The first thing that came to my mind when i read the words Virtual World is WoW otherwise known as World of Warcraft. Although I have never played it I hear a lot about it from friends and randomly in the media. This game fits under the genre of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). There are Millions..yes MILLIONS of Players subscribed on WoW. It is literally another world in which players can tune out reality and live through their characters. Just like in real-life you can run, walk, talk and even meet people online since it is basically one big community. Virtual Worlds have revolutionized gaming which was once done at home playing on a console system and having friends over. This whole new world lets us interact with other people. Virtual Worlds can also provide convenience. As mentioned by Dave Itzkoff's article "Ive Been in That Club, Just Not in Real life" he tells us about how he went to a packed music club called the Cake Shop on Ludlow street being fed up with it he decided to go home and log onto his virtual world where he went "back" to the Cake Shop. I was shocked to hear about this because I am from the Lower East Side and makes me curious to check out my neighborhood in the Virtual World..its just mind blowing ! Like the saying "too much of anything can be bad for you" Too much internet usage may lead to bad health. In fact it can be easy to lose track of time when you're rummaging the online world fighting demons or flying around. Day turns to night the next thing you know you've skipped 3 meals for the day and now you're headed back to bed. Virtual Worlds can also be addicting, I mean online you can be anybody you want to be and some people may just feel ignored or non existent in the real world. I am also amazed at how much detail is put into designing and making these online worlds. It seems almost too good to be true. Upon reading this article I thought about how Dwight Schrute from The Office had a second life account and in it he was also a paper sales man and to make matters worse he was twice removed from the world. I love Dwight this man just gets me somehow. Its not hard to see how some people may substitute the real world with a virtual one. In our virtual we can be literally the best that we can nearly perfect. As seen in the video there is a good side for those that have disabilities in real life they can do things in the virtual world which they cant in real life such as, throwing a ball, running, swimming, walking, laying in the grass, even flying etc. The next generation of children will be introduced to technology at a far younger rate than our parents, who knows what direction that will lead. We have become so dependent on technology that when I leave my cellphone at home I feel like I am forgetting my arm, I am sure that I am not the only one !! Movies like surrogates make me fearful of the future. Will there be a day that we will fear to walk out of our homes, wash the car, walk the dog, or lay in the sun ? With that said, Good night folks !

"I've Been in That Club, Just Not in Real Life" by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, January 6, 2008

Social Networking

In the world we live in today the internet is one of the most widely used and important functions of business and personal life. Social networking websites obviously let us easily connect to the people that we often don't get the chance to see. Its accessibility has often led me to spend a lot of unnecessary amount of time "snooping" around Facebook, reading my friend's updated statuses or new pictures. What some of us fail to realize is that friends are not the only people observing on our Facebook statuses, uploaded pictures and our marital status. It may come as a surprise, but it has become increasingly popular that companies do background checks and may extend forms that are unconventional, i.e. Facebook. Not only do we have to watch out what we upload we also have to watch out the information that we put on our profiles and/or posts. If controversial or unprofessional information is found on your profile it may prevent you from getting a job, so next time you think about putting up pictures of you partying or wasted you should think twice. In the article "Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting" by Frank Langfitt's it mentions a situation where someone was offered a job from LinkedIn . Alfred LaSpina was offered a job for Osram Sylvania, when a recruiter reviewed his profile. With that said, the lesson is to always keep your online image as professional as possible to prevent potential conflict in the future. :]




Sources:

Langfitt, Frank. Social Networking Technology Boosts Job Recruiting. NPR, March 16, 2008.

Check Out Social Networking Sites

So..you're probably at that age now that you realize that not everyone in your class is going to be with you for the rest of your life...oh no !?! Well good thing there are social networking sites. You will now be able to keep in contact with Aunt Betty from across the globe with a totally different schedule as you and a ton of other friends. Amazing ? Yes i know. Thats not the whole story you'll also be able to upload pictures for everyone to see and envy your trips to *insert envy inducing tropical getaway* while updating your status so everyone will know how you're feeling, current song that you love at the moment etc.

Social Networking sites are everywhere ! Like any great invention there is likely going to be different variations of the same product. There isn't one social networking site that will cater to all the users. For example, there is Facebook, Myspace, Friendster and last but not least LinkedIn. Personally, I only use my Facebook. I just find that its very easy to use and the convenience of having a lot of my friends on it makes keeping in touch that much easier. It also had a simple layout and you have a lot of privacy settings which is great since you might not want those partying pictures to be lying around when a company snoops around on you ! Also I love the fact that Facebook is a free app for the Iphone so I can check updates or write comments with just one touch. Myspace is more customizable to the user as opposed to the template that Facebook has. So there are a lot of creative and colorful pages on this site. This site was or maybe still is used by users to meet people to date. I feel like this site is more laid back and some users use it to showcase their songs. Moving on to LinkedIn this is definetely a more professional site for networking. I would strongly advice not to put up any partying or outrageous pictures on your profile. To wrap it up ultimately its the users decision to choose which Social Network site they want to. You can join all of them if you want you have nothing to lose !...well except maybe a few minutes filling out the information while you join.