Ecology refers to an open system that is dynamic, complex, independent, diverse, adaptive, and partly self organizing. According to Lev Manovich’s eight propositions, one of the ways that New Media can be defined is as a new method of communication through new visual and spatial languages. I believe that this definition aptly describes how I use New Media in my everyday life. New Media has a major influence in my actions every day, to the point where it can be said that it has created a digital media ecology in my life.

One of the ways New Media has had an effect on my daily life is in the way I interact with my family and friends. New Media makes it far easier for me to communicate with other people over long distances. For example, I have plenty of family members that live in other states or countries. In the past, it would be difficult for us to get in contact with each other often. As such, we would only really be able to speak with each other during large get-togethers or trips. However, with services such as Facebook, Skype, Facetime, etc, it has become much easier for us to keep in touch. Similarly, the flexibility that these services give me lets me keep in contact with friends and acquaintances, despite the fact that we may not always be able to get together in person at times.

Another way that New Media influences my life is in my education. The majority of the classes I have taken have required the use of New Media in some form. For example, some of the courses I had to take for my major were hybrid classes. For these courses, many of the assignments and individual lessons that were given were often times meant to be done completely online. Blackboard is also used by many professors to share assignments, grades, and other resources with their students. New Media has had an influence in most of my other classes as well. Even outside of these hybrid courses, many of my past professors have incorporated New Media technology into their lessons in some way. The most prominent example of this are the online lab assignments and exercises that most of these hybrid courses implement. In addition, fully online courses, both free and paid for, have become increasingly popular and more easily accessible for me as well as other people.

I also use New Media in order to receive news updates. Not only am I able to read the news on dedicated news sites like the New York Times, I am also able to instantly get updates about important events through social media and other platforms as well. Additionally, I am able to watch news updates through videos and streams as well. I even listen to the news via radio broadcasts, albeit less frequently.

One form of New Media Technology in particular that has managed to work its way into many parts of my life is email. I use several different emails for different purposes. One of the ways that I use email is for personal reasons. For example, I need to use email in order to sign up for services that require me to enter an email for confirmation. I also use it to send large messages or documents to people when the need arises. I also try to take advantage of promotions (from legitimate sources) that get sent to my inbox when I can. Email is also useful to me for work as well. In the past, it has consistently been one of the easiest ways for me to communicate with coworkers or bosses about important topics. Additionally, email is one of the easiest methods for me to share documents with other people when needed. What I find most interesting about email in general is the fact that I continue to use it so extensively, despite the fact that there are so many people who seem to dislike and even try to avoid using email as much as possible. These people even go so far as to say that email is dying out. However, I think The Atlantic put it best when it said that email “is the cockroach of the Internet”. Despite the fact that so many people around me seem to hate email, it is still an important and resilient tool that has and will continue to play a huge part in how I use New Media as a whole.

Another form of New Media technology that has played a major role in my life is in streaming and video sharing. I primarily use most of these services, such as Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, etc, for entertainment reasons. I use them to watch shows or movies that I may have missed, or just to find new and entertaining videos or podcasts to watch in my free time and to show others. I also use Youtube, or dedicated music streaming services like Pandora throughout the day for entertainment or background music as well. However, I don’t only have to use them solely for entertainment purposes. For example, if there is a task that I am having trouble understanding or that I am unfamiliar with, often times, I will look up tutorial videos to help me get a better idea of what I need to do.

I noticed that there are many times throughout the day that I will use New Media without even realizing it. I am constantly listening to music through Pandora or Spotify. During the day, if I need to use my phone to make a call, there will occasionally be times that, without realizing, I will check my social media, such as Facebook before doing what I originally intended to do. I am also constantly checking my emails, despite the fact that I may not always have notifications for them. This has had an effect on many of my classes as well. A large part of the reading and study material I’ve needed for the majority of my classes has been kept online or shared with me through places such as Dropbox. I’ve also realized that I am almost constantly connected to the internet through at least one device throughout the day. This isn’t necessarily a bad turn of events though. Many of these forms of technology have become necessary for people to use on a daily basis. Due to this, it seems to me that Steve Jones’ concept of eversion is becoming more apparent in my life. This can have both a positive and a negative effect on my life. One the one hand, it helps me to stay more connected to people that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with often otherwise. However, the fact that I can stay so connected also means that, if I’m not careful, it becomes harder to maintain my privacy and security. Identity theft is an issue that I am constantly concerned about. In addition, there are many people who feel as though being constantly connected to their social media causes them stress. While I don’t personally feel this way for the most part, it can be easy to allow this system to cause me to become stressed when I don’t realize it. Also, there are times where New Media, as with all technology, can fail or backfire on us. The fact that nowadays, so many people rely on these technologies means that any issues that the system has can severely affect our daily lives as well.