In this particular study, participants were instructed to play 18 rounds of virtual golf in which they pretended to be holding a golf club. Another set of participants were asked to play golf but by pushing a button on a gaming controller. When asked to play a real game of golf, those who played the motion filled game fared much better than those who pushed the button on a controller. Those who simply pushed a button actually scored much worse in reality. Scholars found that the practice from the virtual golf game was transferable to a real golf game.

Researchers have concluded that video games are close enough in mimicking real life, that skills are becoming more transferable. Furthermore, this finding reinstates the belief of the researchers that video games are becoming more like simulations rather than just video games; simulations that mirror the real world. These games require physical whole body movements compared to previous games where players sit and push a button. Whether subconsciously or not, these video games are shaping how people communicate through their bodies. People who play these games are observing how people interact in certain situations. When players find themselves actually in these situations, they may be more likely to use their virtual experience of this situation as a reference point for how to act in a socially acceptable way.

Penn State researchers claim that virtual games are teaching individuals how to act and providing practice in physical activity. They believe that these virtual worlds and simulators will also be important in teaching and shaping other social skills in the future. Of course, more research is necessary to determine the accuracy of this hypothesis.

There is a popular saying that deals with life and art. Does life imitate art? Or does art imitate life? In this case with video games and simulations available today and in the future, maybe it is a little bit of both. Simulations are exactly that, imitations of real life experiences. For now we can virtually put ourselves into various sporting and physical activities. In the future, we may be using video games as simulations to help us with job interviews, or learning skills like carpentry or cooking. Instances that can help us prepare for the real thing, with feedback and not as strict consequences. Popular opinions of video games may soon experience a change.

A recent trend that has begun to take root is called the “pushback.” It appears as though some people have reached the tipping point and are trying to distance themselves from living life through a screen. However, they are taking a rather contradictory approach to this trend. Through their social media accounts people are posting photos of themselves enjoying some “technology free” time after using their phones to take the picture and create the post. Does this not defeat the purpose of spending time away from the screen? The execution has its faults but the idea is there. Nevertheless, people have begun to revert back to good old face to face communication in the real world.

A new study being done at the University of Washington is looking at this “pushback.” The researchers are predicting that this trend is going to become mainstream rather quickly. Around 400 images gathered from various popular social media sites were analyzed for their content. The university soon discovered that people found very creative and compelling visual representations of technology resistance. The main themes they found to be the most popular were issues of mental health, strengthening interpersonal relationships, a virtual overload and encouraging the creation of areas that are free of technology. Many of the posts studied made references to social media being as addictive as cigarettes and drugs. The once enticing possibility of being constantly connected to one another is finally taking its toll on some individuals.

Getting back to basics is what many are after. A time when people were not constantly looking at a screen. Older generations have voiced their concern for the younger generation’s ability to communicate face to face. Give it a few more years for this “pushback” to really take hold. This idea may subconsciously encourage society to look for ways to balance their virtual and real worlds. David Levy, an iSchool professor, has written a book called “Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives” with this very goal in mind.

It is important for us as a society to find balance, not just with technology but with everything in life. Too much of a good thing can be damaging, as can too much of a bad thing. That being said, it is incredible what the Internet has done for our world. We have so much access to information. We sometimes forget how incredibly lucky we are for being part of a generation that can do such amazing things. However, we cannot ignore our inherent nature as human beings for face to face interaction. These have been and will continue to be important social skills to have. Step away from the screen and enjoy what is around you.

This app was developed by researchers through working with elderly people who live in an independent living community. These communities are filled with seniors who greatly outnumber the number of nurses and care givers. Previously developed apps have only been able to simply track an individual’s data. This new app looks to create a profile directly related to each senior who uses this program. This program aims to become more engaging with the users as well as the care givers. This app looks to help care givers in terms of identifying problem areas with regards to senior’s health, while allowing the user’s to maintain their independence. The data collected helps to show seniors their daily levels and if they are on track. Care givers are notified with real time results when something appears to be “off” or at-risk. Elderly adults who choose to use such a program are able to ask questions or share their concerns with their care givers through a recording or text message.

Users are able to set daily goals for example, consuming less caffeine, while simultaneously recording their daily activity. These records are then sent to the care givers or health department of their living community in real time. Another feature is the ability to track and manage medication schedules. Medication reminders are sent to the seniors. Care givers are notified if medication is not being taken properly or if medicine renewals are taking too long. The app also offers brain puzzles that help to enhance their mental ability through cross word puzzles or Sudoku.

Currently, this app is being used on tablets. At the app introduction to beginners, seniors appear to be hesitant. As progress is made, seniors became more familiar and comfortable with the technology. This hesitation is also being eased by pairing the seniors with students who in turn teach them how to use it.

During the initial study, researchers found positive results. Elderly adults became more comfortable with technology, depression risk decreased within a couple individuals as well as increased interactions amongst participants.

What this app looks to do is introduce a more personalized and individualized approach to health care. Researchers want to expand comfort levels with technology in the senior population by making it more applicable and relatable to them. Seniors active engagement with their health encourages adults to be more aware of their daily activity. Technology can be a wonderful thing, especially when it helps maintain healthy lifestyles.

Researchers found that Swedish students are utilizing computer programs that do not challenge their thought processes but rather reinforces what they already know. It would then seem that students are not being taught any new content. Instead of teachers interacting with students in person, students are being forced to learn from technologies that are doing nothing in way of furthering their education. Out of 100 programs and apps that were analyzed based on the quality of the content, only 17 met the standards set out by the researchers. Many programs proved to have such poor quality that they never passed the preliminary steps of the study.

An estimated 90% of resources available online to help younger students were found to only test students on knowledge already established rather than helping them to learn new content. These testing tools provide no explanation as to why each answer is correct. The aim of the programs are to mainly beat the clock and not towards a better understanding of the content. All hope is not lost. These programs have the potential to be extremely beneficial learning tools. They have the ability to teach students content that may otherwise not be learned. Programs cannot act like an online version of a book; one dimensional and non-interactive. Going forward digital tools must provide the correct answer along with an explanation and feedback. Likewise, it would also be an ideal way to show students how you can think about questions and problems in different ways. It shows students that there is not just one way of thinking and communicating. It also has the potential to show students the consequences for performing certain actions which is not available when learning from a book. A perfect example of this would be the dreaded “If train A leaves at 10:30 am at 200 MPH and train B leaves at 10:45 am at 225 MPH, which train makes it to Ottawa faster?”

An experiment was conducted on two groups of students; one group used a program with a friendly character who followed them along their journey while the other did not. At the end each group had to take a math test. The group with the character were more motivated to do well on the test in comparison to the other group. Previously students were under performing in school suddenly became more motivated to do well when they had a character they could relate with and who helped them to complete the program. The research group from Sweden says that the first developer who makes a fully comprehensive and interactive program will likely gain control over the entire market for educational programs. Creating educational aids is no simple task; developers need to keep in mind that they are feeding the minds of those who will one day rule the country and economy.

For those who may not be familiar with Twitter, a “retweet” is when a follower shares a company or person’s tweet with their own set of followers. For example, Tim Horton’s may tweet about a new donut flavour for that month and since I “follow” their Twitter account, I can than decide to “retweet” that message which will then be shared with all my followers. My set of followers may not follow Tim Horton’s directly but because I shared it, my followers are now exposed to that specific message. This is how organization’s spread their message on Twitter and gain substantial exposure. Being retweeted is the goal; the more retweets, the bigger the audience exposed to that company.

Getting back to the timing of tweets, Twitter behaviour stays relatively the same throughout the week but changes once the weekend arrives. The start of the work day welcomes extreme amounts of retweeting as people catch up with what happened overnight. Traffic declines throughout the day and picks back up around lunch time. A decline happens again up until around dinner time (5 or 6pm). People are home from work and have free time which explains the spike in traffic after dinner time. While the weekends witness a more consistent distribution of time spent on Twitter throughout the entire day.

As was mentioned before, these times would be peak times for activity. Another time that would impact exposure would be when a big news story hits or a trending topic explodes. The University of Maryland conducted a study on the two methods just described, along with their own formula in order to determine the most effective method of the three. This formula came to be through research that was performed over two years for five weeks at a time between 6 am and 10 pm on 15,000 Twitter users. Data was collected over the first four weeks while the fifth week was used for model testing. What the researchers found was that the formula they had calculated proved to be the most efficient in generating the number of retweets over the guessing game required for the other two methods. So why should we care; organizations have the ability to maximize message exposure through Twitter. This will be an extremely important when it comes to marketing. Dollars can be spent more efficiently and companies can be more confident that their campaigns are reaching the desired number of people. Tweeting will soon (if not already) become a science.

What exactly does “stealing the physical voices of people” mean? It means, that individuals are recording the voices of someone who is in the same physical vicinity, taking that recording and altering it on software that allows users to create full sentences from a few recorded words. From there, these newly formed phrases and sentences are used by the criminals to gain access to various accounts that may require voice activation.

In a recent study completed in Alabama, impersonating another’s voice is a very new and very real possibility. Our voices are used every day in various forms; talking on the phone, talking to a co-worker, exchanging pleasantries with a store owner, and recording a voicemail message. There is ample opportunity for us to utilize our voices. Individuals looking to steal the “voice” of another can do so by performing an online video search, posing as a telemarketer (and recording the conversation), or as simply as hitting record on their phone to capture the voice of the person sitting next to them on the bus.

Technology now has the capability to take a sentence such as “Did you catch the Jays game last night? I was so excited when they won! It’s been a long time coming.” and can morph it into a very similar voice speaking a completely different phrase than the one recorded. This is not to say that everyone should be weary when speaking in public but rather the opposite; as security becomes tighter with banking and credit card services, more companies are looking into voice controlled accounts. This will allow people with accounts at these institutions to have control over their profiles by simply saying a few words or a phrase into a phone. Individuals should seriously consider the pros and cons of such an account feature.

The damage that could be done is not only serious but never-ending. Our voices are an important feature of each of us that help to identify us as individuals. Our voices are the primary mode of communication for the majority of the population. Losing our voice both physically and metaphorically speaking is not a situation that someone would like to find themselves in. Voice automation has yet to make it to the mainstream. That being said, companies and programmers are working diligently to fight against such security risks. As time progresses, so will technology. Being aware of this scenario is a step in the right direction. Taking small steps today to protect one’s identity will pay off in the long run.

As expected, when Facebook users are presented with positive comments made about a politician, they are more likely to personally view said politician in a more positive light. Likewise, if users are presented with a negative comment or viewpoint of a politician, the users will begin to view that politician more negatively as well. In considering the relationship between those who left comments, there appeared to be no relationship. Those who made comments did not have to be a Facebook “friend” in order to have an influence over readers. A valid point or strong opinion was enough to convince total strangers to either support or not to support a leader.

Despite the fact that the study was done on “pretend” politicians, the findings are extremely applicable to “real” politicians. It is a powerful unspoken rule that candidates need to establish a campaign for social media. Should they choose not to, they would lose access to a large majority of eligible voters. It would be far too risky for politicians to not monitor what others are saying about them online. Their entire image could be ruined with one comment or one website. Therefore, a social media strategy is a necessity.

Facebook and other social media sites provide many advantages over more traditional forms of advertising, but this is especially true when it comes to interaction. Unlike TV or radio commercials and especially in terms of any print advertising, political teams can interact directly with those on social media. It is not just a one way street of communication anymore. A supporter could leave a comment or suggestion that the campaign team may have never thought of otherwise. An interesting finding from this study was that, the politician was not required to respond to any comments in order to influence how others saw them. Individual perceptions towards politicians are shaped more through the unabashed and truthful comments of random Facebook users rather than the carefully crafted comments straight from the politician. What others think and say appear to be more authentic than anything coming from the campaign team.

It is not lost on the social media users that more likely than not, campaign teams would encourage staff members to leave biased, positive comments. As well, some may realize that campaign teams have the power and will use it to delete extremely negative comments. However, in the long run, campaign teams do not have as much control over what is said and done online in comparison to other advertising tactics. Citizens have an unprecedented amount of access to information, should they choose to seek this knowledge out. Completing an online search has the ability to turn non-supporters into supporters and supporters into non-supporters. As they say, knowledge is power.

Initially, people show great enthusiasm for supporting relief for natural disasters or non-profits. However, many individuals explain their lack of actually going through with a contribution in part due to not trusting the websites with their credit card or banking information. Websites, blogs, and social media accounts (when it comes to donating) are viewed as biased and untrustworthy. A recent study has found that Internet surfers are more likely to trust campaigns for donations from companies they are less familiar with. Sites that compare charities to each other and show where the actual money is sent or spent is a much more enticing option in convincing people to make a donation rather than viewing an actual advertisement. Websites such as Poverty.com or Charity Navigator are much more effective in collecting the dollar donations.

So why are people hesitant to donate? The same reason why television ads are becoming less effective; viewers feel like they are not being told the entire truth. People do not enjoy feeling like companies are trying to pull a fast one on them. They want facts and they want the truth, is that too much to ask? Sometimes as it was recently determined, people like to be surprised. Present your audience with something that can’t make them turn away. Present them with a fact that makes them stop and think. Make their jaws drop with the unknown. That is the key to successful online donation campaigns.

The element of surprise is beyond important in advertising today. Individuals are bombarded with thousands of ads daily from every media outlet during all hours of the day. With all the clutter the familiar and known are being paid less attention than the new and unfamiliar. Further research will be necessary to find if these data trends will remain in the future or if it is just for now. What won’t change is the number of causes asking for support. Everyone is asking for money and will continue to do so in the future. Organizations will therefore need to catch the attention of viewers that will win both their support and their wallet.

What do people search for? In general, people look for reviews of the specific product, how the company interacts with customers, product deficiencies or defects, and or opinions of popular bloggers. In terms of blogs, those who have a large group of dedicated followers are the most attractive for companies wishing to generate positive buzz on their new product. Companies who are up and coming with a new product want to get their product out there. Their resources may be limited and they may not have the right connections to get their product introduced to the right market at the right time. So how then do these companies get their product to the right people at the right place at the right time? By sending free samples of their products to influential bloggers. These bloggers will already have an established following who most importantly, trust what they have to say. All you need is one positive post about your product to spark some interest about your product. Needless to say, it is also true that this can work in the opposite way; one bad posting when you are starting out can hinder your progress. That is why social listening is so important for companies to constantly be monitoring and aware of in order to stay on top of what others have to say about them and their products. However, the success of a blog is primarily dependent on its readership. This reliance on their followers prevents bloggers from writing good reviews for disappointing or under performing products.

A new study from Penn State has found that sending products for free to bloggers does not mean that said product or company will receive a recommendation or positive review. Recently, bloggers have reported that instead of feeling obliged to say something positive about them, they actually feel more authorized to telling the truth rather than doing them any favors. Regulations have now come into existence that requires bloggers to disclose any and all compensation or benefits sent to them. These changes in regulations have had very minor implications on the art of blogging. The introductions of these rule changes have not been as game changing as one might think. For the most part bloggers have and will continue to go on as they please.

Despite what has just been discussed, many of those who update their blog regularly for their followers do not see themselves as holding influence over their readers. This is an interesting point once you stop to think about it. These individuals do not distinguish themselves as those who create the ideas from those who read or follow the ideas. Popular bloggers maintain more influence than they probably realize, as is shown with the number of visits. That being said, publishers of blogs do not see posting about products or companies as a method of advertising but as a form of spreading the word.

For those of us who have trouble making decisions, bloggers will always be there to help guide our thought processes. Keep those posts coming!

The generations born before the Millennials are quick to criticize that online interactions are diminishing the social skills of the kids today. However, this may not be the case. Many online users are in fact more in tune with their methods and ways of communicating than you think. Each social media platform or online forum or chat maintain a unique language and tone specific to that avenue. For example, Twitter is limited to 140 characters which emphasizes the use of #hashtags. While Facebook, with its much bigger posting limit allows individuals to tell stories. Pinterest is all about photos, while Tumblr involves both written and visual posts. Gaming sites involve brief and to the point code words when dating sites are more prone to witty play on words. This can be said of almost every website. For individuals who frequent more than one website on a daily basis, this requires adhering to a multitude of “languages.” What this means is that these individuals are more in tune with socially acceptable forms of expression in various social settings. They understand that different situations require different ways of expressing themselves which develops a new kind of skill; managing online languages.

Shortened or abbreviated words scare some of the more old fashioned communicators, but as it turns out this may not be the case. Social media users are more likely to follow the traditional rules of grammar and speech than we think. People are aware that despite some overlap between virtual and real time interactions, each context has its own specific rules to follow. With regards to Twitter, those who are familiar with the platform know that the abbreviations and short forms are necessary because of the character count. As a result, users are limited because of the restrictions set up by the platform. These individuals are not doing it because they are lazy, but because the site makes them. A recent American study found that slang words are more likely to be used when interacting with people from the same region geographically. This tends to involve stereotypical words or phrases specific to countries or areas.

Apart from these situations, online languages and interactions will not be the end of communication as we know it. In fact the opposite might be true; engaging in various forms of expression either in person or online will better prepare individuals for any social setting that they may encounter. Like with each website, they know that interacting with others will be different and may take different approaches in establishing common ground. So keep on tweeting, liking, posting, pinning and chatting you just never know where it could lead you.