Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

There are many ways virtual worlds can used, some of which include business meetings, exploring virtual versions of the city you live in, and also in the fashion world where you can shop, try on clothes on virtual avatars. Some pros of virtual reality may be that it gives the users simple access to places or things that they may have a hard time getting to or doing in the real world. It also changes the meaning of social communication because many people nowadays meet each other virtually whether they are playing games or hanging  out with friends. Cons of virtual may include the lack of face to face communication as virtual worlds are "virtual". Other Cons may include people who don't have access to the technology will not be able to keep up with the trends of society. According to "Going to the virtual office in Second Life" by Mark Tutton, the developers of Second Life, are looking to expand their business in a way businesses can virtual meetings on their secured networks which may them private. I myself believe that this is the direction where the future is headed, as now we depends more and more on technology as it is constantly being upgraded and changed. On the other hand, An article named "No Budget, No Boundaries; It's the Real You" by Ruth La Ferla, there is a different take on virtual worlds. She talks about how people can spend cash in exchange for virtual currency in that articular world. It is said that even though spending in the real world went down due to recessions and etc, people don't stop spending on lavish products in the virtual worlds as they can afford it there. These virtual worlds foster creativity in a sense that, technology around us is getting more and more advanced. Especially where there has been integration between physical movement in the real world correlating to movement in the virtual world with the help of oculus rift, and Virtuix Omni, soon virtual reality is gonna be on a different level than what we currently experience. 

BLOG: Social Networking Sites

The four social networking sites that I will be discussing are Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Linkedin. My first impression of Facebook is that it has a very nice setup that is easy for anyone to understand. I have been using Facebook for awhile now and I haven't had any trouble with their setup. It is definitely a good networking site in my opinion as you can search for friends, join groups with similar interests whether its for games, buying and selling, discussions, a study group, Facebook makes it simple for you to have access to those options. The second social networking site Twitter seems simpler than Facebook. It basically lets the user "Tweet" what their interested in, what they are doing, or anything for that matter. Aside from sharing your life story and events, they have a cool feature using the #hashtag that connects all Tweets that use that #hashtag. I find this a very convenient tool that have caught onto other social networking sites such as Instagram and Tumblr  On the side bar after you log in it has a convenient list that shows the most popular trends or #hashtags up to date so you can check those out if they appeal to you. Overall its a very solid social networking site. The third site I will be discussing is Linkedin. Linkedin is actually a more professional version of Facebook. They both offer the same things however, linkedin is more of a job finding site since it takes your experience and resume and puts it into your profile. Everyone seems to be more mature on linkedin in a sense that it doesn't have random videos shared on it, unlike Facebook. The final site Reddit, it is similar to that of wikipedia but people can discuss certain topics freely without being restricted. It provides sub topics also known as subreddits, these are for people who want to focus on a specific topic they are looking for or interested in. The setup is similar to twitter in a sense that the top shared and top viewed are listed on the first page. The pages are set up so that you can scroll down each one and see what other people have posted and if you decide your up to it you can even contribute to the specific topic and create new links to share with other people. Like Facebook reddit has many groups or pages that can be made whether its for gaming, buying and selling, or just talking about random topics you'll be able to find them on reddit. 

TWITR: Blog About Twitter

Twitter discussion compared to both blackboard discussion and in class discussions have their own similarities and differences. They are similar in a sense that they all have one thing in common, people talking to each other. Twitter discussion is similar to that of a blog where you can comment on what other people "Tweet" and share your opinions and thoughts about what particular topics. Blackboard discussions are similar to that of twitter discussion but it does restrict who can read and respond to what people have shared. In an in-class discussion the comments and opinions are formulated in real time and it is restricted to the people within the classroom. For twitter and blackboard discussions it gives people time to formulate their ideas and thoughts into sentences, however in in-class discussions it is hard to do that in such a short period of time since everyone is waiting on answers.

Social Networking

Social Networking can be used in many ways whether it is corporate or not. According to Frank Langfitt's Article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" one form of use for social networking is recruiting people for jobs. One example that Langfitt used in his article is Linkedin, which is a social network comprised of over 8 million professionals spread throughout the world. Through the site employers of recruiters are able to search for candidates that have qualities or specialties in certain areas with the click of a button. The benefits of this technology to society may include things such as ease of job recruiting, connecting people from other countries or locally with ease, it can help spread information quickly, and it can also help law enforcement in solving crimes. However, according to Clive Thompson's article "Brave New World of Digital Intimacy", it shows a so called "dark side" to social networking. In the article the idea of personal privacy was brought up, seemingly they compared it to a giant party where everyone can eavesdrops on everyone else. This meant a loss of privacy to the users as they posted heaps on information about themselves when Facebook began such as what they liked, their favorite shows and other things such as birthdays or special events of their lives. In my opinion I think that social networking will start to evolve and continue to grow as technology is constantly advancing, thus the good may outweigh the bad aspects in the future.