Lo Semple's "21-year-old spiritual advisor" is spot on.
Facebook is not your friend.
The best internet advice that 'SandBox Nanny' has ever been given (this would be advice she herself sought) was from a tech at Google.
Do you know how hard it is to get through to a real live person at Google who will talk on the phone with you? Trust me, it's near an Act of God.
After a lengthy chat over particulars, here's the advice she was given. In the form of a story of what anybody who works at his 'techie level' of a juggernaut like Google does to protect themselves personally online:
(paraphrased and not verbatim) '....anybody has access to you. Everything about you. The best thing you can do is seize before anybody else does, as much personal, family, business or whatever data you can and lay claim to the keywords.....such as name...before my wife and I even had a child we logged in to every search engine we could and created accts. through free mailboxes on the narrowed down list of names for our future children. And then seized the social profile abilities on each one....that way, we are in control and protecting the innocent from being hijacked by ill-meaning intent.....early on in my career it was terrifying to see the power of the net just in technology alone....many of us pulled the same controls over our own names and personal life data from our family and business interests.....called our parents and siblings and distant relatives and friends and taught them how to do the same....'.
Facebook is not your friend.
While I personally believe that a philosophy like it sounds Lo Semple has, that it's best to 'ignore' what's being done on the web to the "news" is not only a cop-out, it's cowardly if what's being classified as a "bitch-fight" even has one shred of ability to harm a community or others.
I also believe from experience that the web is unfortunately, forever. A perpetual, tireless and never sleeping giant that permeates everywhere in all human lives. I also firmly (obviously) believe in the power of one vote. One voice being raised on whatever the subject matter is eventually making a positive difference in the world.
I wonder what Lo Semple will do with his spare time when he is not outdoors, penning a column or contemplating his navel when and if that "21-year-old spiritual advisor" turns out to be right?
He might be best served to protect all he cares for by following that wise techie guy at Google and his advise.
Lorenzo Semple:
"...My 21-year-old spiritual adviser who has a FB account warned me never to get a Facebook page, ever, under any circumstances. So why do I find myself entertaining the thought of getting a Facebook page, and even worse, buying Facebook stock? It just goes to show that I am desperately clinging to what little sanity I have left......
.......I’m no stranger to the underbelly of the Internet. I used to post on a local news message board using an anonymous name. My user profile stated that I was an athletic blonde 23-year-old locally born Aspen High graduate female skier-chick who liked cooking, cross-country skiing naked, going to bullfights on acid, and kittens. I used to flirt with posters who I thought were male, and then turn sour on them when they showed any interest whatsoever.
It got way too depressing, though, wading through the quagmire of negative posts about local news stories. It was a failed sociological experiment. Ultimately I called the head of the publication and begged them to take the site down. The thing had turned into a viper pit.
When they put it back up with a Facebook-only sign up, I was relieved on a couple of levels. First of all, because there was no way in hell that any of the previous nameless dialogue could be somehow construed as civil or productive, and I was on the lunatic fringe of it all as a willing, albeit fake, anonymous participant. It made me sad that there was an arena in our community for people to spew bile.
Secondly, I had to thank them for saving me from myself. My experience with Internet message boards is that they are a waste of time, and they always end up in a huge bitch fight. I imagine there is a similar pattern on Facebook to some extent. Whenever you read a hateful negative post by someone on the Internet, it’s the equivalent of getting sprayed by a skunk — you carry the stink around with you, and you’re liable to spray someone else in turn.
Can someone explain to me what I’m missing out on by not being on Facebook? I embarrassingly admit I feel a little bit isolated by not having a Facebook account, yet remain recklessly pessimistic about the whole thing. If video killed the radio star, then isn’t it only a matter of time before something new comes along and squashes Facebook like a bug?...." (Read more? Click title)
"Unapologetic pursuit and tracking of patterns within the news others make since 2010."
No comments:
Post a Comment