YOU"RE STILL AROUND, just 'cross the country!!!! Long time no hear :-)<br><br>You have very clearly voiced my exact sentiment about social networking sans one privacy issue: once it hits the web, it is forever there. For me, social activities benefit by the fog of fading memory. It lessens the sharpness of a harsh comment and heightens the importance of a good event.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 12:56 AM, rhia <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rhiannen@atlantacon.org">rhiannen@atlantacon.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
Long time, no type. We're all the way over in the NW of the good ol' USA<br>
so most of the Atlanta centric issues are out of our ability to<br>
physically interact. Credentials to those who don't remember me: Geek,<br>
tech, early adopter, linux user, etcetera and so on (but that really<br>
doesn't matter.)<br>
<br>
A perspective not delved deeply into yet: privacy, security, and all the<br>
additional identity theft issues. It is a concern, although I don't go<br>
further into it below, but it still is a valid concept to at least<br>
consider.<br>
<br>
I made a personal choice to not use MySpace, or FaceBook, or Twitter or<br>
their ilk for a few reasons. To clarify, the following is My Personal<br>
Opinion on My Personal Choice. It is NOT to say someone with a different<br>
opinion is wrong.<br>
<br>
1.) I'm intensely private. Oh, I've done a lot of public stuff, some of,<br>
maybe even most of which could come about with some time and search<br>
ability, but I see no need to post daily boring personal details to<br>
sites that can 'forget' I set it to private, or collect data (sometimes<br>
in very sneaky ways) that is embarrassingly easy to access, or just in<br>
general because new upper management moved in or whatever.<br>
<br>
2.) Closely tied to number one: I, personally, just don't see the need<br>
to tell the world (even the supposedly private world of just my<br>
"friends") everything that happens on a daily basis. I especially don't<br>
feel that need if some site standing to gain financially from my usage<br>
is the one deciding if their idea of private coincides with my idea of<br>
private - even though they state their stance upfront - which may change<br>
tomorrow, next month, or 5 minutes after I agree to their terms of<br>
service.<br>
<br>
3.) As has been shown in various places on-line (easily searched), it<br>
can be surprisingly easy to make such "private" material "accidentally"<br>
not so private anymore.<br>
<br>
4.) It is a rough economy and a tough job market. Do I really want a<br>
potential employer to see what my "friends" might say, even if said<br>
friends thought they were "just being funny" if it might cost me my job?<br>
(Not really, no, not to me, just not worth it.)<br>
<br>
5.) If someone is in my past, there is probably a really good reason<br>
they are in my past and not my present. (I have mentioned that this is<br>
my personal opinion, right?)<br>
<br>
6.) A long time ago my mother used to ask me "If all your friends jump<br>
off a bridge, does that mean you will too?" IOW, just because a majority<br>
of people have adopted it doesn't automatically make it a good thing.<br>
Expedient and or convenient maybe, but not necessarily "good."<br>
<br>
I do have a blog, (well, a sort of blog, that anyone looking to "A-HA!<br>
me on can easily find) that I use occasionally to post pictures or<br>
comments to friends and family, then eventually remove the post once I'm<br>
sure they've seen it. I just don't have the belief that my pictures of<br>
snow in our back yard or whatever is somehow worthy of being<br>
immortalized on the internet forever.)<br>
<br>
I could go on, but I don't need to. To those who love it, awesome, have<br>
fun, catch up, enjoy it for all its worth.<br>
I DO see the merits of on-line social communities. But, please, don't<br>
automatically assume anyone who has reservations or aversions to jumping<br>
on the bandwagon is an old fogie, afraid of new tech. Most of us that<br>
haven't created numerous social media accounts have, like myself,<br>
numerous reasons why we haven't. For those of us on this particular<br>
list, I'd lean more towards private reasons that being a wooden headed<br>
luddite.<br>
<br>
Before getting collective underwear in further knots from either the pro<br>
or con views, perhaps we could all take a few steps back and remember<br>
that what makes humanity so special is we all have our own opinions, we<br>
all make our own choices for our own reasons and we are all unique -<br>
just like everyone else.<br>
<br>
rhia<br>
<br>
<br>
On Sat, 2010-12-18 at 19:43 -0500, Richard Bronosky wrote:<br>
> I don't know if anyone else is seeing the irony in this discussion.<br>
> Insisting that people send you personal emails, dedicated phone calls,<br>
> and visits to your home is narcissistic. The reason facebook is so<br>
> popular is that people can make the events of their lives available to<br>
> their friends and loved ones even when the event is not significant<br>
> enough to warrant a phone call or email. I would feel like a<br>
> narcissist if I emailed my contact list every time my daughter did<br>
> some thing cute or I had a great new beer. But, with facebook (via<br>
> twitter in my case) I just put it out there and the interested people<br>
> can choose to get caught up with me when they please.<br>
><br>
> If you are refusing to use facebook and you have adult children that<br>
> want you to use it, you are missing out if you don't. They will have<br>
> dozens of times over the year where they wanted to share something<br>
> with you but didn't because they couldn't take the time right then to<br>
> craft the right words to make right how long it's been since they last<br>
> spoke to you. I know that's not what you intend, but that is the<br>
> position you are putting them in. The holidays are a great time to get<br>
> over yourself. You'll have a better 2011 if you do.<br>
><br>
><br>
> > On Dec 18, 2010 11:55 AM, "Tom Freeman"<br>
> > <<a href="mailto:tfreeman@intel.digichem.net">tfreeman@intel.digichem.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> > Ok. I'm the "old fart" (58). I've seen too much in the past 10-15<br>
> > years of<br>
> > the next "greatest thing" to be much impressed one way or the other.<br>
> > And I will stand by my snide remark that I have yet to see material<br>
> > on facebook that I _really_ need to know about _NOW_. There are one<br>
> > or two things that<br>
> > have been worth finding out, but they have generally had a half-life<br>
> > on order of weeks. Other people have different experiences. If you<br>
> > need to<br>
> > push information to me, I have an answering machine on the phone,<br>
> > and<br>
> > my friends know that. Otherwise, drop by the house, bang on the<br>
> > door, and<br>
> > we can just plain gossip.<br>
> ><br>
> > I got a Facebook account to pickup grandchildren pictures which<br>
> > certain<br>
> > friends keep wanting to see. Sadly, the parents keep forgetting to<br>
> > post<br>
> > the grandchildren pictures. That molasses in January going up hill<br>
> > is going to make its appearance before I get something I want out of<br>
> > the<br>
> > system.<br>
> ><br>
> > Just as there are a few worthwhile movies being produced, there are<br>
> > a<br>
> > few worthwhile movies dating back to the era of the silents. I<br>
> > rather<br>
> > doubt that the percentage of production has changed much either, but<br>
> > I<br>
> > have never attempted to find that out for sure. Same concept applies<br>
> > to music, although I admit to prefering older popular music. My<br>
> > preference doesn't make it better in any way however.<br>
> ><br>
> > FWIW, etc.<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > On Sat, 18 Dec 2010, Jim Philips wrote:<br>
> ><br>
> > ><br>
> > ><br>
> > > On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Michael Trausch <m...<br>
> ><br>
> ><br>
> > _______________________________________________<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br>I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.<br><br><br>