Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds can be used for different purposes, one purpose can be for commercial gaming worlds where in this world the main focus is in a fictional theme where they follow conventions such as character based avatars and competitive events. This world is strongly influenced by fantasy, science fictions, film and literature. Another purpose for virtual worlds is to social and build an online community. In this world people are less focused on gaming but more focused on open ended experiences and small chat rooms.  Here the people involved are less worried about winning a game but instead more interested in socializing with others and creating their space. Companies also use virtual worlds to their advantage as explained in “Going to the virtual office in Second Life” where companies let employees create their own avatars in order to have virtual meetings instead of having to meet in person.  Last but not least some virtual worlds are used for educational purposes. These worlds can be sponsored by an academic institution or nonprofit organization where they have 3D museums and gallery spaces, computer programming and even libraries.

There are some pros and cons. Let’s begin with the pros…virtual worlds offers new experiences for people. In virtual worlds people can walk into buildings and be a part of different activities. They can create their own space whether that is their own home or museum or any place, and they can decorate it as they please. The article” iReport: 'Naughty Auties' battle autism with virtual interaction” describes David a 22 year old who created his own personal home in and an avatar character. Here David meets new people and finds it simple because he is still at home and doesn’t have to travel to do so, only thing he has to do is join his virtual world and interact with others.  Another pro is the interaction people have with the new people they meet there. They can decorate their own home as they please and bring others to come and get a sense of the ambiance, and experiences they have when they come into someone else’s virtual world. Unfortunately, there are also some cons to virtual worlds. A major con can be psychological effects virtual worlds may bring because some people might make this their own reality. Some people might be afraid to do certain things out in the real world and they instead perform it in virtual worlds and satisfy their emptiness.  Another con can be people that create their own space and make it into a not so good environment; Environments where in the real world they would be in trouble for.

Virtual worlds do foster creativity because people are inspired to create their own personal spaces as they please, and decorate it how they want, and add the colors and textures they want. They can be as creative as they want since it is their own personal space, and no one can judge it or not allow it. People a part of virtual worlds feel inspired to create things straight from their imagination. And as far as the future for virtual worlds I think more and more people and companies will engage in virtual world activities because of freedom and creativity it allows.

Blog About Twitter

A twitter discussion is similar to a blog discussion in the sense that you can see a person’s comment and reply to it, but on blackboard it is way more complicated. A blog discussion on twitter is an simple as logging in and reading all the tweets people have posted! You can click reply and you would be able to give your response to the person’s tweet. And at the same time on your page you can view all the tweets you have written and all the retweets you have written, which makes it a lot more convenient than a blackboard discussion through threads. When it comes to an in-class discussion, twitter is very similar to them because in both you can go back and forth extremely fast. The only difference is that when you reply to a tweet you have a certain number of words you can reply at once, so you might have to have many tweets instead. In an online class room going back and forth and saying what you want to say is very possible. Nonetheless, twitter discussions are very similar to in class discussions and blackboard thread discussions. But of course I would say many of us would prefer a tweet!

Social Networking Sites

WOW, now I realize how many social networking sites we have in our society! It’s amazing how many we actually have! The oldest one I can remember was sconex, this was a site for high school students who were able to communicate and leave comments on each other’s pages. It was similar to MySpace, but for sconex you had to say what high school you went to; similar to Facebook where we can write what college we go to. Sconex was discontinued, I’m not sure why but I was a bit disappointed they discontinued it.

The next page I had was MySpace. MySpace (back in the day) was the coolest thing ever, why? Because we were able to change our page layouts! And add songs to our page! Or put pictures of us on our pages and most important have a number of top friends! I remember being a number one someone’s MySpace page was the coolest feeling ever. Then of course, it went downhill. Now the impression I get of myspace is that it is very uncool and only very young kids still keep MySpace pages. It’s not popular anymore, no one sends messages or comments through MySpace, which is why I deactivated my myspace page a while ago.

The next social networking site I signed up for was Facebook, my first impression of Facebook was that it was more for college people,  since I had the mindset that MySpace was for high schoolers and the younger crowd. I thought of Facebook as the more mature audience, with no colorful layouts, and no song on the page. Now I understand that everyone has a Facebook account, including my 13 year old brother! Facebook in my opinion is THE social networking site, the best one for the moment.

Finally, I have recently created a twitter account, which I must say I was so confused about. I’m learning to adapt to the twitter environment, and I know that the more friends I have on it or “followers” the more fun it would be since people can go back and forth retweeting and replying to tweets. My first impression was that it was hard and definitely a more mature audience than Facebook but it can be just as fun!

Social Networking

In today’s society, corporations without a doubt use technology such as social networks to their advantage.  One example can be found in the article “social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting where Langfitt explains how professional recruiters have started hunting for job candidates via MySpace and Facebook.  She claims social networking technology is the best thing that has happened to recruiting. Not only does Facebook help recruiting but it also helps advertisement. Many corporations have a Facebook page where they explain a little of their corporation, and its location and a bit of the history. This is an advantage to corporations and society itself because Facebook can serve as a means of information for people who might have questions. Another benefit of social networks for society is that it allows for information to be spread easier. For instance if you want to create awareness about a new event you’re having, or a new project you are working on,  by having friends and friends of friends on these social networks, you can spread information much quicker. You can tweet stuff so that people can immediately post back or you can update your Facebook status and receive comments immediately. In a way, social networking is helping our society unite because we can all interact easily, and come together no matter where we are whether it’s at work or class and share our comments and opinions.

Unfortunately, there is a “dark side” to social networks, and the number disadvantage would be loss of privacy. Since there are so many people on these social networking sites, our information can be exposed to those who we don’t want to share it with. We have to be careful with what we put in our personal section on Facebook and we have to be careful about our tweets, we don’t want predators to know exactly where we are all day. Too much information can be dangerous. In the article “Who Cares About Facebook Privacy? Students Do” it talks about students that care more and more everyday about setting up their security settings on Facebook.  Between 2009 and 2010, the security settings on Facebook has increased significantly and this shows how important it is for us to know our information is being secured.

In the future I definitely believe we will continue to use these social networks. They will probably expand more in the sense that more and more people, corporations and business will continue to create twitter and Facebook pages, and etc. The number one issue I see coming is privacy.  Facebook now has issues with privacy because our information is being used as Ads, and not the information we provide about ourselves is also not secure enough. It might become easier for hackers to hack our pages, and create more danger to our society.