Emilia Kacperak in New Media

Not too long ago I was given an assignment focusing on the many generations of people present in our world today. The group I was in was to somehow depict "Generation X", known as the Baby Boomers, to the class by bringing pop culture from that time to the modern era. I decided that the best way to bring the two generations together was by using a form of new media, tumblr, to create a blog showing the music, actors, art, etc. on a single board. The following are some screenshots of our project, but you may also view the tumblr page here . In them you can see people like Prince and Elvis Presley, and music files you can play as you scroll through to immerse yourself in the time, while the header photo shows aspects of different decades in one photo to depict the assignment. I have never used a form of social media for an assignment or project before, so creating this page was very fun and somewhat innovative to me.

The world is constantly improving, and the creativity of people is what allows for the evolution of practices, including what we know about new media. Just like how computers have continuously been reengineered to include new features, innovative audiences using new media have prompted creators to adapt to include new features. As mentioned by Claire Cain Miller for the New York Times, in 2009 Twitter was just a platform on which users could share messages no longer than 140 characters. At that time, they were gearing up to introduce the ability to "retweet" and create lists of followers, all because current users prompted the site's engineers to make it. A similar case happened not too long ago, when Twitter introduced an easier way to create "threads", or a string of tweets containing a message that is longer than its 140 (now 280) character limit. Before this feature, users were dividing up their messages on their own, which may have been a tedious task. Clea

In the wake of modernized technology and desire to get the most from the experiences of individuals with lower costs, Virtual Reality, also referred to as VR, allows for an enhanced involvement in daily activities. Some specific areas where VR is used more is in education and the professional workplace. According to Joe Earle for Reporters Newspaper, the education system is exploring the various uses of VR in the classroom in cases of in-class trips and deeper learning of certain topics. For example, one teacher used a program which followed the lives of refugee families and children aged similarly to her students to help foster an attitude of better understanding. Many students came finished that lesson with a clearer view of those in refugee situations, and a more open mind. While that is a major benefit to this technology, the issue does still remain that its remarkable attributes must be supplemented with effective teaching points. Professional offices are also finding VR usefu

There are many ways to hold a class discussion, whether it be in-person, over an online discussion board, or through social media like Twitter. Each has their benefits, but the three seem to compare in some ways. When holding a discussion on a website like Blackboard, students tend to have more developed answers which results in longer inputs (in terms of word count). This allows for a discussion to go further in-depth than on a site like Twitter which limits thoughts to 280 characters, not words. While the character count has increased in the past years from 140, and there now is an easy function integrated to create threads, both which allow for a longer remark, this does not quite compare to the more developed and thought out responses we see on Blackboard. These short comments and responses may seem more favorable and accurate in the students' eyes, though, and may also resemble the classroom more than a Blackboard thread does. When conducting an in-class discussion, profes

There are many social media sites available for people to use for whatever reason they may seem fir for them. Some of these include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr, and I conveniently have accounts on all of these platforms, and hold varying opinions on each of them. For starters, Facebook is a great website that gives off the impression as the most popular social media application, almost like an umbrella of sorts when it comes to the types of people I connect with on there. For example, this is the only social media platform in which I accept friend requests with almost everyone I interact with in my daily life, which includes friends, family, coworkers, etc. However, given that fact, I also monitor my posts the most on this social network, given my audience. Facebook is also very useful in terms of running the organization I am a part of on campus, for which I am responsible for marketing. So, Facebook is a wonderful application to use for both personal and business reaso

The modern era is know for its use of media to practice being social creatures and continue their connections with others. Social media websites such as popular Facebook and Twitter allow for individuals to share updates on their lives, including simple status updates or now pictures and videos, to which audiences may react through commentary or reactions such as "likes", "favorites", or other emotion-based feedback. Companies use social media to their advantage as well. While the most popular reason to use the internet by various firms is for marketing, social media also shows its advantages when addressing the public on several issues, or receiving feedback from its customers. One company that turned to social media in times of crisis was Amazon, the famous online retailer which started out as a simple bookstore. According to the New York Times in 2009, the company experienced a glitch on its website regarding the sales ranking of thousands of book that were ava

Society now has a vast amount of outlets available on the internet to share ideas, thoughts, and essentially anything else that may be of importance on a personal scope. In this list of outlets which include most social media websites are also blogs and wikis, communities that may seem similar in nature but have some differences which set them apart from each other. Firstly, while the emergence of the World Wide Web promised new users the creation of communities of sharing and the new ability of easily shaping the world (Gill), blogs, formerly known as web logs, encourage audience participation with the availability of comment sections. While the official author of the blog may be a single contributor or a group of people sharing ideas on a certain topic, the audience has the ability to become authors in their own way, by adding their thoughts or additional information in response to posts on this medium. This back-and-forth between author(s) and audience certainly fosters a communit