Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Interestingly enough virtual worlds can be viewed as nerdy and useless. It posses the idea of, “hey lazy, get up and go outside and meet some real people”. But come to find out based on the lecture notes and the video they are real people and real lives in virtual worlds. According to, “Avatar II: The Hospital” from The Wall Street Journal, students used a virtual world to demonstrate typical hospital protocol. This is a productive way to help students learn, it brings real life experience to college students. In the lecture notes the commentator is crippled and he expresses how he enjoys dancing in the virtual world. So a pro for the virtual world would be that it can make seemingly impossible things possible and inexpensive. The negatives just like any social networking site would be the lack of trust. You can get help from people and make friends on this site but you can never make a real true friend on this site because you never know who is on the other end. Virtual worlds embody the word creative. To create a world of your own you have to be original. To make new infrastructures and landscape and create new ways to make people feel comfortable and fit in. In the lecture notes the narrator uses second life to help a person overcome their inability to socialize with other people. In this world being able to communicate is crucial to living, so by creating a second life; he saved a real one.

In the future virtual worlds will be vaster than the real world exploring new planets and more fun. It will be a mix of world of war craft and Seinfeld. A game about nothing (The Sims) lol.          

Twitter: Discussion

I liked the twitter discussion, I feel like people are more direct with their comments seeing that you have to fit it in 140 characters. It seems like a more fun way to have a discussion than a blog. With that being said twitter would be more suited for simple/fun remarks more than an intellectual/meaningful conversation. But hey, it can still teach u how to fly a plane!!!!!!!!!!

Social Networking

Social Networks can be used to identify individuals and single out products (i.e. Bands, Actors, Companies, etc). According to Online Classes’ “50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom”, Twitter can be used to share ideas with your peers, better connect with your teachers and to keep updated with news contents. The article also explains how you can follow companies that you would want to work for as an intern or after you get your degree.

Corporations can use social websites as a way to recruit, and update employees on current company events. For example say there is a company picnic, and on the company blog everyone can post what they are bringing or something simplistic as clarification the office being closed on Columbus Day. According to C.G. Lynch in “Twitter Tips: How to Find Job Posts on Twitter”, Companies have turn to twitter to post jobs. I think this is revolutionary. If people could create a professional profile for themselves and follow companies then it would better the application for both parties.

There are many benefits of social networking technologies in society, mainly the opportunity to share ideas about jobs, news, health, and maybe even to meet people. The dark side would be falsification of information, so nothing is really granted. For instance people trying to look for relationships online but have fake profiles. People with blogs giving health advice that have limit education on health.

In the future people will have multiple profiles for social and work, and like the NY Times article “Tweeting Your Way to a Job," by Laura M. Holson, more jobs would be strictly online and the meets rooms will be discussion boards and the office will be the company blog.     

Checking Out Social Networks

Social networking sites have become very prominent in this age of technology. Two of the forerunners are MySpace and Facebook. Myspace, the predecessor, is very informal. It was made as a medium to express oneself in a colorful boisterous way. There are themes that can be used to create a page that expresses the personality of its designer. Users were encouraged to use aliases instead of real names. The entire purpose of a MySpace page was to see what new way a person has recreated themselves. Facebook on the other hand, was made as a more professional site. On Facebook people are highly encouraged to use real names. When signing up for the website, users are encouraged to use email addresses associated with organizations in order to become a part of said organization’s network. One is allowed to choose certain “likes” that help to connect them with other people who share the same ones. You are able to list things that are of interest to you and Facebook automatically shows you friends that are interested in the same things. This website is completely centered around networking and making connections with other people. Facebook even has a “friend finder” that suggests people that you may know and an application that suggests you “reconnect” with a friend you haven’t sent a message to in a while. While these two websites are both for networking, Myspace is more informal and juvenile made to show off your personal flair and compete with friends to see who can come up with the most creative name and page. Facebook, however, is more formal and professional and has now become useful in the workforce- becoming a useful tool in the hiring process for many employers.  Friendster is informal like MySpace but you cannot design your own page. It has a wide section named “Classifieds” that is geared toward selling its users a wide variety of items. This website is mainly about posting pictures, having fun, and going into the classified section to get services that range from dating to real estate. Friendster seems to be about buying goods and advertising services. It is a Craig’s list of sorts only with a profile alongside the market. Twitter is another networking website. This website is very informal. It is used to “follow” people that you are interested in- not just your friends. Most of these people are celebrities. On this website people are allowed to give step by step quick updates that tell what they are doing throughout the day. The people that you follow tell about your interests and allow you to feel like you know the person. There have been many races to see who could have the most people follow them. Now, twitter has been used to raise money for different charities, but it is not essentially for that purpose. Twit pics allow you to post pictures of yourself in addition to these quick messages users can post. Twitter also allows users to win free merchandise by “following” different designers and brands. There are many contests that may read “the first 50 people to follow –insert brand name here- win a gift card” etc. This is a way to advertise on these websites and encourage people to become followers of a specific page.