Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds are online experiences where people can experience a life different from reality. These Virtual worlds exist online and can have many people interacting with each other through this virtual space. The uses of these virtual worlds can be used in any ways such as socializing, entertainment, informative purposes as well as for work purposes such as planning. In the article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot", the author states that one of the benefits that virtual worlds provides is that it allows users to be "alone together". The statement "alone together" is an oxymoron because it puts together two words with opposite meanings but it refers to the fact that we are able to interact with people in these virtual worlds that link us together, however users are alone in the sense that they are doing so using a computer where users are typically alone. One of the benefits of Virtual worlds can be the anonymity of the users because they interact through a computer which can allow people to act freely without actually giving away their location and identity. Users are able to act freely without the sense of judgement being traced back to them. However, because of this anonymity, people often abuse this aspect and issues such as cyberbullying and cyberterrorism occurs because often times, these activities are difficult or impossible to trace. In CNN's article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot",  another possible benefit also suggesting the future of businesses is mentioned where using computers and video calling, a company is attempting to create a way for companies to gather for meetings using video calling which would not require people to actually be physically there. This could reduce travel time and improve efficiency. This is one of the ways Virtual Worlds will benefit the future of society. 

1. Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life, CNN.com: Nov 5, 2009http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html
2. After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get A Reboot. April 30, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/

Social Networking Sites

Facebook- One of the most popular if not the most popular social networking sites in the world. Profiles and pages of people that essential post information, hobbies and pictures of themselves. They are able to interact with others and search for people they know. They have friends on Facebook and they are able to stay in contact and stay updated on their friends and their lives.

Twitter- Twitter and its tweets is basically a live feed of people sharing updates about any topic they may want. This can be used for updates on celebrities, popular releases, news, or just random thoughts. This information is limited to 140 characters per tweet.

LinkedIn- One of the most useful sites for professionals looking to network and share references. Having friends on this site allows you to share your resume with everyone and have people back and vouch for your skills online. This site is extremely handy for employers and people looking to be employed because it opens up your opportunities and everyone is able to see your experience.

Instagram- Another popular social networking site. Essentially it is a photo sharing application for smartphones that allows uses to take pictures and share them with friends and followers, as well as like and comment photos that others post. Instagram is very useful for people who want to share new things in their lives. "A picture is worth a thousand words".

Blog About Twitter

Twitter discussions differ from inclass discussions and Blackboard discussions in many ways. For starters, Twitter uses a system of "tweets" which are messages that the public or their followers will see based on their privacy settings. These tweets are limited to 140 characters and can have a photo or a link attached. Other uses can "retweet" the tweet which is reposting it for their fan base to see, they can also support or reply and can add to trending topics using hashtags. Twitter often tends to be a conscience stream of a persons thoughts. Blackboard discussions on the other hand, does not limit the amount of characters you use, it allows the use of pictures, links and even allows you to comment on each others posts. The lack of a limit on the length allows users to go more in depth and elaborate into thoughts and opinions. Blackboard and in class discussions are usually closed off from the rest of the word and confined in an educational space. The seclusion from the rest of the world often results in a more personal and engaging discussion.

Social Net'g

Social networks have revolutionized the way we communicate as well as the way we live. In today's society, practically everything revolves around the internet: specifically social media and social networking. Using Social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn, we are able to communicate with each other from any distance in an instant. We are able to transfer information and data with the click of the finger. Corporations can use social networks to do research on individuals they are interested in hiring and to keep tabs on current employees. Using Social networks, these corporations can learn a tremendous amount of information about an individual by simply conducting a google search on their name and looking through their Facebook profile. While this seems like corporations have the advantage, individuals can benefit greatly from social networks as well. They can share references and have their information they would want others to see, such as their resume. Using a site like LinkedIn would allow them to share their experience and abilities quite easily.

    "Maureen Crawford-Hentz recruits for Osram Sylvania, the global lighting company. She says the new tools               have changed her life.

"Social networking technology is absolutely the best thing to happen to recruiting — ever."

One of Crawford-Hentz's favorite sites is Linkedin, a network of 8 million professionals spread across the world. Linkedin says users include executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies. Typing keywords into a search engine, Crawford can scrape the entire network to dig out high-quality candidates that she can't find elsewhere." (Frank Langfitt)

In this quote from Frank Langfitt's article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting", Maureen Crawford-Hentz is an individual who benefited from the use of social networks, specifically LinkedIn. She was able to use the site to find individuals who were perfect fits for her company. The ease of social networking allows her to search through over 8 million people for candidates that fit her criteria. Prior to social networking, this was an impossible task.

While there are many benefits to social media, there is certainly a "dark side". This "dark side" refers to many cons that comes with social networks.  An example of this "dark side" of social networks is that there is no privacy. No one actually has privacy online. Since the internet is connected and everyone has access to it, anything you post can and probably will be accessed by another individual at one point in the future. If you post something on Facebook, it is practically available for anyone to see. No one is safe from this, including the first family of Facebook. According to Rebecca Greenfield's article "Facebook Privacy is so Confusing, Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private", Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, posted a family photo which was then accessed by random individuals and republished to the web via Twitter. This shows that no one actually has privacy on Facebook, including the Zuckerbergs. This is a perfect of example of the lack of privacy on the internet.

While the internet and social networks are clearly extremely useful and efficient, we lack privacy. The overall benefit is undeniable but it comes at a price of privacy. Even so, the internet and social networks have revolutionized the way of life in today's society and there is a bright future for anyone who can capitalize on this relatively new technology. Social media will continue to play a huge role in society and because of these reasons, I believe that there will be some sort of future development that will help to increase privacy on the internet. By removing privacy, one of the biggest cons of using the internet and social networks, it would allow social media to evolve into a even bigger driving force.


"Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting".  NPR. NPR,  26 November 2006. Web.  13 October 2015.  
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6522523&sc=emaf
"Facebook Privacy is so Confusing, Even the Zuckerberg Family Photo Isn't Private". The Wire. The Wire, 26 December 2012. Web 13 October 2015.  
http://www.thewire.com/technology/2012/12/facebook-privacy-so-confusing-even-zuckerberg-family-photo-isnt-private/60313/

Blog V Wiki

Blogs and wikis are generally sources of information in which an individual publishes to the internet. They can both be valuable resources of data and information, however the reliability on these sources of information is questionable. While they are both sources of information, they do not necessarily provide accurate information. According to "How to Use Wikis for Business" which explains what a wiki is, one of the main difference between these two sources of data is who has the ability to publish information. A blog's posts can only be published by the owner of the blog and tends to be similar to a diary or journal that others can view while a wiki can be edited or published by pretty much anyone. While they both have their pros and cons, they both are not reliable sources of information when looking for facts. A blog can be very opinionated while a wiki has multiple editors which can keep information factual. Although wikis have many contributors, they tend to police each other's work, allowing the information to stay fairly accurate.

The use of blogs assist us today in many ways that contribute to the networked society that we live in. The article " Link by Link - An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified" states the use of blogs and electronic storage saves a lot of paper that we would normally consume and it allows us to be a lot more efficient all around because we are all able to access information from our smartphones and our computers. It also allows us to filter out information that we deem irrelevant with functions such as the find function which allows us to find key words instead of skimming through large bodies of text. The use of wikis and blogs enables us to find the information we seek much quicker and therefore allows us to finish our work much more quickly. Convergence is key in today's society because it allows us to be more efficient and it helps to slow down the use of Earth's resources.

One new way wikis can be used is to use it as a public database similar to Facebook that would allow anyone to search you up and gather general information on you. This would allow people to screen each other before meeting in case a person may be suspicious or dangerous. This could also be used for academic purposes to further elaborate on professors. It could be similar to Rate My Professor except it would go more in depth about the professor, and it would allow users to add their own experiences into the page.


"How to Use Wikis for Business," by Ezra Goodnoe, Information Week, August 8, 2005   http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331

"Link by Link - An Internal Wiki That's Not Classified" Noam Cohen, New York Times, August 4, 2008  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/business/media/04link.html