Hirra Zafar's Blog

I have not contributed to class Wiki so far, but I do have some content in mind that I would like to add to. I have been looking through our Wiki to see where I want to contribute and I found two categories that I would really like to add to. The first category is in Entertainment; in the Entertainment abroad I saw that there was a section talking about K-Pop which I am a fan of and have quite a bit of knowledge of. I saw someone had written about the Korean music group BTS and there is a lot more information about how they have become so popular all over the world and have even achieved success in the U.S. so I would like to add on to that section and discuss how they became even more successful with their new album and music video; I also think it's important to mention how their use of social media platforms helped them along the way. The other category that I would like to add to is Beauty and Cosmetics under Fashion; I saw that there were a lot of beauty brands that were missi...

According to the article "P2P File Sharing", file sharing is the "sharing and transmitting of computer data in a network or internet with various access levels." It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like; to put it more simply, it allows you to share your information with others. Now P2P is a little more specific, it stands for peer to peer file sharing; it is facilitated by a software program through which people can access files that have been made available on another computer. The software programs will search and locate a file that an individual is looking for. Gnutella is an example of a popular P2P file sharing network; it allows users to request a file and then download it. Another example is Napster, which used to let people share music files with one another through their website. Reference: “P2p File Sharing.” Margomin , 13 Apr. 2016, margomin.wordpress.com/2016/04/13/p2p-file-sharing/.

While new media has brought about some really great things, it has also created a lot issues as well relating to privacy and confidentiality. With so much content being digitized  it's become easier for people to gain information about others. Apps like Facebook had become very controversial because of all the privacy concerns. I remember being very concerned myself when I realized that Facebook's Messenger app was getting access to so much information about me that I wasn't even aware of. By simply downloading the app, I was giving it access to all the information on my phone, such as contacts, photos, videos, etc; it even had access to my microphone and camera at all times. The worst part is that most people don't even realize how much information they are giving up when they download and use certain apps. Even by going through your settings and trying to make everything as private as you want, there is no way to completely keep things private. On Facebook, it's n...

I know that Baruch College does have a presence in social media to reach students and new applicants, but their content is not very interesting. It's not something that would really appeal to students. There are lots of pictures of the college and a group of students where you know it's staged; I feel like it would be more beneficial for them to post more real content of what college life is like at Baruch. Not just officially taken pictures, but pictures taken by actual students while they're in college. There could be a lot more content promoting student life and club events. There are so many different clubs at Baruch that students are not even aware of; they could take time to feature each one of them on their pages or if a certain club is having a really cool event, they can talk about that. I think that is something that students would be more interested in seeing, rather than looking at facts about the college and its ranking; while you can post information like that...

A way that I use new media to foster my creativity is by posting pictures on Instagram. I am really into makeup and my cousin had convinced me to start posting my looks on Instagram since so many people had begun to do that and I also enjoyed doing makeup. I started it just for fun as a hobby; I do my makeup and then post pictures of it on my page to share it with my followers. By using hashtags, I can reach a lot of people that are looking for posts like mine. With Instagram you can share images with lots of people. A lot of people use it as a personal blog as well and I had started doing that too. Along with pictures of makeup looks, I would also post pictures of myself at places I had been to. In addition to pictures, Instagram also has Instagram stories where you can post more content that you might not want on your actual page. Here's a few examples of my posts from my page:          

The article "The New Math of Mashups" discusses one way that new media fosters creativity. With sites where people can share music such as YouTube and Sound Cloud, it allows for people to get more creative with music and then share it. Musical artists can take parts of different songs and pieces, or add in parts they've created to make something completely new. Whereas before only professionals might have been able to do this, with the open accessibility through the internet and these music sharing sites, any kind of person whether an amateur, a professional, or just an average person would be able to do this. Some amateurs had been able to gain popularity by posting their mashups on YouTube such as a guy named Alex Aiono. He started posting videos of him singing to mashups of popular songs that he created and edited himself and he was able to get a really good response from people and made a career out of it. The article "Twitter Serves Up Ideas From Its Followers...