HW Creativity

     There is no doubt that new media change our world totally and bring us more creativity and convenience. Today virtual worlds are used in new media and encourage more and more people to be creative. Such as videographers, expert advisors, and musical artists. Moreover, in daily life, the creativity of new media is combined with computers, telephones, the internet, and web 2.0. New media changed the situation that the media were extremely expensive to be owned. Today, it's easy for everyone to enjoy and own new media and even have more creativity in new media. The article of Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment describes the media revolution as "The media emphasis on traditional genres such as print books has limited the examination of the distribution of these works. New media scholarship explores the ways media creation software and online distribution can complicate creativity and provide new avenues for distribution." The most benefit of the media revolution is that it gives people creativity and convenience. 

    The convenience of new media encourages more people to participate in the creativity of new media because today's computers and cellphones are easier to use. Here is an example of my daily life, I usually subscribe to many channels that post much daily life vlogs on YouTube. These vlogs are short and interesting. The article YouTube Traffic Characterization analysis global YouTube characteristics and they found that "short duration videos are more likely to be popular". This is a trend of vlogs and video record, and these characteristics attribute more user's willing on new media because it's easier to edit and has less time cost.  

Reference:

1. Dr. Mary Jo Reiff Chairperson, Chris McKitterick and Dr. Anna Neill, "Creators, Audiences, and New Media: Creativity in an Interactive Environment", July 14, 2014

2. Phillipa Gill, Martin Arlitt, Zongpeng Li, Anirban Mahanti,  "YouTube Traffic Characterization: A View From the Edge", July 12, 2007

Creativity and New Media

     I use a new media tool (edit video application) to create a vlog. I use this vlog to show how the virtual world changes my daily life. I want to introduce one virtual game which is called RingFit Adventure. This game provides a gym environment even you just at home. Moreover, compared with the gym, this game provides more fun at exercising. Especially during COVID-19, I can't go to the gym to do daily exercise. This game can instead of the gym in some way. In my opinion, this is a good example of creativity in virtual games. 

    And here is a link with my vlog that records some part of doing exercise in the game in my family's daily life. <https://youtu.be/wz-XlEzZRuI>

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

     Virtual worlds bridge community and creativity and they are three-dimensional environments. The common use of virtual worlds is games. Users seem to have second lives in games of the virtual world. And the virtual world is not limited to games, it could be used in education and research. For example, a "virtual classroom" is based on interaction and allows students to learn in a virtual environment. Joe Earle introduces the technology of the virtual world which is used in education, it is VR-virtual reality. People state their opinions about VR: "With virtual reality, you really get to walk in someone else's shoes and you get to see what someone else sees."     

    Therefore, the virtual world's advantages are obvious.   First, these virtual worlds technologies can be commonly used in gaming experiences, virtual prototypes, training programs for the military, medical training, and psychological. Second, the virtual world enhances people's communications. Like the video of second life on the second life, users make friends and even get job opportunities in the real-world by the virtual world game-Second Life. Last, the virtual world connects our works in reality. In the article Going to the virtual office in Second Life, "Virtual community Second Life is seeking to tap into that market by creating a new tool that allows businesses to have virtual meetings on their own computer networks." There is no doubt that the virtual world provides more convenience for people. 

    However, the virtual world has also some disadvantages. The virtual world has the dangers of deception and the benefits of creativity beyond reality. And the virtual world may make people feel their real lives are worthlessness and insignificance. People will become attractive to the virtual world to escape real life. Moreover, the virtual world has the tech limits. Technologies are not mature enough to come true the nature experience. I believe in the future virtual tech will be more mature. Actually, VR and AR technologies are being more and more mature and important. And then virtual tech will cover people's daily life.

Reference:

1. Joe Earle, "The virtual world moves into the classroom", by Sep 14, 2018, <https://www.reporternewspapers.net/2018/09/14/the-virtual-world-moves-into-the-classroom/>

2. Mark Tutton, "Going to the virtual office in Second Life", Nov 9, 2009

Blog about Twitter

     Twitter discussion and BlackBoard Discussion are both conversations organized around a specific topic. They are all good at building the community around you. However, they also have many differences. Firstly, the Twitter discussions are public conversations, which are engaged with every twitter user. While BlackBoard Discussion is limited. Usually, Professors post questions on BlackBoard, and then students in this class are allowed to join the discussions. Compared with BlackBoard discussions, Twitter discussions take place at a predetermined time, with a predetermined hashtag. 

    Definitely, the Twitter discussion is very different from the in-class discussion. At first, the Twitter discussion happens by virtual social networking sites. The in-class discussion takes place when people discuss face to face. Secondly, everyone who is a twitter user can participate in the Twitter discussion. But the in-class discussion is held by people in the same classroom.

Blog: Social networking sites

     The four social networking sites that I choose are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WeChat. Firstly, I want to talk about Facebook and Twitter,  in both home pages, I can visit hot news and friends' sharing today. But there is a big difference between Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, I only can see the status of my friends. While on Twitter, I can see anyone. And the length of Facebook's post is longer than Twitter's tweet. The next site I want to say is Instagram. On Instagram, I saw more younger users and I'm immediately hit with content when I launch the Instagram app. And I found there are more different ways of sharing with stories or posts. Last, I want to say Wechat. I spend a lot of time on Wechat in my daily life. I used to chat with my friends and families in China via WeChat. I can share my stories and see my friends' post in moment option easily. Here are many different kinds of subscriptions on Wechat. Users can send money by Wechat and it's convenient for transferring money between banks and Wechat.