I have been tagged, as has nearly every breathing human in Facebook, to write 25 things about myself. I cannot bring myself to complete this and I can't give a really good reason other than it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I have read lots other people's lists, some funny, very few with any originality, and some were self-indulgently braggy and creepy. Mine would just be another list of facts or opinions, and quite honestly it would not be interesting; physical characteristics and quirky habits. Maybe it is because I am so ordinary, but I don't mind that. There is a kind of peace in ordinariness. So there will be no list of 25 things from me.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
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6 comments:
I just get tired of filling these things out. I have stopped reading some of them. Actually, I am mostly just trying to stop spending so much time on Facebook.
I have told you before, Joy, you are a very wise woman!
Hi Liz,
I came across your blog while doing a search on Lynn Grabhorn's book "Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting" - like you, I was critical of the blaming mentality this book employed.
On the note of your current post, it may interest you (or creep you out) to know that there is another purpose behind Facebook other than for you just to have fun keeping in touch with friends - it works as a large database for security authorities to troll and track "users of interest."
There is an excellent video on YouTube of a US employee who works for a firm that does just that - they can find out what music you listen to, what shows you watch, what books you read - and this, of course, is quite harmless. However, they can also find out what your political sympathies are, and people with what the government would consider radical or unorthodox views are regularly monitored, and have even shown-up on no-fly lists.
This isn't conspiracy theory - it's a reality of the information age (and legally endorsed now, thanks to Bush's big-brother "patriot act").
I joined Gmail as my email carrier, and was appalled to notice that subjects I was emailing friends about would coincidentally appear in the marketing bars off to the side. For instance, a friend and I were discussing a horseback-riding holiday; the next time I logged on, there were advertisements from companies specializing in just that. I found that creepy, especially as it wasn't even in the title of the email; their search engine had to go through the body of the email to find that information.
So I think there's lots of reasons to avoid writing "25 things about yourself" in Facebook or anywhere else on the internet - and this would be one of them! We should all be careful what we say (and write) - it really can come back to haunt us!
I am with you....what could I possibly say that people I know don't already know and why would they want to know the stuff they don't know? and I avoid putting things on facebook ever....although others regularly drop by and do so...but not me...I rarely check it and am sorry I signed up...it just seems creepy...period.
My dear old mother used to say, "Don't ever put anything in writing you don't want the whole world to see" AND that was long before internet. I am enormously cautious about what I put in my school email because I KNOW that it is looked at and we are told that it is since it is school property.
I have absolutely nothing to hide, but of course, that is not the point, nobody should be snooping in anybody's stuff. (I have never gone in a student's desk or backpack, yet I know teacher's who do and think they have the authority to do so.)
Also, Jennifer, what have said isn't paranoia, it is fact, and what we have all had to do is couch what we write in a sort of code if we feel it might be sensitive. This is sad, sad, sad, but perhaps our new administration will see some of these privacy rights restored, but I am afraid that that horse has already left the barn.
You know what, Liz? My mother said the same thing, and I almost wrote that in my first email! I laughed when you said that. Gosh, I had no idea that some teachers did that - the nerve! No wonder kids learn it's OK to be sneaky, when their own teachers and parents are doing it! I'm a physician and I've come into the room plenty of times and seen people snooping through drawers... and what could you possibly want in a doctor's office?!
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