Blog: Social networking sites

     File sharing is a big part of new media and is pretty widely used amongst users of new media. It adds to the convenience of many who like to “share” files amongst themselves. It is essentially the practice of sharing computer data from one computer to another computer over a network or the Internet.      P2P aka Peer-to-peer file sharing is the process of sharing digital content like electronic books, multimedia (videos, music, etc) through a direct connection between peers. There’s been a crackdown on P2P since people do it to avoid paying for services used leading to huge loss of revenue for content producers. This is akin to the main problem facing the music industry today, for instance.      Some of the best and most common examples of P2P is the sharing of music, music videos, videos, and their use doesn’t  seem to slow down anytime soon. As per the NYTimes article titled “ As Rights Clash on Youtube, Some Music Vanishes,” i...

     For all the great uses and perks of new media, privacy may well be the biggest issue that bedevils it. It is simply a huge issue. New media companies collect, store and monetize troves of consumer data. This almost monopoly of consumer data by new media firms certainly in most recent times raises the debate about data privacy and confidentiality.       This discussion is had as a result of users willingly allowing companies (think of Social Media/Networking sites like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, etc). The big debate surrounding this topic is that while people willingly give consent to these online sites, they have no clue how their data is being used or who else has access to it. The most recent case, one with a huge international backlash involved the online Social Networking site, Facebook. The uproar gave insights into how big privacy of user data is and confidentiality surrounding its use ...

Growing up in a rural area of Africa as a child, putting food on the table was the most important function of the head of the household. And while not poor, my family was surrounded by many have-nots who were mostly subsistence agricultural farmers. These folks grow all the food we eat. And being a farmer is not exactly the most glamorous job there is but everyone depended on these farmers like anywhere else for their source of supply of food. The problem is that these farmers tended to rely on archaic, unreliable and unsustainable means of farming. They couldn’t produce on a mass scale to feed the community. The question then becomes: what if we employ the creativity of new media technologies of virtual worlds to ensure a reliable supply of our food? What would that look like? How does that help solve the problem?      The use of 3D technology in farming maybe the answer. This technology has the potential (like used in construction) to irrigate the land, fertilize...

     In this blog I'll briefly discuss how new media fosters creativity as per a NYT article entitled "I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff.      This discusses how a young guy visits a local night club in Manhattan's Lower East Side (LES), unimpressed, he left for home and jumped on a tour of the same night club albeit virtually. The use of virtual worlds allowed him to enjoy what may otherwise only feel real in the real-life LES, VLES. From the general environs, scenes, and experiences, he came to like the virtual world version better than his first attempted stay in the night club.      It goes without saying that the capabilities of this alternate real-world virtual worlds of sorts allows for creative thinking that enables cool inventions. As per this article, MTV stepped up its use of virtual world technologies to compete with other online giants. This suggests it bet that the "fla...

     With the advent of the Internet, Web 2.0 and the great computing power of our technologies, things can mirror virtually what exists in reality. This phenomenon has led to some great inventions that have crucial and useful purposes in real life.      These virtual worlds can come handy in just many spheres of real life as noted in the various articles: educational, film, scientific, medical, military, business, etc., etc., etc. These uses while varied across the different functional areas of need and use, the benefits are mostly two-fold: enhancing convenience and fostering and pushing the envelope of creativity. These lead to newer inventions and innovations in whatever sphere or walk of life and that is ultimately the great aspect and power of these technologies. The negatives can be quite many as well. They ultimately lead to more human isolation. This Second Life tend to dehumanize people and younger folks are especially susceptible. Add...

http://touraynewmedia.blogspot.com/2018/06/blog-social-networking-sites.html      In this post, I'll discuss my impressions of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. All social media sites, they're all niched in their offerings and user base but also rooted in the same functionality with respect to their users creating content. Facebook users post photos and messages meant for friends and families' reaction, Twitter users microblog almost instantaneously about their daily activities, Instagrammers post photos and videos of themselves soliciting likes & the LinkedIn audience seek information for the next job and read articles relating to their areas of interests. While Facebook used to be about photos of its users, it has now fast become an ecosystem engaged in far more than photo-sharing: it's an advertisement behemoth targeting its over one billion users; Twitter on the other hand, while highly monetizing its user base, it's come to represent t...