The Next New Thing

I grew up in the 90's and was always watching T.V shows on Nickelodeon. Many of them included: "Doug", "Hey Arnold", "Kenan and Kel" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch". It is very challenging to think and come up with innovative products or ideas that do not exist in today's tech-savvy era. However, what if we were able to use teleportation? Like Sabrina the teenage witch used to do  by simply stepping into her closet and "boom" she would instantly be at another place. Teleportation has not been yet implemented or tested, however i would not be surprised to see it in future years. It would be brilliant and extremely cool if we were able to use teleportation.

P2P File Sharing

File sharing refers to distributing or providing access to digital stored information such as images, videos, audio, computer programs, electronic books and documents. P2P (peer-to-peer) file sharing is a form of file sharing between different people who are connected to a network. When users find files that they want they can easily download them directly from other users on the network. Usually large files are broken down into chunks when downloaded. Some examples of common P2P applications include: Limewire, Ares, KaZaa, eDonkey and Gnutella. P2P is not considered illegal, what is considered illegal is the sharing of copyright material. "Media companies say that piracy — some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act — is an increasingly mainstream pursuit". (Brian Stelter and Brad Stone, "Digital Pirates Battle With Studios").  

Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy & Confidentiality are highly related to new media. Whether you are a user or non-user, you are impacted and exposed by the amount of privacy and personal information that is shared through social networks. Even if you do not participate or have an active profile in social sites, many of your friends do and will upload information about your life such as pictures, your interests and other personal information. Thousands of people constantly update the entire virtual world of what they are doing, how they feel, and where they are. Many people see social networks as a place to reconnect with old friends, connect with need ones or simply for entertainment purposes. What most of them ignore is the amount of personal information which they consider "private" is mainly shared and sold to third party companies for advertising and marketing purposes. Moreover, there is a notion of "shadow profiles" these are mainly related to profiles created on sites like Facebook and MySpace. Such profiles are built on unwanted information that users no longer wish to share or display. Things like pictures, comments, likes on pages, etc. Research shows that these profiles do exist and are kept in databases. An good example related to the idea of shadow profiles can be the fact that Facebook for instance, does not give you the option to close your account completely. Instead they provide you the option to "deactivate", with this you can no longer be found, or searched in Facebook. However, where does all your previous information goes? That is something to be aware and concerned about...

Another issue that goes in hand with this topic it is privacy policies. The majority of times social sites will require you to share as much personal information as you can. For example Facebook requires you to set up an account only if you provide a current email, your age and student status. Additionally, private policies are mostly perceived as misleading, unclear and hard to read. Many times people ignore those polices as well as the terms & agreements and simply click on the box to agree to all terms. What they do not know is that by not informing themselves about such policies, they are exposing all their private information and giving up their rights to being violated by social media companies.