Monday, August 6, 2012

Failure to be socially networked

An amusing article from Mail Online about how some psychologists are saying that failing to have a Facebook presence may show that you may not be well adjusted. I don't know how many of my readers use Facebook, I don't. I have an account but have never posted to it and wouldn't know how nor care to learn.

Is not joining Facebook a sign you're a psychopath? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is 'suspicious'

So why should I have an online identity, why should it be real? Why should I put all of my personal information, whey I go, what I do, pictures of me and my friends and my opinion about every little thing that happens during the day on the internet? I recognize that may sound funny coming from someone who is a blogger; but, if you didn't know me personally, you wouldn't know this was my blog. I even allow people to post anonymously.

You may think nobody would bother you or care what you say; but, sometimes things go viral (as they say). One guy over at Nasa recently was observed during the Curiosity landing on Mars and his profile went from 100 or so friends to 15,000 roughly in about an hour. The news picked up on it and now he has been seen by millions.

The article states that many employers won't be as likely to hire you if you don't have a Facebook page. That is just too funny. So, what is the real reason why the media wants us on Facebook? Lets start with this, it has about 900 million users, that means that almost 1/7th of the world is on it, that is an attractive audience to reach. Eminem has had over 60,000,000 likes on Facebook, that is a larger audience than any regular television show that I can think of.

If we were required to identify ourselves, I would have to end my blog. I have mentioned my ex and people who I know; but, I never identify them because what I write about is not really them, they are just real life examples of whatever I am discussing. As far as I know my ex has never read my blog and doesn't even know what it is called. I simply never post her name or any specifics that would allow her to be recognized, it would be unfair as she has not had her opportunity to give her side of the story to my readers and might not care to. My blog is one sided, my side.

My blog is not about debating points, it is my perspective. It is editorializing the news and the world around us and not just reposting news stories. I don't twitter every little thing in my life or even mention it here. I may go days without posting until something attracts my attention. This blog is not a diary, though I may use real life examples. I try and discuss issues or maybe provide some music for a lazy day. This blog is not me and it is not about me, it is about ideas and things that others may have not considered. I succeed or fail based upon my readers reactions and currently I am seeing about 1,500 views a month. Not a lot but a surprising amount for something that is not advertised in any way, the readers that come here come by word of mouth or random searches.

I don't know how many people came here because I wrote about Pastor Carol Daniels and I don't know how many people came here because I write about the abuses of the pension system. I could not have predicted that people would enter the search terms Stephen Hawking and douche bag. The site is not and never has been monetized, no advertising, you don't need it and I don't want it. I don't believe I have ever uploaded a video and have only posted a couple of pictures. I posted a person's real name once and then immediately took it down.

Why does this matter, it matters because if you post and write without thinking about what you are going to say, you end up saying things that you shouldn't, I think we should think before we publish. It is one of the reasons that I am more careful when using forums. Well, thats it for now.