Brian's Blog

I have yet to edit or add to the class wiki.  However, I do have some ideas that I plan on putting to work.  I personally spend a lot of my time on Youtube so one segment of the class wiki that I plan on contributing to is the Youtube section of it.  I plan on adding many popular channels from Youtube onto it such as Food Insider, House of Highlights, ESPN First Take.  I also spend a lot of my time playing computer games so I plan on adding some insight to popular games I play such as PUBG, Counter Strike Global Offensive, and Fortnite.  Another contribution I would like to make is creating a Fantasy Basketball section to the Sports segment.  I plan to conduct more research on these topics and implement them into the wiki.

File sharing is the distribution or transmission of files from one network to another.  P2P file sharing is a specific type of file sharing where the exchange or transference of files is done through peer to peer technology.  In fact, P2P is actually becoming more accepted in today's society.  According to Wendy Kaufman's article Peers Find Less Pressure Borrowing From Each Other, Google is teaming up with the largest P2P lender, Lending Club.  The company is investing $125 million.  This goes to show how P2P file sharing is becoming more widely accepted and how there is growing interest in it.  Some examples of P2P file sharing include Limewire, BitTorrent, and Napster.

As technology continues to advance and become more relevant in our everyday lives, people seem to ignore how our privacy is getting invaded as a result of this.  As technology continues to advance, more of our personal information is being kept by companies and databases.  Our phones are practically an extension of some of us.  We have become too comfortable entrusting our personal information in these devices and databases.  If people are some how able to crack through a device or database, it becomes very easy for one to do serious damage to another individual’s life.  People are now able to track others and see their online activity much easier than it had been a couple decades ago.  Although technology is making our lives much easier, is it worth our safety and security?

If I were hired by Baruch College to improve the school, there are a number of ways I would be able to implement new media to elevate the school.  For example, there can be a separate website where students can get one on one help from tutors in order to perform better on tests.  This will be more convenient for both students and tutors because they would not have to meet face to face.  I believe this would significantly improve exam grades.  Another improvement that could be made using new media is having classrooms with computers dedicated solely for test taking in order to help the school limit the use of paper and cut costs that go to purchasing printing paper.  I believe these two changes involving new media would help elevate Baruch College.

To demonstrate how new media fosters creativity, I decided to use an iPhone app and combine it with a passion of mine, weightlifting.  Using this app, I was able to photoshop my face onto the body of a bodybuilder.  The app allowed me to create a cutout of my own face from one of my photos and transfer it onto another image.  It was as easy and simple as copy and pasting.  This was only possible with new media.

In the article The New Math of Mashups , from the New Yorker Magazine, the author of the article says "One of the thrills of the mashup is identifying two well-known artists unwittingly complementing each other’s strengths and limitations".  The author is describing how individuals are able to strip different songs and combine different elements of each song, using digital software, and often create something even more enjoyable to listen to than the original two songs.  In the example mention in the article, an individual combines Madonna's voice with the addition of the Sex Pistols' guitars.   New media is able to foster creativity because it allows people to become more innovative as ever and continuously expanding imaginations.  Because of new media, people now have to the access to make their imaginations into reality.  People are able to access new information and tools.