Trisha's Blog

Virtual worlds can be used to create simulations of different situations people in many different professions may face. For example In the  Wall Street Journal  article “Avatar II: The Hospital,” Stephanie Simon describes how virtual worlds are used to prepare medical professionals for emergencies. For example, emergency room nurses can be trained to handle a crowded emergency room during an earthquake or a blackout by working through the scenario in a virtual world. The technology fosters creativity by allowing hospitals to create many different virtual situations that can be altered in real time. According to the article, medical schools are also using virtual worlds to train medical students to do techniques they traditionally practice on mannequins. An important benefit of virtual worlds for hospitals and medical schools is that it is a low cost way to train medical professionals. Virtual training is lot less costly for hospitals than hiring actors to play out the scenari...

A twitter discussion is similar to a blackboard discussion in a few ways. First, you can create an original post to share your point of view. Second, you can also choose to add on to an existing post. This is similar to the retweet and comment feature on twitter. On Blackboard, each discussion usually has a question or topic that you are supposed to focus on. However, on twitter you are free to write a tweet on any topic you want. In-class discussions are similar to blackboard and twitter discussions in the sense that people also share their opinions and others have to chance to comment on what they said or offer their own idea. However, in-class discussions allow people to have face to face contact with the people they are talking to. In my opinion, this might sometimes limit what people might say to each other. Many people find it much easier to say polarizing things when they are doing it behind a screen. Ultimately, all three methods offer a way for people to share their views and...

I compared Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Linkedin. One thing I noticed about all of them is that they all serve as a way for people to share information about themselves with followers. They also allow users to communicate with a large number of people from all over the world. While your followers or friends on these social media platforms can only include your family and friends you know, you also have the opportunity to connect with millions of people you’ve never even met. One thing that stands out about Linked-in when comparing it to the other three platforms is that it is meant to be a professional platform. Instead of posting about their personal lives, most people will post information related to their careers. Instagram is primarily meant to share photos. While captions often accompany the photos, it seems like most people strive to express themselves through their photos on Instagram and not as much through words. Twitter offers shorter posts, while Facebook allows users ...

Social Networking makes it easier to connect with people. For example, in the article, “Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting,” Langfitt explains how Linkedin has made it much easier for recruiters to identify and contact candidates for jobs. With hundreds of thousands of profiles that detail users’ job experience, recruiters can quickly search for potential candidates and reach out to them. Additionally users can get input on topics, such as business-place issues and workplace developments from many different people. Linked-in and social networking in general have proven to be a much more efficient way for people to connect. It saves people the time of having to keep track of names and numbers on paper and then call people individually. Social networking also allows users to feel more connected to their friends and families because they can gain insight into the little things they are doing at the moment. In “Being There,” Heffernan describes how Facebook statuses show w...

According to Gill in the article, “How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere,” a blog consists of reverse chronological journaling that is written in regular, time-stamped entry by a blogger. The bloggers write about topics that matter to them and therefore their voice is present in the posts. A blog can have only one blogger or a community of authors. The article also states that blogs can be about virtually any topic. This is similar to wikis. Wikis also cover a huge variety of topics. However, wikis are different than blogs because many people can edit the same content. According to an article published in  Information Week  titled, “How to Use Wikis for Businesses,” thousands of people police the wiki and edit as necessary. Wikis are built around collaboration. There is essentially only one body of work that is constantly updated and edited. Blogs on the other hand consist of many different individual posts by the blogger. Other people that view the post can add...

The topic of my research project is an analysis of social media.  I will discuss the positive and negative effects it has had on society. Today, most people are active on some form of social media. It has enabled people from all over the world to connect and share content with each other. While some people have a favorable view of social media, others have criticized it for exacerbating many social issues. I plan to research how the use of social media has improved people’s lives and worsened others. For example, many people feel that social media has given them a voice they would not otherwise have, helped their business succeed, or helped them stay in touch with family and friends. On the other hand, issues such as cyberbullying, poor body image, and stalking are often blamed on social media. I will explore all of these advantages and disadvantages in order to present an accurate depiction of social media.