Creativity and New Media

New media truly fosters creativity. In order to explore my creativity, I used a virtual media, Second Life, and explored around the virtual world created in the game. Second Life is an online virtual world where users can chat during real-time, change their avatar, transport to different places in the world, buy items from the market place and much more! This was my first time exploring around with Second Life, but I enjoyed it and glad I got to take the time using it due to this assignment! To start off on Second Life, I changed my avatar and played around with her outfit. I let my creativity take on from here and added a silky top and pencil skirt to match my own personal fashion aesthetic and style. Although there weren't many options since I just started the account, I still explored around and added additional accessories to complete the look. I've attached a screenshot below of the complete look of my avatar. In addition to customizing my avatar, I also chatted with other online users that were able to familiarize me with the functions and activities of this virtual world. Second Life operated similar to a browser and had many files you can explore. If you wanted to explore another part of the world, you would have to click on a spot of the world you would like to teleport to. I've attached a screenshot below that shows the different places I've explored and was able to meet new people through. I find this aspect of Second Life very creative as it gives users the chance to look back to what places they explored, along with a map that shows them where more users can be found to interact with. While Second Life has many creative and interactive aspects to the game, one thing I wish they were able to include for the basic account members is for us to decorate our houses. According to someone I chatted with on Second Life, you have to upgrade your account for that. However, I really enjoyed my time on Second Life because it allowed me to explore a virtual world filled with new people to meet online while I got characterize my avatar the way I want to! It was a great experience, especially during a time we all are quarantined and can't actually explore the real world because of the pandemic.

Creativity

New media fosters creativity which can benefit many users, especially marketers for companies. According to the assigned reading, "How user-generated content can improve your social media marketing strategy," content that users create can significantly improve your marketing campaigns. UGC includes any content such as videos, blogs, images, etc. that is created by consumers and is available publicly to other consumers. The article mentions that in order to improve your social media marketing, you should encourage your satisfied consumers to submit/post video testimonials, asking them to "talk about [your] products in the real-life environments." This is a great way to build consumer trust! This is also great on the user-end because consumers get to explore with their creativity to see how to develop this content. For instance, let's say an e-commerce makeup brand encourages consumers to post videos of their product reviews or makeup tutorials with a hashtag of their brand name. Not only is this great for makeup junkies to play around with their video-editing skills, content-creation skills, etc., but it's also great for the brand because it's generating a lot of brand recognition. Hence, new media fosters creativity and also helps businesses because of increased product and brand recognition.

Citations:
Mulcahy, Lisa. “How User-Generated Content Can Improve Your Social Media Marketing Strategy.” Multibriefs, 26 Feb. 2020, exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/how-user-generated-content-can-improve-your-social-media-marketing-st/marketing.

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

Over the past few years, virtual technology has increasingly been on the rise. Virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environment that allows users to explore a virtual world. Some of these are games that allows users to create avatars, explore a virtual world and interact with other users online. Some examples of virtual worlds include The Sims, IMVU, Minecraft, etc. Virtual worlds can be used in many ways, like in a classroom setting for instance. Especially during a time like this while the COVID-19 spreads and wrecks havoc in communities, many public schools are closing and are mandating students to learn remotely. Online platforms that are built for meetings are great examples of virtual technologies. However, during a time of limited face-to-face communication, more virtual world technologies will be implemented. Virtual campuses are becoming quite common with learning resources and student centers having a virtual presence. Other examples include virtual field trips, virtual classrooms and virtual platforms in libraries.

There are many pros and cons of virtual worlds technologies. One of the pros of this technology is that it creates solutions for many problems. For instance, according to the assigned article "After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?", Diane Mehta, the writer, has a Q&A with a Senior Scientist at USC. The article reiterated that the Senior Scientist, Jacki Morie, designed a virtual healing space for returning soldiers. Instead of creating a training space, Morie thought it would be best to design a healing space to repair the damage done for people going into these types of environments. Thus, this was a great benefit of virtual world technologies since it's purpose is to heal soldiers. Another pro of virtual world technologies is it's time efficiency. For instance, according to the assigned article, "Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life," IBM's chief technology officer Parmer states how him and his team saved so much travel time and additionally generated many new ideas due to Second Life's virtual world technology. As a result, virtual worlds come with many pros that benefit users.

While there are many pros of these technologies, there are also cons. Some cons include less face-to-face communication, functionality issues, expenses to implement the technologies, and so on. There are many cons that come with the benefits of these technologies. However, the creativity that virtual world technologies foster within users outweigh these cons. This creativity is developed within users because of the many built-in features that are implemented in these technologies. Since there are so many options and ways for a user to navigate through the technology, this will expand their minds to adapt to a new flexible technology. The future of virtual worlds will obviously advance much more. Maybe, we might even be able to see the future through the new VR technologies!

Works Cited: 

Mehta, Diane. “After Second Life, Can Virtual Worlds Get a Reboot?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 May 2013, www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/#1a9e8f63735a.

Tutton, Mark. “Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life.” CNN, Cable News Network, 9 Nov. 2009, www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/index.html.

Blog Social Networking

Social networking has numerous benefits, as well as consequences, to society. These technologies have evolved the way users interact with one another, which has significantly benefited businesses in the corporate world from a marketing perspective. One of the ways social networking sites have benefited businesses is that they help build brand awareness once you begin to engage with a broad audience. Another benefit is the traffic social media platforms help generate. For instance, if a clothing company uses Pinterest, a social networking site to post pins with a clickable link that directs them to their product web page, then that business will generate additional traffic to their website from the social networking sites that directed the Pinterest users. This in turn, assists with generating a higher search engine ranking since the search engine picks up the increased traffic that is leading to the website from the various social networking sites. Another benefit social networking sites has on society is that it is a cost-effective strategy to increase brand exposure, boost sales and increase engagement. Lastly, as mentioned in one of the required readings from class, "Social Media in Plain English," the YouTuber explains how social media can benefit businesses due to their collaborative features of blogging, writing reviews and leaving comments. Thus, while these technologies can be used in many ways and have numerous benefits, I specifically decided to focus on how these social networking sites can positively impact corporate businesses from a marketing perspective.

There are also some slight consequences to these technologies. Social networking sites have worsened the mental health of many users, which might be due to the content users run across on their social networking sites. Some issues include increased depression, poor sleeping habits, dissatisfaction with body image and cyber-bullying as well. All these negatively impact the human body, which is why many say social networking sites should be used to a minimum and usage should be kept under control.

According to one of the required readings from the class site, "Canceling AOL," the guy in the video consistently urges the AOL rep to cancel his account since he doesn't use it anymore. Since technologies have been evolving, many consumers have been shifting their focus and usage towards products that are the latest in or products that consumers actually benefit off of. AOL is an example of a social networking site that failed because other sites overpowered with more interesting features for social net-workers. I personally feel that these current social networking platforms will stay "in" in the future, and something that is more engaging, user-friendly and exciting like TikTok will take over.

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Works Cited: 

Nalts, Cancelling AOL (to Music). www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JYIXzfhel8.

Common Craft. Social Media in Plain English. 28 May 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE.