New Media Blogging: Nimisha Bindra

 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 ar...

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 wi...

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds       Virtual worlds bridge community and creativity. They foster creativity by allowing users to express themselves however they choose to. Creativity is made or produced by having no boundaries, which these online worlds allow users to experience. Virtual reality mimics the real world and has many different ways they can be used. However, like many things, virtual reality has its own pros and cons. Virtual worlds can be used for simulation games to improve the overall performance of the user. The user in this instance depends on what the virtual simulation game is based on. From the Wall Street Journal "Avatar II: The Hospital," Stephanie Simon describes an online simulation game designed to help nurses make quick and firm decisions during emergencies. This online community is called SecondLife "where participants can build their own virtual clinics and stage just about any training drill they can imagine. Dozens of ho...

Blog about Twitter    A Twitter discussion is very similar to a Blackboard discussion and an in-class discussion. A Twitter user can create a tweet by typing about any topic of their choice. On Twitter, tweets are allowed to get replied back to which in turn creates a thread of discussions from people all around the world (assuming the account is public). Thoughts and ideas are transpired through Twitter and allow users to converse through a screen. Through a Blackboard discussion the same concept is allowed by creating a thread. Once a student creates a thread and writes about a topic, other students are allowed to respond back to the post where conversation can take place. An in-class discussion allows the students to converse just like they would on Twitter or Blackboard except this form of discussion is in person and is vocalized. The differences between these forms of discussions are that Twitter has a character limit per tweet, however, a user is allowed to t...

Blog: Social Networking Sites      Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are four social networking sites with many similarities and differences. All four media platforms have different layouts that create the site's image. Although these four networking sites are each different in their own sense, they all share a common purpose. Facebook is a social networking site that is used by all age groups in today's day and age. The platform serves as place where users can update their statuses depending on what they are feeling or want people to know they are doing. Facebook allows users to post pictures and videos with captions as well where people can hit the like button or even comment back. The like button represents that the viewer has interest in your post or relates somehow. This like feature is on Twitter and Instagram as well, except on Twitter it's called a "favorite" and on Instagram it's called a "love." Facebook also enables u...