P2P File Sharing

File sharing and P2P is most likely one of the most troubling technologies for companies that used to profit over this technology before it was available to the general public. File sharing is the sharing of computer based files such as pictures, videos, audio files, documents and so on. Peer to peer (P2P) File sharing are mostly large files that require a special kind of software to handle those type of files which are known as torrents and they are shared with everyone from a user's library. According to article I have read in the New York Times written by Brian Shelter and Brad Stone called, "Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios", they discuss how Hollywood has been affected since the BitTorrent business has become huge. This takes away from Hollywood's profits as well as the ability to produce movies because the money is distributed almost evenly up to what Hollywood makes in the pirate business.

A popular example of P2P File sharing is LimeWire. LimeWire which was a P2P File sharing software that was created in 2000 was very popular with a lot of computer owners that wanted free music downloads in a matter of seconds rather than going to the iTunes store or a music store to purchase music. Free music downloads is always preferable with most people because it is free. The main problem with this is that there are no benefits for the musicians and the audio engineers besides exposure. The release of Batman: The Dark Knight is also another example of how P2P File sharing is a problem. By the end of the year since its release, over seven million users worldwide had already downloaded the movie for free using BitTorrent sites and were able to watch it.

Blog about Twitter

A Twitter discussion is very different from a BlackBoard discussion as well as an in class discussion. What makes Twitter interesting is that it is a text based SMS type of communication social networking site. Because of this limit, this forces users to keep their conversations short and by any means misspell words in order to be within the 140 character limit. Twitter is beneficial in a number of ways because a user can use hashtags to link their tweet to that hashtag and that makes it easy for users on Twitter to respond or find your tweet. What I found most interesting about Twitter is that an American that was held captive in a Middle Eastern country for unknown reasons by the law enforcement tweeted from his cellular phone simply tweeting, "ARRESTED", which caught the attention of his friends as well as other users which led to them reaching out to the U.S. government to respond and free that person.

Besides what Twitter can be used for, Twitter keeps conversations short and simple. What makes Twitter similar is that just like BlackBoard, users can respond to your tweet and share their opinions. This is also similar to an in class conversation because anyone can comment on what you have to say and you will know who you are interacting with. The main differences between Twitter vs BlackBoard discussions and in class discussions is that there are no 140 character limits. You are free to keep on writing and voicing your opinions since there are no limits in that field. Overall, Twitter discussions makes a user think about what to say in a short response that easy to understand.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are much different now then how they were a decade ago. Most notably we would all remember Friendster as being one of the first social networking sites that became popular for reconnecting with friends and family that we have lost contact with in some point of time or just keeping up with them if we saw them often. Friendster today is not focused on the same goals and their mission statement is much different from what it was when they first started out in 2002. Friendster has transformed their focus of being a social networking site based on communication to a gaming community where people can communicate through the use of games. Next there is MySpace which has left Friendster in a shadow since the launch of MySpace in 2003.

Since MySpace was launched in 2003 it has continuously gained popularity from a number of businesses, musicians and the general public. MySpace is another social networking site that has went through a change because of many reasons and mainly because of competition from Facebook. The downfall of MySpace was a surprise for many because of their success in the past and they were known as one of the most popular social networking websites. The success of Facebook now can be comparable to the success of MySpace in the past. Failing to innovate and attract users through certain changes led to their downfall as well as the lack of privacy and other security issues that made MySpace vulnerable to attacks.

Facebook on the other hand is most different when their history is involved. Facebook started out as a small social networking site that was used only for college students when it was launched in 2004. As Facebook started to become more popular their goals and mission had changed and led to their attractions towards younger and older crowds as well as musicians and businesses. Facebook today is the top leading social networking site in terms of revenue, popularity and success. It has surpassed a big competitor such as MySpace and it has claimed ownership of one of the most used social networking sites that uses photographs which is Instagram. Facebook however is very user active which means there are a variety of ways for users in the Facebook community to interact which makes it a fun experience and their design which is based on a layout called TimeLine is very simple once it is learned.

Instagram out of all social networking sites is very different. What makes it different is that there is a limited use of words because photographs is what generates the social interactions. The saying that a picture is worth a thousand words explains it all. What makes this social networking site fun is that users can relate to each other through different types of pictures such as photography of landscapes, modeling pictures, pictures of natural disasters, entertainment and much more. This website motivates people to attract other users to follow their profile and in enable to this easily, this requires the use of hashtags which makes your photo public within the Instagram community but it is a great to gain exposure and to interact with others.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy and confidentiality has definitely changed a lot since new media as we know it such as social networking sites such as Facebook came into existence. From the time you sign up as a member to a social networking site, you are a product of their company as well as an easy target for many criminals worldwide. One way to see how this is true is by simply searching your name or email on Google and see how many results appear in that search. It is likely that you will be surprised at the amount of searches you will find and bizarre websites you never heard of with your information such as your email address or profile picture will appear as well. No one is ever safe to a point where they will never be a target for some kind of danger but the types of danger ranges because in reality no one can ever be too safe.

On social networking sites such as Instagram, privacy is a major pro rather than a con to their use of service. If you try to follow an Instagram user that has their privacy settings enabled the first thing you will notice is that you are only able to see their profile picture but you are not able to use right click functions or see any of their pictures unless you submit a request to follow that user and it will be left up to the user's will if he/she will accept your request. Now the con to that privacy setting is if your share your Instagram photos through another social networking site such as the parent of Instagram which is Facebook. Those pictures are still viewable only through Facebook in an album which is titled as Instagram Photos but otherwise on the Instagram service itself, users are not able to get around those privacy settings. Confidentiality these days on the internet using forms of new media is tricky.

Most people when they sign up the first thing they will do is list their full name, email address, date of birth as well family members. What might seem perfectly fine for others will also seem perfectly fine for identity theft criminals. It is very easy for identity theft criminals to obtain your email address and trace information leading back to you which may be very useful for them such as linking your email address to bank accounts, credit cards and much more that people would not think of. Identity theft is one of the major breaches in security on the internet when it comes to new media. Out of everything I have mentioned, it is impossible to be too be safe because everyone is vulnerable to some type of danger in any way but what users of new media can do to protect themselves is to just be smart and be wise as well as not sharing to much information or information that you do not want to share with the world.

The Next New Thing

The next new thing out there in the social networking world would most likely be something out of a James Bond movie. It's a coincidence that many technologies from the Bond movies are visions into the future of what technologies will exist. Nowadays people use social networking sites that are up to date with what we do daily such as instant messaging, video chats, gaming and other types of communications. If there was a hologram of Tupac Shakur performing at Coachella 2012 in California, why not use this type of technology for social networking sites in the future.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook out of all four social networking sites that I'm about to mention is the most currently updated in terms of features as well as probably the most famous amongst teenagers and older crowds worldwide. Since the emergence of the Facebook movie, Facebook's popularity, memberships and revenue has began to rise in numbers never seen. Since these innovations to Facebook, it has given its users more options as well as unique features such as the ability to video chat, timeline and much more. Facebook makes it very easy to connect with people through the find friends search or mutual friends search, groups, pages, subscriptions to pages as well as suggestions. Even though Facebook has made quite a lot of changes over the years, there still tends to be a lack of privacy for users which is a problem for most users.

Another social networking site that is popular is Myspace. Since Myspace has been beaten by the competition of Facebook, there has been a lot of changes which has actually turned away a lot of users to deactivate their accounts since Myspace has changed their site from a social networking site to communicate with users around the world to a more entertainment based community where fans can communicate with celebrities mostly in the music business. Myspace is definitely not what it used to be but it attracts people mostly for entertainment purposes. Both Facebook and Myspace share some similarities since they have borrowed some ideas and made them unique in a way to better their websites but the competition is fairly noticeable. 

Twitter on the other hand is more of a simple social networking site that does not rely on much features that Facebook and Myspace uses. Twitter however contains hashtags and sharing links in order to communicate along with status updates which is similar to both Facebook and Myspace just that both of those sites do not use hashtags. The goal for each user on Twitter is to gain as much followers as they can to gain more popularity and share common interests in their status updates or posts. Twitter is very simple but yet fun to use especially if a user has a lot of followers.

Lastly, Instagram is one of the newest social networking sites out there. Instagram is based on photography and sharing pictures within that community on Instagram. Similar to Twitter, Instagram uses hashtags as well as links and at signs with the username of a user right after the after sign in order to communicate and share common interests. Using Instagram is much more fun when users around the world follows your profile as well as noticing the amount of likes you can get for your pictures in order to gain popularity within that community on Instagram. Out of all these social networking sites, I find that Instagram is the most fun social networking site to use because it is simple but people communicate with pictures and less words. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words so a picture speaks for itself.

Social Networking

What are some ways (corporate and otherwise) that these technologies can be used? What are the benefits of these technologies to society? Be specific. Is there a "dark side"? Make sure to include your opinion of the way these technologies might evolve in the future.

Social networking can be used in many ways. Social networking has had an impact on society in a lot of ways in the past five years. In an article named, "How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks' Power", the writer talks about the use of social networking in politics. One of these uses is the encouragement of voters nationwide to vote for President Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 elections. With the use of social networking, his team was able to attract new, young and old voters as well as to understand his goals as president if he were to be elected and how those changes would benefit them. Social networking has also attracted others to share news as well as music much quicker.

The benefits of these technologies to society depends. One of them would be to reconnect with long lost friends and family. Social networking is also largely used for matchmaking when it comes to online romance. In article named, "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" written by Frank Langfitt, he discusses how social networking has had an impact on job recruiting and the way the process is being used to hire applicants. A social networking site known as Linkedin has had a big impact on the way recruiters hire applicants based on their profile on these social networking sites as well as their abilities that can be useful in a workplace. 

There is indeed a dark side when it comes to social networking. Over recent years there has been an increase in the number of suicides because of bullying online on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. Also, in the world of politics, a simple rumor of a politician can quickly spread and damage the reputation of that politician if there is not a quick reaction to address that rumor. There are a lot positives to social networking but there are some negatives as well. In the future, social networking may determine the way we work and think about a majority of things we depend on because within social networking sites many individuals share their opinions on certain things which people can agree on. So, far I cannot possibly think of any other ways that these technologies might evolve in the future since social networking is always rapidly changing especially with Facebook.