring people together. They feel isolated on their own, but in this world they won’t be fully alone, they are still connected to others. So far, there are about 2 billion accounts in around 100 virtual worlds, which certainly connects many people.
Virtual worlds foster creativity by bringing people together and allowing them to engage in activities they wouldn’t in the real world.I think virtual worlds will increase in the future, but I cant see them exponentially expanding. There is only so much people can do on them, ofcourse for the shopping addict they are great, but there needs to be more variety. I think they will look like our reality, with more color and enhanced features.

 

Social Networking Sites

Facebook is clearly very popular, whether we like it or not. Personally, I get tired of it, I like it because it keeps me updated with things, but I dislike it because the "Facebook World" is not everything. It is great that its probably the best way to keep in touch with former friends, collegues, or just people that you do not see everyday but still care about.
Twitter, is more of an instant site. It is mainly for updating current statuses and following others, to see what they are thinking or up to. It is great for clicking on hashtags and finding your interests on the web.
Linked-In is becoming more and more popular. It is vital in order to get a job in the business world for some companies. It is a way to post your job experience, personal interests, and mainly build your network. Building a network is vital in order to get a job. It is great to be able to connect with others from the same company, industry, field, college, etc.
Pinterest is another great site, a little different than the 3 listed above. It is more for hobbies and interests. It has everything on there from recipies, healthy eating tips, fashion, home decor ideas, workout tips, etc. It can be very addicting for people, once they get into "pinnning" ideas, it is hard to stop. The way it works is you "pin" something that you find interesting or wish to keep as a reference. I got into Pintrest a little while ago when I wanted to redecorate my room. It was extremely helpful and got great ideas from it. It can be time consuming since it is so hard to stop.

Blog About Twitter

Twitter and Blackboard are similar in the way that they encourage people to post their opinions and views. Twitter has a character limit of 140, which does not allow that much room for opinion and detail. Blackboard however, makes it a lot easier to open up the discussions with the unlimited amount of characters. Twitter is very useful with the hashtags, that allow you to look up what you are interested in by category or word. It is a simple way to find similar interests with others. Blackboard is great, but it is very in-depth and might be very wordy depending on what people wish to express.
In-Class-Discussions allows students to feed off of eachothers opinions and get a better sense of their perspectives. However, they might be time sensitive, and some people might not like to share out loud to the class. Twitter and Blackboard allow you to think of your thoughts prior, write what you have to say, read it, and then post it for people to see.
All in all, Twitter, Blackboard, and In-Class Discussions are great ways of communicating. Twitter is the most up and coming, Blackboard is more educational, and In-Class Discussions should be regulated, or may become far off topic/run out of time.

Blog: Social Net'g

Social Networking can be used in a positive way. In the corporate world, it can be very beneficial to use sites like Linked-In, where it helps form connections with people, which is what the corporate world is all about. It widens peoples networks tremendously, and may even help people get jobs. As seen in the NPR article, "Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", Linkedin is a good way to see more about someone. However, there is a dark side to social networking. Sometimes it may display too much content that not everybody is meant to see. Sites like Facebook and Twitter should be a little more discrete to the public eye, because once something is on the internet, it is there forever. I do not believe that it is all bad, but I just know that it is very important to be careful about what is posted. It can help if used in the proper way, but with caution. In the article, "Is Myspace good for society? A freakonomics Quorum", it explains that even though we are networking to "friends" that we dont even know, it is a way to keep smaller ties with people and serve as learning tools, because they have information that we would not read about in the news. 

Blog Vs. Wiki

Blogs and Wikis are similar in the fact that they both have peoples opinions. Blogs are usually created by one author, whereas wikis have multiple people commenting their varying opinions. Wikis tend to grow faster than blogs just because they have a lot more sources and comments. Comments on a blog must be approved by the author, but anyone can say whatever they want on a wiki. 

Blogs can be very helpful in solving unseen mysteries. As seen in the New York Times, a blog helped lead to a drug raid. Additionally, blogs helped obtain information about Afganastan in 2009, which was extremely helpful (NY Times). They are a great way to keep us updated about the current news in a more interesting format than just watching it on television.