New Media Blogging: Nimisha Bindra

     Fitness is one aspect in life that I have started to become really involved in. I believe everyone should treat their bodies with the best care possible and be wary of what we are putting into our bodies. With this in mind, the areas that I chose to first contribute towards in our new media class wiki was under the category of New Media and Fitness. The specific pages I have included content under are "Instagram Fitness" and "Snapchat Fitness." I added paragraphs worth of content explaining the benefits that these social media platforms bring about in terms of helping people get inspired to work on their bodies or even gain more knowledge of what type of exercise routines to partake in depending on what part of the body wants to be worked on. As mentioned in my wiki contribution, many people are not able to afford gym memberships, but Instagram and Snapchat allow users to post their own workouts for others to take advantage of. Famous celebrities and f

     File sharing allows data to be accessed and transmitted from one computer to another. Through the help of file sharing, people are able to work on the same documents or data without having to worry about their physical location or if they can gain computer access. File sharing can occur through various ways. File sharing consists of allowing access to not only documents, but also digital media such as computer programs, multimedia such as images/videos/audio, and electronic books as well. What is great about P2P file sharing is that "it allows users to share files online through a network of software programs." P2P stands for peer-to-peer, and this type of file sharing uses peer-to-peer networking technology. One example of P2P file sharing is through a large peer-to-peer network called Gnutella. This network enables users to connect to the network and send out a request for a file that the user desires to have on their own computer. Gnutella is used to share mus

       New media can be used to make numerous improvements especially in a school environment. One suggestion I would make would be to use Instagram's features such as posting stories or Instagram TV to inform other students about events/workshops/entertainment that are upcoming on campus. Many of us are constantly on platforms such as Instagram which would make spreading news and announcements this way more efficient. Baruch College can have their own public Instagram page that everyone is allowed to follow making important information easily accessible for students. Tagging other students on Baruch College's posts and stories helps inform others as well in case some students don't have time to view their newsfeed. This is a great way for students to not miss great important opportunities that can help their social life and career paths. Tagging a person on Instagram or Facebook alerts a user's phone with a notification that they will most likely be bound to chec

     New media plays a vital role in issues revolving privacy and confidentiality. Popular new media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are just a few prime examples of how easily our privacy is exploited without our full knowledge. These platforms have features that allow followers to access a user's location which can pose a dangerous threat to one's own safety if found in the wrong hands. Pictures and videos posted on these online platforms for solely innocent, entertainment purposes can be saved by viewers and used for inappropriate conduct. Facebook has continuously suffered from serious criticism regarding privacy issues and still faces them today. People have become very smart figuring out alternate routes to access private information especially on these types of platforms. As discussed in the article "The Wild West of Privacy," Joe Nocera states "Google, Facebook and other big Internet companies collect information about us, which t

 SecondLife          New media fosters creativity in numerous forms. It enables us to express ourselves in different and unique ways. For this assignment, I decided to join the SecondLife platform. SecondLife is an online virtual world which has approximately one million users regularly. SecondLife is available on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Macintosh operating systems. The widespread of platforms that SecondLife is made available on allows users from all around the world to join and take part in the virtual reality community. With SecondLife, it allowed me to create an avatar of myself which portrayed a visual representation of the person I would chose to display online. Below I have included screenshots of my avatar and the encounters I experienced. SecondLife allowed me to be in London city and walk in the streets of London city, a city I have desired to visit for quite some time now. As many of us can relate, in most of our realities we are in the middle of a stressfu

HW Creativity             Technology plays a vital role in allowing us to express our creativity. As explained in The New Yorker article by Sasha Frere-Jones, Jeremy Brown, a.k.a. DJ Reset, was able to take apart songs and formulate a mashup including different vocals all by using his digital software. A mashup is generally when the vocal from one song is laid over the music from another. Sasha illustrated that "one of the thrills of the mashup is identifying two well-known artists unwittingly complementing each other's strengths and limitations." Mashups of songs and lyrics are one example of how new media fosters creativity. "Mashups find new uses for current digital technology. If there is an electric guitar of mashup, it is a software package called Acid Pro, which enables one to put loops of different songs both in time and in tune with each other." Technology enables individuals to unleash this creative side of them and play around with the fea