The Next New Thing

New Media has drastically changed the way we have communicated and consumed information.  In this age of technology new forms of media are spat out at a rapid pace.  There does not seem like their is any sign of stopping New Media's progression and the next new thing is imminent.  With Virtual Reality headsets right around the corner, such as the Oculus Rift headset, I can only see ths form of media being taken a step further.  If anyone has seen the Futurama episode that featured the introduction to the "Eyephone," which was essentially a chip put into a persons head that would allow the person to view all of their media, such as Facebook and Instagram.  Now I don't believe a chip in the head or eye is the next thing, but I do believe a contact lens that will enable the user to view their media.  I believe this will be possible with something equipped to the hand, such as a ring to reach out and touch the images produced by the contact lens as well.  Now this may seem far fetched, but so was talking into a phone that could transmit frequencies and voices through satellites.  Who knows maybe it will be the next thing everyone lines up to purchase.   

Our Class Wiki - So Far

I have not written anything on the class wiki page so far, but i do plan to contribute in the sections that primarily talk about gaming and sports.  Since, I am passionate in both these areas it will be easy for me to apply some of my own personal experience along with research that i have been doing to these pages.  There are a few images I already have that can be applied to these areas and I have been planning on how I will explain these two subjects in detail along with the images I will be presenting.

P2P File Sharing

New media and it's users are no strangers to file sharing and the uses of it.  File sharing is the transmission of files or data from one computer to another over the internet.  P2P file sharing which is what is used by many people today involves people sharing data, which includes movies, books, music, etc. to other people over a network of connected computers, where people can freely download the type of media of their choosing.  One of the most widely used P2P websites or peer-to-peer websites is BitTorrent.  According to the article, "The BitTorrent Effect" by Clive Thompson, BitTorrent is mostly used for downloading movies in minutes thanks to the millions of users that use the website, which in turns speeds up downloads speeds.  Even though this form of P2P is illegal due to copyright infringement it doesn't stop the millions of users from using websites like BitTorrent to get all the movies and media they want.  

Privacy

The issue of privacy in new media is probably the most major and visible issue.  There are not that many ways to attack this issue for the common person besides limiting the amount of information that you put on the internet and social media websites.  There are numerous ways people can get your personal information and probably the most effective way to prevent them from getting yours is to not post any personal information.  Any personal information you give such as telephone numbers or addresses can be used to eventually flush out all of your personal information such as credit card numbers and social security.  It is important this day in age to limit the information you put on the internet, because someone cant take what isn't there.

Advice

My advice to Baruch College will be to start using social media to connect with their students for instant feedback.  Most college students are constantly on social media websites especially since almost everyone has a smartphone.  By using social media websites such as Facebook, college students can ask questions on these pages and Baruch can provide instant feedback answering those questions, which could help cut down on long lines in offices and discrepancies on what to actually do.  This can also be beneficial the other way around since students can provide feedback on troubles they were having at Baruch making it more apparent to the staff enabling them with the ability to address these problems.

New Media and Creativity

I created a Second Life avatar and created my own dance move and showed it off in the Nightclub.