Impact of Twitch.tv: Growth of Esports by Timothy Mok

As, I have not added any content yet, I plan to expand the twitch.tv tab as well as the gaming tab in the wiki. I plan to research the history of both of these tabs. In the case of twitch.tv, I would like to add a Justin.tv as part of twitch.tv history. I also plan to expand the gaming tab to include Esports of certain games as well as more general history of gaming.

In the age of digital media, it is not a surprise that we have near unlimited access to information and media. One such way, a person would obtain media/information would be via file sharing. File sharing is simply the act of distributing digital goods such as videos, books or music. P2P file sharing or peer to peer file sharing is simply a network of users who distribute digital media without a central servers. This means that if the single source would be lost, others in the network would be able to provide said digital goods. For example, according to the New York times written by Eric Pfanner who states that sites like Rapidshare which allow user to upload many forms of digital goods to be shared with other users. Other examples of these P2P file sharing would be Utorrent or Streamable.

The age of new media comes with many perks: the ability to access vast amounts of information at our fingertips, the ability to openly express ideas and opinions with others without constraint and the ability to consume entertainment unlike the kinds in traditional media. With many pros comes with cons; the youth have been exposed to an era where they feel the need to share everything to everyone. With that amount of open data in the internet, companies have begun using that data to analysis our behaviors and interests which they use to either advertise or sell our data to third parties. As such, sites such as social media platforms and blogs run such a risk. The significance of privacy and confidentiality become more apparent when hidden in many sites contain terms of services which dictate that your personal information is being harvested. Hopefully, in the coming years, our society will become more concern with privacy.

With every passing day, the importance of new media is apparent to the running to our world. New media has given us the ability to easily express ideas and well as information. It has also given us the ability to quickly communicate with others. As such, one potential suggestion to improve Baruch College would be the use of virtual reality in teaching. Some students may benefit greatly when taught with hands-on rather than purely through powerpoint or chalkboard. The implementation of virtual reality or VR would allow students to virtualize the content being taught. Another suggestion would be to take full advantage of the digital medium and teach via livestream. This would allow students to skip the commute as well as benefit from the comfort of their own homes(Hopefully not too much.)

An example of how new media has allowed us to express our creativity would be through memes. A meme is an idea that spreads from person to person within a culture or subculture. The internet has greatly expanded our ability to create and share memes. The media tool used to create a meme in this example would be imgflip.com. Here you are presented with a format, usually a picture of a pop culture reference. On this picture, you would add line(s) of text either expressing an opinion or an idea. For example, the meme created by tipsy_taylor used the format, Philosoraptor which is a play on the words philosopher and Velociraptor:  https://imgflip.com/i/2x04cw

New media fosters creativity as it allows us to freely express our ideas and opinions in an almost unlimited way. From blogs to videos to meme posting; new media has greatly expanded our repertoire. As such, many companies are beginning to understand the importance of unhindered creativity as stated in the article "Twitter serves up ideas from its followers" which shows that technology companies have been active in allowing their to innovate rather than suppress them.