The Next New Thing

The next new thing in "New Media" will end up being something that satisfies our ever-changing needs as a society. Many fellow classmates have mentioned that the tool to do this will be virtual reality and the various uses it will have. In the future, we could see and interact with distant family and friends using virtual reality. For gamers, video games have already started to use virtual reality with various technologies like Oculus Rift that making gaming a full body experience. For the more adventurous type, you could go on a simulation of hiking Mount Everest. Of course, there are many other uses and possibilities for virtual reality which is one of the reasons it has the potential to be the next big thing. For whatever desires we may have, virtual reality will be one of the most mainstream solutions.

Wiki So Far

As of now, I haven't added any substantial content to the wiki but after reading over some of the pages, I have added some quick definitions into the glossary to contribute a little. I was also amazed to find out how much great content there was from a large variety of fields and topics. It was quite amazing how much content that has accrued from students and I believe the wiki will be a great resource for every Baruch student.  In the future, I do plan on contributing content although I'm not quite sure yet where to start. Most likely I'll start with the gaming related pages and look around for other interesting topics.

P2P

Peer to peer or P2P file sharing is the sharing of media through online technologies. This has become most commonly associated with BitTorrent and illegally downloading music, movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment media. On a brighter note, P2P has been used in a variety of ways that has done much more than just break laws. In the article "Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other" by Wendy Kaufman, she discusses the innovative way Lending Club has used P2P transfers. Lending Club acts as an online marketplace that connects investors and borrowers and according to them, they have made credit more affordable and investing more rewarding. A borrower discussed in the article, Chanda Lugere, points out that the loan she applied for using Lending Club was much more of a deal than any she could get at a bank. The reason for this is that when investors put up money to fund loans they participate in an online marketplace. They get to invest in hundreds to thousands of loans within the marketplace where the rates will adjust accordingly for each loan and can then produce rates that are more appealing to borrowers. According to the company, this means that the investors can still make a profit with borrowers getting lower rates because of how the P2P marketplace works.

Privacy

As new media has connected people all over the world with its new technologies, it has also decreased any sense of privacy people may have. Nowadays, everything you post online is viewable and can be dug up by anyone. Employers now look at your social media to determine the type of individual you are and can use that to determine whether or not they wish to hire you. With our society becoming more interconnected than ever, it has also become harder to hide anything. People using Twitter and Facebook can upload their thoughts and actions in real time and often share much more information than they need to. In the worse possible scenario, hackers can try to use this information or steal it in order to use for their own gain. Loss of privacy is just one issue that has resulted from new media but regardless, we have become so accustomed to it that it is normal.

Advice

If I were hired by Baruch to implement new media to improve the college, I would focus on using more social media sites. Online, Baruch clubs and organizations could have more of a presence with Facebook pages and groups and should be encouraged to do so. With every club/organization online, it also makes recruiting much easier because Baruch students could check out these clubs and activities online. Baruch could also introduce more useful online tools other than just blackboard. The online discussion boards on blackboard are useful but they could also include wikis or some tool that allows students to collaborate on projects. 

Creativity and New Media

I made the avatar above on the game Sims 3. I tried making it look like myself but it didn't work out that well with the limited options I had. It was an interesting experience creating an avatar and playing the game because the game itself inspires a lot of creativity. After creating a virtual character, you get to customize the life and experiences of your character. This ranges from designing your own home to choosing a career path for yourself and you can really do anything you set your mind to in this game.