Alex's Blog

Virtual worlds can be used in many different ways. One way is to make it become a simulation world. You would be able to do things in that world that you couldn't do in the real world like "fly". Virtual worlds are amazing because there is so much that you can customize. You can even create games and pretend that you're someone else. An example would be first person shooter games. You can pretend to be a soldier and shoot other players in the comfort of your own home. A con would be that some people take virtual worlds a little too seriously. Some people have difficulty finding the line between virtual and reality which can be dangerous in numerous ways. I think the future of VR is leaning towards 4D entertainment meaning that you would be able to use more than just your eyes. I think that people will be able to feel the recoil of a gun when shooting in a FPS game.

A Twitter discussion differs from an in-class discussion by having the ability to potentially hide behind a screen. Twitter allows people to connect with more people using hashtags. It has the potential to make trends and like always, whatever goes on the internet stays on the internet. So unlike an in-class discussion you have to be careful about what you type because it will be hard to take back.

I recently made a tumblr account and I think its very clever how they designed their site. People can share their music playlists and when you visit their blog you can choose to play the music in the background. Another social media website I looked at was Yelp. This is different from the other sites because its all about sharing your opinions on small businesses and rating them out of 5. I found a lot of reviews to be helpful. Especially the reviews that included a photo.

Social networking is a big deal for companies. It is where consumers can go an discuss about a product with other customers or even employees. I would say the dark side to using social media is that there can be trolls on the internet. Even if your product is great, people can lie and bash on your products. Some social networking sites allow you to remove comments like those but there are some that don't. If a product or service is just bad it is easy to tell because a lot more people would be leaving negative comments. Usually people tend to ignore the good comments of a product and base their judgement only on the negatives. It is said that bad news travels faster than good news.

In the case of Blog v Wiki I think blogs are more for opinionated content while Wikis are more factual. Blogs gives more freedom to the user in where they are able to speak their mind. Wikis have some restrictions to them making them which is why the nature of a wiki is to be more factual. In one of the readings a Walmart employee reviewed a movie that they were selling on their blog. It was a one sided critique in which he bashed on the movie being "debacle". Walmart is now known for having their own blog about the items that they keep in store. People who blog are the ones who actually buy the products. This helps them decide which items stays on the shelves and which goes. Wikis however are used to obtain other kinds of information. Mostly up to date facts because multiple people can update the content on a wiki. However, every change made to a wiki is sent to the contributors. Unlike blogs, its not really meant for discussions and opinions.