The Next New Thing

New media are constantly being introduced in our lives to the point where it is hard to even keep track of them. A type of new media that I would like but haven't seen yet would be a more advanced fitness tracker. There are already lots of apps that can keep track of your calories and exercises but I would like a more advanced one. An app where you don't have to manually input all the calories that you have consumed so far but can just take a picture of what you eat and that the app would just automatically input the information in for you. I would also like if the app was able to read information on your body like if you can take pictures of your body, the app would be able to read the fat percentage in your body and automatically create work out programs most suited to you and your body type. To go along with this app, I would like a business that customizes your meal according to the macros-nutrients that your body needs to meet your goals. I think that in a few years this would be possible because of the many researches on artificial intelligence. I think that a more advanced AI fitness app would make working out more enjoyable and easier.

Our Class Wiki - So Far

I have been researching more on the topic of new media in fitness to contribute to the wiki page. This was also my topic for my research paper and I plan on researching more to add to the page. Right now on the wiki page there is a lot of good information that was covered, but I plan on adding more like how people are using new media technology to combine fitness with gaming. Examples that I will be writing about would be augmented reality and virtual reality. Since this relates to both fitness and gaming, I might contribute to both pages rather than just the fitness page. I will also contribute more information regarding YouTube fitness and Instagram fitness as they were also included in my research paper, as well as add a new fitness platform that more and more people in China are actually using called We-chat.

P2P File Sharing

What is file sharing?

File sharing is the ability to transfer files from one electronic device to another over a network or the internet.

What is P2P File Sharing?

Peer to Peer (P2P) File Sharing is basically the same as regular file sharing but P2P is typically between just individuals sharing with another individual through a specific P2Pwhereas regular file sharing can be with anybody or anything.

What are some examples of P2P File Sharing?

One example of a P2P file sharing to Lending Club. This is instead of sharing files between individuals through a P2P platform, individuals actually loan money to others through this platform. This is great because when some people cannot get loans through traditional banking systems, people can use P2P loaning to gain capital.

1. Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other May 10, 2013 http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/05/10/182651552/peers-find-less-pressure-borrowing-from-each-other

Privacy & Confidentiality

With the increasing use of new media, privacy and confidentiality's importance are also increasing. This is because now that more and more people are using new media, more and more of our personal information are also being inputted in these new media. For example, when signing up for facebook or twitter, you would have to put in a lot of personal information that you may not want others to know like your phone number or email. This can still be considered minor but what if you wanted to be a YouTuber and put in information relating to your bank account. Another example relating to your banking information would be when you sign up for netflix. These information are very sensitive and it is important to keep them private and confidential. Lots of hackers know that you have a lot of personal information in new media which is why in recent cases there has been more news about people hacking other peoples social media accounts and stealing information. With so many cases like these happening it is very important that companies initiate preventive measures against personal information leaks.

Advice to Baruch College

Baruch college is in my opinion already doing a great job in using new media to improve the college. They already have a twitter account and are constantly tweeting about events happening in our school so that students who follow Baruch are always up to date on campus events. They also do the same on Facebook.It is also the same with our Baruch emails. Lots of events are always being emailed out to us students and is really good for people who do not use social media as everybody has a Baruch mail. Some professors also use blackboard forums with students so that students can discuss problems with each other and the professor. These are all great uses of new media and I think that Baruch really is doing a good job at it. If there is an improvement I would like, it would be an addition to the Baruch app where it tells you when the laptop loans are all taken. This is because a lot of times when I need a laptop I go and borrow it but they all end up being borrowed already.  

Creativity and New Media

New media has enabled many people to become more creative. For example, I like drawing but honestly have never been too good at it, but new media has helped me to tap in my creative potential to draw many things. Things i like drawing a lot are characters. Whether they are characters that are made up, from books, or a character that represents me, new media has helped me to draw them with the many tools available. For example, I can now easily create avatars that represent myself.

This is a picture of an avatar that I created that represents myself. Now, some of you may have noticed that the art style looks like South Park, and it totally is. I created this avatar using a website that has South Park theme characters for you to use. Since I like South Park, I decided to make this avatar.

                                           

This is an avatar I created to represent the more serious side of me. New media is great for fostering creativity because it provides many tools for you to use and just create, that it can help people express themselves in many ways. Like how I used two different avatars to represent my different sides. 

Creativity

New media technology has enabled more people to be creative. One way people do so is by crowd sourcing. Crowd sourcing is when you obtain (information or input into a particular task or project) by enlisting the services of a number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet. An example of this is in the article, "Twitter serves up ideas from its followers." In the article, it talks about how twitter monitored its users to see what features they would like to see on twitter. By doing so, Twitter was able to find exactly what its users wanted and create stuff that gears towards them. New media allows people to be more creative but I think that it also really helps people in finding creativty in others. For example, before new media if someone wants to show off their art they would have to physically print it out and show it to people like that. But now, people can simply post their works on social media and show it to people which helps people find creativity and fosters them.  


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html