WAYT: I’m onto your mind games, social media!

I’ve been gone from this site for so long, it’s almost laughable that I’m writing now.  As usual, the naysayer Devil on my shoulder is cackling about it because he thinks no one has missed me.  It’s hard not to believe that he’s right, but I feel fairly certain that there are enough people who used to read this blog that surely they’ll be glad I’m back. 

And that is my problem these days.  Between Facebook, Twitter and the hits and comments on my blog pages, I seem to think that everyone is my friend.  Maybe I spend too much time conversing with the Devil on my shoulder exclusively, or maybe people are really my friends. 

I’ll never know, because Facebook, Twitter and comments are so faceless and without value, that in my heart of hearts, I know it’s all superficial.  It’s not real friendship.  (But is it????)

Case in point: I feel like I am best friends forever with Jack Morrissey and Sylvain Reynard.  Jack Morrissey is Bill Condon’s main squeeze.  Yes, you read that right – Bill Condon, as in, major Hollywood film director.  Sylvain Reynard is the millionaire author of these books that I totally love (read about it here and here).  I’ve exchanged tweets and/or Facebook messages and comments with these two totally awesome, mega-rich and greatly beloved people and if anyone asked me, I’d tell everyone all about those tiny few words we’ve shared. 

Because social media wants me to think they’re my best friends.  Social media wants me to believe that these interactions make me someone special to these people who are so much larger in life than little old me. 

But really, are SR and Jack telling their friends, “Oh my gosh, this chick Kayla from Illinois tweeted me and I totally wrote her back and now we’re best friends because I love her Facebook profile picture!”?  The answer is no.  I need to get some perspective.  (But really, if you’re my Facebook friend, I don’t know how you can’t LOVE my profile picture.)

Except the sad thing is that I’m totally addicted to social media for that exact reason: I think they’re my friends and I want to keep that connection alive. 

Today, I curse myself and whatever I must be thinking, setting myself up for a sad, empty life with no tweets and no notification on my Facebook homepage from these celebrities and important people.  I also curse myself for hoping that they’ll read this and remember that one time we were BFF because Facebook and Twitter brought us together for one magical moment, and I want us to hold hands and sit around the warm campfire of our shared interests once more. 

“It’s all so laughable,” the Devil reminds me, so that I never forget.  Curse him to Hell!

"Like" This!

I just read this article.  What are these people thinking??  What is the world coming to?? 

This article, as circulated by the Associated Press, absolutely horrifies me.  It says that some employers, while interviewing prospective employees, turn to the person they are interviewing and ask them either to give over their Facebook password or log in to the site at that moment so that the interviewer can view the interviewee’s Facebook activities. 

I don’t know about you, but I feel that Facebook is private.  I understand if your employer doesn’t want you complaining about how much you hate your job or how incompetent your boss is, but that’s your right as provided by the United States Constitution.  If your employer wants you not to name them by name in any way on your page or in your posts, they can ask you to do that, and I don’t object to that.  A simple “my job sucks” will update your friends about how your life is going without implicating the culprits regardless of any non-disclosure agreements. 

But for an employer to expect to receive your password or to have access to your private messages to your friends and family is a violation of your rights!  I love that the gentleman who is the focus of this article said NO.  He should say no, and lawyers and constitutional rights activists everywhere should fight for the answer to be no nationwide. 

Is there nothing that is sacred anymore?

I use Facebook to post my status, follow causes, track celebrities and to keep up with my friends.  Granted, I hardly ever see any of my Facebook friends in real life, but I still feel that they are my friends.  I talk about Facebook happenings around the dinner table.  Facebook helps me share pictures and videos of Auggie.  Bragging about my kid is one of my main interests and Facebook helps me do that 24-7-365.  None of this is earth-shattering.  None of this should affect my potential employability. 

I think what bothers me the most here is someone asking for your password.  If you want to give away the keys to the kingdom, give out your Facebook password.  I would estimate that 95% of all Facebook users have the same password for their email and Facebook accounts, and probably their online banking and credit card statements, etc., etc.  (Why don’t you just make your password “hellohackers” and call it a day?)  Anyway, the point is, giving someone your password is something you should never do.  I’ll be honest, I may be married to the guy, but I don’t know any of Frank’s passwords.  I’ll be damned if his boss gets to know it and I don’t!

There are plenty of people out there who conduct themselves in ways that are wholly inappropriate and that carries over into their life on Facebook.  There are also just as many people out there who are boring – I’m one of them.  I’m not doing anything on Facebook that would shock or scandalize anyone.  But that doesn’t mean that I want anyone logging into my Facebook account.  And you shouldn’t either. 

You should read that article up there and speak up about it.  This practice is wrong and these employers need to be taken to task!  What better way to call them out than to raise a big fuss about it on Facebook?  Since they don’t have our passwords, they’ll never see the tide coming back in on them!

WAYT: Don't Shoot

What are you thinking about today?  Are you thinking about current events?  I cannot stop thinking about the school shooting in Ohio. 

Not only did my high school classmates and I experience 9-11 together; before that, we experienced Columbine together.  I can’t remember why I wasn’t at school that day, but when the shooting was actually occurring, I was sitting in my Grandma’s car.  The radio was broadcasting a play-by-play from the scene.  It was terrifying.  

At that time in my life, I didn’t know anything about mental health problems in children.  The biggest issue back then was Ritalin.  Among my classmates, there were outcasts who might have been capable of that kind of senseless destruction.  I’m sure I was a bully, to one degree or another.  Now that I’m older, I feel that silence makes you complicit, so I know now that I was guilty then. 

(Can I say I’m sorry?)

My husband is earning a master’s degree so that one day he can serve as a principal.  He worked on a major project recently that studied bullying.  It was terrifying.  The scariest conclusion Frank pointed out to me is that in today’s society, children are bombarded 24-7 with Facebook and texting.  There’s nowhere to hide from your peers when they want to hurt you. 

Is that the problem today?  What do you think? 

What I really want to sound off on is guns.  Many people don’t share my point of view on guns.  I don’t think anyone but police officers on duty and military service members on a field of battle should have access to a gun.  Guns kill people. 

But today I just can’t get into that.  I feel so weighed down and scattered by the loss of these children’s lives and innocence.  What brought them to the tragic conclusion of their short lives?  Why did it have to end this way?

A school shooting can happen anywhere at any time.  God forbid, but it could one day happen at the school in your neighborhood.  God forbid, it could happen at my husband’s school.  When Auggie’s a student in a few short years, this danger will lurk in the back of my mind.  Today these fears are paralyzing me. 

What is being done to prevent violence in schools?  Are parents involved enough in their children’s lives?  Are their teachers tough enough to spot the hard things in their lives?  Are children warned about the danger of hurtful words, of neglectful indifference to the child sitting next to them in class every day?  Could they even grasp that murder is a potential consequence of even the most minor of slights?  That is hard for even me to comprehend as a grown adult! 

Maybe the problem is that we don’t speak about the consequences enough, or at all.  If a child walks into a school, aims a gun at a fellow student and pulls the trigger, thousands of things shatter in the world surrounding those two babies.  Did anyone tell those babies that life is so fragile that you break it a little just by thinking about this kind of scenario? 

This isn’t the best day for me to be blogging, since I’m not being very clear on anything.  But I hope that I’m bringing different perspectives to light for you, my readers.  Any words that I can share that help to stop this kind of thing are worth it, whether my ideas are fully fleshed out or not. 

In conclusion, follow this link: http://youtu.be/07Mx-sOJ8Po  It’s a message from some middle schoolers I know.