[ale] facebook hacked? (Again....)

[rhia]

Long time, no type. We're all the way over in the NW of the good ol' USA
so most of the Atlanta centric issues are out of our ability to
physically interact. Credentials to those who don't remember me: Geek,
tech, early adopter, linux user, etcetera and so on (but that really
doesn't matter.) 

A perspective not delved deeply into yet: privacy, security, and all the
additional identity theft issues. It is a concern, although I don't go
further into it below, but it still is a valid concept to at least
consider.

I made a personal choice to not use MySpace, or FaceBook, or Twitter or
their ilk for a few reasons. To clarify, the following is My Personal
Opinion on My Personal Choice. It is NOT to say someone with a different
opinion is wrong.

1.) I'm intensely private. Oh, I've done a lot of public stuff, some of,
maybe even most of which could come about with some time and search
ability, but I see no need to post daily boring personal details to
sites that can 'forget' I set it to private, or collect data (sometimes
in very sneaky ways) that is embarrassingly easy to access, or just in
general because new upper management moved in or whatever.

2.) Closely tied to number one: I, personally, just don't see the need
to tell the world (even the supposedly private world of just my
"friends") everything that happens on a daily basis. I especially don't
feel that need if some site standing to gain financially from my usage
is the one deciding if their idea of private coincides with my idea of
private - even though they state their stance upfront - which may change
tomorrow, next month, or 5 minutes after I agree to their terms of
service. 

3.) As has been shown in various places on-line (easily searched), it
can be surprisingly easy to make such "private" material "accidentally"
not so private anymore.

4.) It is a rough economy and a tough job market. Do I really want a
potential employer to see what my "friends" might say, even if said
friends thought they were "just being funny" if it might cost me my job?
(Not really, no, not to me, just not worth it.)

5.) If someone is in my past, there is probably a really good reason
they are in my past and not my present. (I have mentioned that this is
my personal opinion, right?)

6.) A long time ago my mother used to ask me "If all your friends jump
off a bridge, does that mean you will too?" IOW, just because a majority
of people have adopted it doesn't automatically make it a good thing.
Expedient and or convenient maybe, but not necessarily "good."

I do have a blog, (well, a sort of blog, that anyone looking to "A-HA!
me on can easily find) that I use occasionally to post pictures or
comments to friends and family, then eventually remove the post once I'm
sure they've seen it. I just don't have the belief that my pictures of
snow in our back yard or whatever is somehow worthy of being
immortalized on the internet forever.)

I could go on, but I don't need to. To those who love it, awesome, have
fun, catch up, enjoy it for all its worth. 
I DO see the merits of on-line social communities. But, please, don't
automatically assume anyone who has reservations or aversions to jumping
on the bandwagon is an old fogie, afraid of new tech. Most of us that
haven't created numerous social media accounts have, like myself,
numerous reasons why we haven't. For those of us on this particular
list, I'd lean more towards private reasons that being a wooden headed
luddite. 

Before getting collective underwear in further knots from either the pro
or con views, perhaps we could all take a few steps back and remember
that what makes humanity so special is we all have our own opinions, we
all make our own choices for our own reasons and we are all unique -
just like everyone else.

rhia


On Sat, 2010-12-18 at 19:43 -0500, Richard Bronosky wrote:
> I don't know if anyone else is seeing the irony in this discussion.
> Insisting that people send you personal emails, dedicated phone calls,
> and visits to your home is narcissistic. The reason facebook is so
> popular is that people can make the events of their lives available to
> their friends and loved ones even when the event is not significant
> enough to warrant a phone call or email. I would feel like a
> narcissist if I emailed my contact list every time my daughter did
> some thing cute or I had a great new beer. But, with facebook (via
> twitter in my case) I just put it out there and the interested people
> can choose to get caught up with me when they please.
> 
> If you are refusing to use facebook and you have adult children that
> want you to use it, you are missing out if you don't. They will have
> dozens of times over the year where they wanted to share something
> with you but didn't because they couldn't take the time right then to
> craft the right words to make right how long it's been since they last
> spoke to you. I know that's not what you intend, but that is the
> position you are putting them in. The holidays are a great time to get
> over yourself. You'll have a better 2011 if you do.
> 
> 
> > On Dec 18, 2010 11:55 AM, "Tom Freeman"
> > <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
> > 
> > Ok. I'm the "old fart" (58). I've seen too much in the past 10-15
> > years of
> > the next "greatest thing" to be much impressed one way or the other.
> > And I will stand by my snide remark that I have yet to see material
> > on facebook that I _really_ need to know about _NOW_. There are one
> > or two things that
> > have been worth finding out, but they have generally had a half-life
> > on order of weeks. Other people have different experiences. If you
> > need to
> > push information to me, I have an answering machine on the phone,
> > and
> > my friends know that. Otherwise, drop by the house, bang on the
> > door, and
> > we can just plain gossip.
> > 
> > I got a Facebook account to pickup grandchildren pictures which
> > certain
> > friends keep wanting to see. Sadly, the parents keep forgetting to
> > post
> > the grandchildren pictures. That molasses in January going up hill
> > is going to make its appearance before I get something I want out of
> > the
> > system.
> > 
> > Just as there are a few worthwhile movies being produced, there are
> > a
> > few worthwhile movies dating back to the era of the silents. I
> > rather
> > doubt that the percentage of production has changed much either, but
> > I
> > have never attempted to find that out for sure. Same concept applies
> > to music, although I admit to prefering older popular music. My
> > preference doesn't make it better in any way however.
> > 
> > FWIW, etc.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Sat, 18 Dec 2010, Jim Philips wrote:
> > 
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 8:20 PM, Michael Trausch <m...
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> > See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
> > 
> 
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