Rochelle Wilamowsky's New Media Blog

In the early 2000s people poured money into the development of virtual worlds to compete with standard social networks and the give people a place to escape to. This idea, however, never took off in the way that "flat" social networks do. Turns out people would much rather physically interact with people than pretend to. While there are many good uses for virtual reality, such as the treatment of PTSD, and with the changing of VR technologies, there is chance for another shift, but I still don't believe it will ever really take off as an alternative to real human interaction. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/arts/television/06itzk.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/dianemehta/2013/04/30/after-second-life-can-virtual-worlds-get-a-reboot/#40a3be0d735a

A conversation or discussion on twitter differs greatly from a conversation or discussion that happens face to face. People will say things from behind their computer's that they would never say in person. In addition, twitter conversations need to be in short 140-character bursts which is not necessarily how conversations flow naturally. In this way it differs from a blackboard conversation as well.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all have distinct uses. They were each created not as direct competition for the other but to fill a specific niche in the social networking world. Twitter was originally started so that people can post 140 character messages. People can also attach photos or articles, but the main focus is the message. Instagram on the other hand, highlights the photo. It is a place for posting pictures and while it allows you to caption your pictures, the main focus is the picture. Facebook allows you to share almost anything. The highlight of your post can be a message, a picture, an article, a video, or a website link. It is more versatile than the two aforementioned sites. LinkedIn is to connect people in professional circles. The site highlights connections with people in your field and is great for job searches. While there is overlap between the four social networking sites, they each have a specific function. 

Social networks can be an amazing thing for society. It allows for everyone to have a voice and for people to connect with friends who may live at great distance. That being said, there is an ugly side to social networks. There is a vast amount of bullying that goes on between young people on the web. People hiding behind their computers feel safe to say things that they would never say in person. The NYT article, "Antisocial Networking" points out that young people are verbally communicating less and less and are more likely to text a friend than call them. As amazing as texting is, for a quick word, things can often get lost or misconstrued when written. In addition, there are some safety and privacy concerns that arise with social networking. In the cybersecurity and usability fields there is something known as the privacy paradox, that is that people express concerns about privacy but don't necessarily take steps to protect their privacy. Moreover there is a huge tra...

Blogs can be used for collaboration if and when discussion begins in the comments. Wikis, on the other hand, are in and of themselves collaborative. Wikis are open to editing by anyone within the community while blogs are more secure.

For my research project I chose to focus on twitter, zeroing in on the 140 character limit and how it has lead to the degradation of language. I think it is an important topic, and extremely pertinent as twitter's base continues to grow. In the past, people shared things in writing, privately via letter and publicly via printed news articles. In both these cases, although in the public sense more than the private, there was always a sense of importance to the language in addition to the content. In today's society, however, with "new media" sources giving a voice to everyone, people "put things to print" so to speak much faster than before, this creates a lack of editing and a society who not only overlooks minor spelling and grammar mistakes, but a society who has forgotten the poetry of language and the importance of word choice. The next step for me is to find research that discusses the link between twitter and the degradation of language, as well as res...