Virtual Worlds

There are many pros and cons to virtual worlds. In "A Second Life on Second Life", a lady utilizes Second Life to live out all the things in life she wishes she could do or be as she is disabled and almost never leaves her house. This allows her to fantasize and be someone she is physically unable to be and she feels much happier due to her "second life" in Second Life. She finds the game mentally stimulating and liberating. In another article "I've been to that club, just not in real life" there are both upsides and downsides to virtual worlds. Through a virtual world, users are able to go into and explore areas of Manhattan's Lower East Side. They can go into various nightclubs or establishments as if they were to go in real life. The author even cited a packed coffeehouse he goes into in real life, then goes in to the same concert in the coffeehouse in the virtual world so he can experience it without the negative aspects that were there in real life. This is another pro as it allows users that may not get to experience this area to experience it remotely through the virtual world. One con is that it could take away from the experience of seeing it in person and make it too accessible so that it loses its luster.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook - Facebook is definitely more about content in bulk. Here is where you can post pages and pages of insightful thoughts on politics, lifestyle, music and more. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Facebook seems to be the most driven by "advertising", with Facebook ads being a very standard thing now. You can't scroll down your news feed without seeing ads all over your sidebar and now even in between posts. Facebook is definitely an important tool for musicians and music lovers alike though,

Twitter - Twitter moves to an alarmingly fast rate. With such short posts and many people following more and more its very easy for tweets to get lost in the mix. Sometimes photos on Twitter can really catch the users eye and pull them in to your tweet. Twitter is similarly used to Facebook, discussing anything from music to politics, however it is much harder to have full on group discussions on there. You can only tweet at one or two people at a time due to character limits.

Tumblr - Tumblr is certainly an unique site. Tumblr is similar to Instagram in that is is heavily operated via mobile devices. Much of Tumblr is "reblogging", similar to retweeting on Twitter. Tumblr has become a breeding ground for social activists of all kinds, using the websites hip users to spread the word of whatever social causes they deem important. Imagery is very important on Tumblr with reblogging, using eye catching images to gain more and more momentum behind a post and more reblogs.


Instagram - Instagram is all based on photos. Instagram is the most narcissistic of all the four social networking sites. Users publish photos of their life to Instagram - often times portraying the highlights of a users life. Some users are what I call selfie obsessed, and post many photos of themselves to attract attention to themselves, both platonic and to attract others.

Blog About Twitter

              A twitter discussion is very different from a blackboard discussion. Each "discussion" becomes more individualized, multiple people can respond to the same tweet with different thoughts and comments. In a typical classroom discussion everyone must raise their hand and respond in sequential order. On a twitter discussion, it's not as linear. You can respond to someone else's comment about a post, and then someone can respond to your post with a comment and many other variations. It can start to branch off. This makes for an interesting dynamic and also allows us to pick and choose what we want to respond to and discuss instead of going off of the last comment made like in a typical discussion.
              When tweeting, all of your followers can see your tweets as well. If you're someone with a large social media following you have to be more aware of how what you post will be viewed by your followers. This can lead to someone filtering their thoughts or watering them down, instead of in an in class discussion where their views are more contained.

Blog v Wiki

In "Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead To Drug Raid", a Bay Ridge community in Brooklyn had set up a blog that was used to discuss the events and problems of their neighborhood. The blog was eventually used to help bust a crack house and arrest six drug dealers, with community users bringing forth evidence and discussions on the blog that compiled together allowed Police to step in and make the necessary arrests. This shows how a blog can be used for collaboration, with both named and anonymous users being able to work together to take down local drug dealers. The blog allowed the community members to feel united and see the strength of their numbers of the neighborhood. A blog serves many functions and can be used to collaborate in many ways, whether it be the above example of a community having its own blog, a school having its own blog, or even groups of friends discussing their hobbies and interests.

Wikis serve many functions, whether its to tie and unite employees of a business together such as in "More On How To Build Your Own Wikipedia". A wiki allowed them to all to share and have access to the most up to date information. In a sense, a Wiki is almost similar to the new Google Docs or Google Sheets - which allows multiple users access to a .doc, spreadsheet or any other type of file hosted online on googles servers that they can all edit and update. Wiki's could allow for a dedicated archive of a company's records or a united database. They can keep workers at a company united by allowing them all access to the same file online, allowing them the most up to date version.