Creativity and New Media : My Twitch Channel!

While it isn't as artistic as making music or a thought-provoking analysis video on YouTube, for the past year I've been a streamer on Twitch! Every weekend, I broadcast my gameplay out for anyone to see. Sometimes I'm doing specific things in certain games or just going with the flow goofing off with my friends. Surprisingly enough, people tune in, watch, and everyone chills out and interact. I am even happy to say I even have subscribers and have made some money off of my favorite hobby. I love it when a decent amount of people show up and either discuss the game, life or just being humorous. My channel becomes a little hangout for people based on what I'm doing. I also post clips and highlights on my channel and even share them on Reddit sometimes as a meme.

My Twitch channel (may or may not be a shameless plug): https://www.twitch.tv/box_buddy/

Creativity

In this digital age, new media allows anyone and everyone to be creative. Moreso today, where applications and tech have evolved, anyone with their phone or computer can produce professional-level content. Making short films, song mashups, modding games, user-generated content has slowly become commonplace on the internet. This is true with music mashups. In the New Yorker article, DJ Reset mashed up Beck and samples from Jay-Z and making a viral song out of it. Another DJ, Danger Mouse, made a mashup of The Black Album and the Beatles White Album making "The Grey Album" which also became massively popular as well.

My favorite line in the article is "You don't need a record label, because it's your bedroom, and you don't need a recording studio, because that's your computer. You do it all yourself." This is very true now more than ever, ordinary people have the means to become big or their little projects to become big. From sourcing samples to publishing, the internet provides a very large pool of content for people to work with.


Work Cited: The New Math of Mashups from The New Yorker Magazine 2005. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/01/10/050110crmu_music or here 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 - The New Yorker.pdf (below)

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used in both educational and leisurely ways. While things like second life were seen as a gimmick, the potential of virtual worlds were proven. Especially so with worlds with other people, it allows a level of social interaction that may otherwise not be doable. People with autism such as the story of David Savill and naughty auties are able to engage and be more comfortable with social interactions with others. In terms of work or education, virtual worlds allow a safe but enhancing experience to get better. Virtual worlds are also able to create recreations of real places, a sort of virtual tourism and emulate real hangouts such as with the VLES (Virtual lower east side)

Virtual worlds are also able to foster creativity, games like minecraft allow individuals to change, build, and conceptualize things that would be much harder to achieve in the real world. However, these worlds are limited in terms of their scope and what is believable. Despite things such as vr headsets and better processing and rendering technology, it still isn't at the level of replicating finer details and nuances. In the future, virtual worlds can be more widespread, easily accessible, and can be almost indistinguishable to the real world. We're already seeing augmented reality where the two almost mesh together.

Personally, I am very much into sim racing, where realistic car models, physics and my own setup creates a realistic enough experience of racing without having to spend an absurd amount of money. I have also experienced virtual worlds within the app vr chat. While I've had interactions and talks with people over the virtual space before, it's somewhat surreal knowing peoples movements are their own and not just an animation.

Works Cited:
After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/ or Below.

Ireport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction by Nicole Saidi, CNN, March 28, 2008. available from:http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/28/sl.autism.irpt/index.html#cnnSTC

"I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, January 6, 2008, available 
athttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html 

Twitter

Compared with Blackboard, Twitter is more open, more casual, and quick to respond to. Since tweets are supposed to be short, it makes people say their main point. Another benefit is in the different ways people can respond, either simply liking a post or retweeting. The biggest part is that it allows those not very confident in speaking to "speak" their mind. 

That does not mean Blackboard has its own advantages. Discussions on Blackboard are far better organized since they are contained within your class, showing threads, the number of replies, total posts, etc. Threads also show replies in chronological order and not necessarily the most liked replies. Since it is on a more educational basis, it's really focused on what you can write. Unlike Twitter, there is no tight character limit so people can be as in-depth as they want. 

In class discussions, while they can be very effective, they can also just go sideways. Many times in class discussions, only a select vocal few contribute and things can get heated where the original point of discussion is lost. Not only that but they're hard to record too. I've had great whole in-class discussions but they are so few far and between. 

Social Networking Sites

Over the past few days, I've looked at 4 different social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn. Admittedly, I only use Facebook and Reddit constantly, LinkedIn sparingly, and I am relatively new to Twitter.

Facebook is more or less the standard for social networking sites. Personally, it was the first social networking site I've used. Its website (and mobile app) are easy to use and understand though the sidebar has a fairly large amount of different things such as for videos, buying and selling, events, groups, and even some games. The main feed is filled either with pictures, news articles, videos and status' from friends, family, and related interests based on what the user likes. Posts are mostly done in chronological order with older posts the further you look.

LinkedIn at face value is very similar to Facebook but with a twist. In general, LinkedIn is focused towards a more mature, business oriented attitude and user base. It is a place to apply for jobs, network with others in your line of work and show an individual as they are in the workplace. Unlike the other three, LinkedIn is much more formal with status' being updates to companies, celebrating work anniversaries, and interests based on the user's work skills. Like Facebook, the feed is mostly in chronological order.

Reddit is interesting in that the content you receive is based around what pages you follow, also known as subreddits. These subreddits can be based on interests, games, books, people, ideology, memes, etc. Content can range anywhere from videos, art/pictures, discussions, or even asking for advice. A key difference in Reddit is the "karma" system where people can up or down vote what you post either to support or condemn it. The system also links with what you see as, by default, high karma posts are shown at first.

Twitter is the most simplified of the group. It uses a follower system and content is usually short clips, pictures, and of course, tweets. Since it is limited to 280 characters, many posts are short, sweet, and to the point. Some tweets are simple status updates or sharing something with their followers or someone, others are to promote ideas or discussion. Twitter's key difference is in really using the hashtag system where people can either see related content or find your posts.

I see Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter as more casual social networking where a user can express themselves and share their life, LinkedIn is where a user can show themselves in a way for opportunities. Reddit and Twitter I find I could share with like-minded people where as Facebook is for people I know in real life. Facebook can connect a user to people they know or new people though others, LinkedIn connects a user to their work/professional interests, and Reddit and Twitter connects a user to communities based on their interests. Either way, they all connect users in ways not possible just a few decades ago.

Social Networking

Social networking has become a very effective and widespread technology, with networking sites having billion-dollar valuations and hundreds of millions of users. Since the beginning, social networking sites have enabled millions to connect with one another in ways unheard of in previous decades. Whether it be in long lost friends, neighbors, or even new people, the possibility to connect has always been its greatest benefit. For companies small and large, it allows a direct connection to customers and their networks as well, generating increased attention. Lastly, for consumers, social networks allow for more power in checking shady business practices or poor service that normally would be unknown.

However, this increased accessibility does have it's drawbacks. One thing I notice with people is how they don't realize how accessible their data is. Despite things, such as privacy filters, websites like facebook are privately owned and have the potential to use our data how they see fit. In addition, these privacy rules get confusing and can lead to closely-held pictures or posts out and about in public. Ironically, this was the case with Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi and her holiday photos which ended up being shared through various channels. Not only that but also other malicious acts can be done with this info. Simple info can be used by scammers, such as ones on facebook marketplace, portraying themselves as neighbors in the area and misusing that trust for profit.

In the future, I hope that social networking tech and websites could be more secure and simpler in telling what can and can't be shared. I hope that the data can't be misused as easily as it can today. Lastly, I also hope that the people using them be more proactive in their privacy rights and thankfully in a study from ten years ago, 18-19 year-olds then were engaged with these settings.

Readings cited:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/320164/
https://www.nbc-2.com/story/38062070/nbc2-investigators-multi-million-dollar-scam-being-used-on-facebook
https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/who-cares-about-facebook-privacy-students-do/25877