Tag Archives: social media
Things Are Never As They Seem…
I was standing at the dessert table at the buffet dinner I attended at Disney World in Orlando. Lots of social media “gurus” posturing themselves around the room. Making appearances at this restaurant in the Contemporary Hotel were Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy – that is, as Disney puts it, cast members dressed as those iconic characters.
There was a woman standing in front of me with a little girl in her arms. The child was facing me – her mother looking in the opposite direction into the dining room. Mom said, “Oh look dear, there’s Mickey Mouse!” The little girl looked at me, actually it was an intense little kid stare and you just tell from her expression what she was thinking as her mother proclaimed that this is what Mickey Mouse really looks like.
There was combination of disappointment and disbelieve as the little girl’s eyes burned right into me. I imagine her discovery that this is what the real Mickey Mouse looked like wasn’t that bad, because she didn’t burst out screaming or crying and did not throw the Oreo cookie she had in her hand at me. Or maybe she had to think about the “situation” a while longer. I did not wait. Yes, I did make “nice” with the child and smiled and pointed her toward the real Mickey. She was thrilled.
But, for both children and adults, things are never as they seem.
Social Media…
I dabble in social media for my business, which obviously is blogging, writing and editing. A current list of the top 15 networking sites can be found here, exbizmba websites, just in case you worry that you’re not on all of them. Perhaps, if I were a forest ranger, I probably would not need any of them, but being stuck out in the wilderness with no one but Smokey to talk to, I might want to engage with all of them. There was a point in time that I stayed clear of Facebook, Twitter and all the others, and I didn’t realize until recently that MySpace was still around.
Since it was the “in” and fashionable thing to do, I signed up for everything, complying with their annoying requirements to fill out profiles, make up NSA-type secret passwords and go back and forth with texts and emails confirming my status as a human being. I gained friends, followers and others seemingly interested in my career path, all with the end result of having more spam, junk and utterly useless BS in my already cluttered life. The more I attempted to avoid it all, the more people expressed a desire to interface with me, “me” having no desire whatsoever to have any contact with them.
Recognizing that it was all just a childish game, I went on the various sites and did this and that, then stopped. Then started. Then stopped. For no logical reason I accelerated my participation on Twitter and just the other morning, woke up with 1124 “tweets” waiting for me. Holy “@” and #’s (hashtags). I’m an angry person and after less than a week, I started to respond to the 140 or less character messages, with, well, a bit of sarcasm. I found the people that call themselves “successful” writers, freelancers, SEO “experts” the most annoying with their useless amateurish “advice” on how I should run my business. If you put a keyboard in from of me I write, it’s that simple. More advise, I don’t need.
Jobs, Facebook, Privacy…
I don’t have a problem if you want to be a cop and before they give you the shiny fast patrol car with the bright flashing lights, and the gun – of course – you do want that gun – as well as all the Batman-ish tool belt goodies that go with the job – you fork over all your social media passwords, so “they” can determine if your “right in the mind” to do the job based on your Tweets, posts, “friends”, blog posts and YouTube vids.
Frankly I believe all cops are slightly, what is the politically correct term? – retarded – no that’s not it, hum, bonkers, daffy, wacko, cuckoo, ah, psycho, that’s what I was looking for and certainly most of them do not possess the mental prowess to use social media, so it doesn’t matter. Certainly, I could be incorrect, yes, it might be unfair, but since I care little of nor respect most law enforcement, “they” can do whatever “they” want to each other, including “peeping” at each other vids, tweets and posts, the Constitution be damned.
But, for the rest of us, the truck drivers, waitresses, managers, salespeople, techies – whoever you all are – not so damn fast. Let’s go back in our magic time machine before all this Facebook, Twitter, YouTube crap. You apply for a job with some company to do customer service. You might give them a resume or you fill out an application – they check your references, perhaps call a former boss or two – bla, bla, bla – you have five fingers and toes and all is good and they hire you. If Jimmy boy says you’re OK, that’s good enough for us. Done deal, welcome aboard.
Time marches on. Folks discover that there are far more evil dastardly people in the world than they previously realized. So, after you fill out that job application, a written exam now is required. Some math questions, a few “trick” questions about tttt-trust, sss-stealing and ooo, a few personality questions. Officer Bob drove you home last year after he stopped you driving drunk? Well, boys will be boys. Don’t worry about it. Welcome aboard.
