so don't ask if you don't want to know
Posts tagged social media
Social media wins again?
Feb 3rd
I’m telling you, if you don’t get the power of social media today you need to get out more.
Not only did the Internet rally when legislation came up that would put anyone at risk of losing their websites with no notice and no real recourse…
Over the last few days the Susan G Komen Foundation’s foundation had some serious cracks. On Tuesday social media was rampant with the news Komen would not donate to Planned Parenthood anymore. The comments I read said it was because Karen Handel is rabid anti-choice. You can look this all up on Google. Then BAM! BACKLASH! People everywhere were PISSED! It was like Komen suddenly had the worst cooties from hell. Groups are dropping them like flies. Support for “the cause” takes a drastic hit. The founder of SGK Nancy Brinker goes on youtube and tries to explain some bullshit about it not being political (anti-abortion) but because PP doesn’t actually do mammograms – they farm them out – which is against their new internal guidelines. Whatever. That’s not the answer the people want to hear. Anyway, as of today Komen has reversed their decision. I’m guessing this too late change of plans won’t repair their big mistake. And PP has received more donations in the ensuing days than they normally get from SGK anyway. SGK may or may not recover.
Yes, I was pissed. Yes I posted a few tweets to @Komenforthecure. But I didn’t go off as expected (nodding at you @TSDivaDani) because I recognized this bandwagon before I jumped. I read a shitload of blogs and watched numerous videos and every one of them had a slightly different fact base. What was the real story? SGK was painted by a HUGE paintbrush as the evil without really getting to defend themselves and now anything they say sounds like bullshit. Is this foundation coming out officially as anti-choice or was it just a poorly thought out policy change? If it’s the first then they need to stand up and stand by their decision and take the lumps. Are they so sure of their pink-ribbon everybody loves SGK that they could just do whatever they want with the money people entrust to them? Or did we pro-choice people just bully them into reversing their decision? Are we really bullying or just forcefully stating our opinions?
Here’s what I get out of it for sure. Anti-choice people may be loud in their self-righteousness but when it comes right down to it, the Internet is decidedly pro-women’s rights and especially pro-choice.
Maybe people should donate to their own choices instead of these clearinghouses? Yeah.
Chip chip chip
May 14th
It occurred to me just now that when your friends post requests for you to vote for someone they know for some random award or contest it chips away at your integrity to follow through.
Don’t get me wrong, I posted a request just a couple of weeks ago for my friend’s daughter in a radio contest. In my mind I thought if they wanted to people could peruse all of the entrants and could choose H’s video. Or just save time and pick hers to be nice, which is what (as if anyone did) most people would do.
You see it all the time on twitter and facebook. Just now someone put out a request for his friends to vote for his cousin to get Teacher of the Year somewhere. I barely know him, I don’t know her so my vote is bogus, right? Does the fact that he has bunches of loyal friends voting make her, in fact, Teacher of the Year worthy? Maybe she IS the best teacher on the planet, but how do I know?
Sometimes we put out or respond to the requests thinking we’re doing a good thing to help someone, but isn’t it cheating? Does everything have to be a popularity contest dependent on how many friends and friends of friends you have?
Fine, it’s a minor thing (unless you’re the other guy in the contest) but I can feel it’s chipping away at our collective integrity under the guise of social media friendship.
Book Judging
Feb 22nd
Something I’ve had to change from my previous thinking, is judging people by their appearance. Actually, judging might be a bit harsh. Maybe “instantly compartmentalizing people based on their appearance” would be closer. Judging implies I also add weight to whatever I compartmentalize them as, which I don’t do as much.
For instance, in my previous life (before social media) I’d see this guy and my first impression would be motorcycle builder or roofer. 
Not that there’s anything wrong with either, but you wouldn’t expect as much intelligence with people in those positions versus engineers or CEOs.
But I happen to know this guy Derek. He’s like, brilliant. He’s one of the founders of Gangplank, he’s heavy into growing Chandler, and he’s apparently the go-to guy for Phoenix-area reporters when discussing local business.
He’s so much smarter than me that when we’re in the same room I just listen in awe and try to interject something amusing occasionally. Nobody cares that he comes to work every day in shorts and t-shirts and ball-caps and might not even own a suit. What matters is who he is, not what he looks like. (Though I’m not sure about that beard-thing, Derek)
I use Derek as an example only because he popped up on my TV yesterday. He’s just one of countless people that have taught me that appearances can be deceiving. I’ve met so many really smart, articulate, nice people that from a distance the old me would have pegged completely wrong.
I feel like I’ve been coming out of a fog in the last few years. There’s my previous life of… well, too many mistakes to go into, but close-minded and safe works. And now there’s my new life where I try really hard to learn from my new friends and stop making assumptions. But we all need to stop making instant value judgments. I’m getting closer to being a decent person myself, but I occasionally backslide:
I’m sure she was a really nice girl.
And you asked to follow me why?
Feb 26th
One of my Facebook “friends” posted some comment about hating location based social media like FourSquare and linked to pleaserobme.com as an example of why it’s bad, etc.
So I responded in some off-hand smart-ass way way about being smart enough to not put your home address on the internet… whatever.
This is his response:
Well Debbie… I don’t care what you think… You are obviously an unemployed ren-fair attendee. Not at all a model of responsible behavior. The picture of you in a corset is also a strong indicator of your lack of ability to determine responsible disclosure levels. This sort of disclosure is counter productive… and can result in your being banned from various more productive and lucrative circles.
So… I’m confused. Why exactly did this person want to be my Facebook friend in the first place? I didn’t go looking for him, I don’t think I even know who he is. One of those people I accepted because he was friends with a number of other friends so… sure why not click accept.
Personally I don’t friend people I don’t really want to friend. If I went looking for you and asked to be your friend it’s either because we’ve met and I like you, or my friends have talked enough about you to make me want to get to know you. Why did you come looking for me?
For the record dude, I’m not unemployed – I’m disabled. And I haven’t been to the ren-faire in years. Those costume shots are either from a Halloween party or Dragon*Con. Places I’ve had actual, you know, life experiences worth celebrating with pictures. So go fuck the high horse you’re sitting on.
Geeze some people are just wound up way too tight.
Really? How?
Jan 11th
The latest thing is posting just your bra color on facebook which may or may not have started as a Victoria Secret catalog suggestion. Rumor has it that morphed into using the idea to open discussions on breast cancer awareness. It’s all bullshit. We’re all well aware of breast cancer by now.
How exactly does posting your bra color of the day do anything to fight against breast cancer?
Remember all those green washed avatars to support what was it, Iran? How exactly did that make a difference?
The blacked-out avatars at least was a visual clue to whomever was looking that many people were aware of that particular political topic. IIRC it had something to do with copyright laws and screwing people over. At least that did something.
Then there’s the ribbons on your cars. There’s a variety of available ribbons for every friggin’ cause out there. Supposedly if you buy an actual ribbon some of the money goes towards that cause. I’m not sure how accurate that is. But photo-shopping a ribbon on your stupid avatar doesn’t do squat.
Just because it’s so easy to “show your support” of a particular cause it doesn’t really mean you are actually supporting the cause ya know. Stop paying lip service and make some effort.
The next time you’re all fat and happy and say you support X-cause-of-the-day I want to know how. Did you give blood? Donate to cancer research? Send a care package to the troops? Write an actual letter to a politician?
Really? Then stick THAT on your avatar.
NotReallyCamping
Nov 16th
Friday was Phoenix WordCamp. It’s where everybody roasts Blogger buttons around a campfire and chants WordPress, WordPress, WordPress. Nah, not really. I don’t even know why these things are called camps! There are no tents, fires, or s’mores. Wait, WordCamp was held in a tent! One of those humongous commercial semi-permanent tents with A/C. And we had sack (picnic?) lunches.
Anyway, it was a day filled with WordPress information. It started off with some woman I’ve never heard of calling her self the Diva of WordPress and yet preaching “we don’t care if you have bad spelling or grammar, we just want to hear what you have to say!” Cue immediate disrespectful twittering from many people. Then another all-about-me presenter and more cranky twittering. Then some kid who looked 12 but seemed to know a lot. The morning was filled with more motivational type speakers – all about content. The afternoon leaned more to the technical side, the guy who created WordPress in the first place, and local WordPress magicians Chuck Reynolds and Josh Strebel had a Q&A panel. Another guy got all geeky with step-by-step widget coding that was way over my head. Merlin Mann was highly entertaining, and Brent Spore was great. All-in-all a nice motivational day, but not what I expected. Props to my friend Chuck for organizing the 500 seat sold-out WordCamp.
Saturday and Sunday were this year’s PodCampAZ, the one I’m involved in planning. I spent most of Saturday working registration with Rachel so I got to meet lots of new people. I helped Evo with his panel (I clicked the slide advance button) and helped set-up and take down. Yesterday I set up registration, but spent more time in actual panels. Brent’s panel on social media almost immediately got intense when the packed room divided between the let’s-keep-it-to-ourselves side and the we-need-to-bring-in-new-people-side. He wanted to get people talking and it certainly did. Another friend Katie had a panel on social media but it was more what you should and should not put out there. The best panel I went to was a WordPress panel, where Josh skimmed over the best settings and must-have widgets and plugins – which was the information I’d been looking for from WordCamp.
So expect some changes to this site as soon as I’m rested up. I’m still tired as hell and I have a lot of notes to expand on while the information is fresh. We all learned that GeekWeek is toooooo much at one time. Information overload + planning anxiety + RL stress = exhaustion. There were other conferences earlier in the week that some people attended too. Thursday was the Entrepreneurship Conference, there was a design camp somewhere and I think one other thing and some people hit them all. Each event was successful but running them all within a week is too much which is likely why the PodCampAZ ending wasn’t attended by as many people as we expected. Our numbers were much lower than registered though there were a lot of walk-ins.
I was surprised at how many of our speakers failed to show up! When I checked with our speaker coordinator Lawrence, only about half of the n0-shows bothered to contact him with an explanation beforehand. It’s fucking rude as HELL to have a roomful of people waiting for you and not show up.
Social Media
Jan 17th
Are you on Facebook? Myspace? Twitter? LinkedIn? These are social media sites and if you have an account – and preferably use it – you’re in Social Media.
Myspace. Personally, I think Myspace is for young people and musicians. The only reason I still have a Myspace page is so I can periodically see what my kids are doing. Max is on Myspace and when he doesn’t call me often enough I can go there and see the last time he logged in was the 12th. If he’s logging into Myspace things can’t be all that bad, right? I check on That Girl’s site to see what she’s posted about *snort* her single parenting (which is crap – Casey has Kira full time and she’s living with some guy who helps with the other two) issues. I’m watching my niece Brittany go through her first pregnancy. And I keep an eye on my daughter and her teenage friends, advising them to use care in what personal information they post and especially with the pictures.
Facebook. I’m on Facebook all the time. Poking friends, looking for new friends, keeping up with events, etc. And I love twitter. People either hate or love twitter. It just sits there keeping me company, keeping me in touch with my friends for quick jokes, updates, links of interest and just plain connection to other human beings.
Speaking of which, I took the chance and stopped by a long lost (well not so long maybe a bad year or so) friend’s last night and dragged her out for #EVFN. Her life’s been a little turmoil filled and she needed to be sort-of rescued. Meet new people. Take advantage of the whole social networking thing. I think she had a good time. I’m hoping she’ll get on twitter and keep going out with me.
Nowadays, the more people you know the better your chances of making positive changes in your life. When I think of the people I’ve met first online and then in real life and how much they’ve brought to me, I’m verklempt. I don’t want to think of the ugly dark hole I’d be wallowing in without your friendship and encouragement.
Thanks y’all.
No go and find someone you know and pull them into our circle of friends. Bring someone with you to the next meetup. Spread the lurve.
Let's just hope I don't regret this
Jan 3rd
You know, my PC has been slowly falling apart. First the fancy flat screen took a giant dump virtually overnight, so I’ve been using an old monitor Ginnie got from her school. It literally takes up my entire desk. I have it butted against the back and the screen sits three inches from the front edge of my computer desk. Hard to see that close up. AAAANNNNDDD the whole issue of not being able to turn the whole thing off for fear it won’t power back up again. I sleep three feet from this computer that rattles and ticks all night.
But I would die if I didn’t have a computer. Seriously. I neeeeeeed you people.
So recently a friend offered me her laptop. She’d had to send it in for something or other and couldn’t wait to get it back so she went out and bought a new one. Smoking deal I really couldn’t turn down. Really.
I know, I know, I’m broke all the time and have no job, and struggle to pay my bills, and am getting sick of soup and cereal, but it was a smokin’ deal! Priorities, right! I’ve been doing the right thing for a year now and I just needed to do this. I asked if I could get out of my lease and that’s a no-go so I’m stuck with this rent until August.
And now I really have to get a JOB. I know I keep saying that and have even made a half-hearted attempt to clean up my resume and perused craigslist a couple of times. In fact, Evo keeps sending me craigslist ads for jobs for which I am in no way qualified. People keep telling me I should bluff my way but my innate honestly keeps me from applying. Oh sure, I’m a quick learner and I could probably figure out some of these programs as most WP or database programs are pretty similar. I’m not a complete techtard.
Job fairies are as imaginary as Santa and God so I’m vowing Monday morning I’m kicking myself in the ass and doing some serious job hunting. I need a paycheck.
I put myself on Yahoo Personals. I’ve heard a couple of people say they’ve had pretty good luck with it. If I can’t get sex I as least want some company.
Max left a message yesterday and he’s fine.
Casey got a message yesterday that someone had broke into his house and stole his big ole flat screen TV, stereo and new house phone. He still spent all day here and when I got home from #EVFN last night his car is here but I dunno where he and Kira are.
#EVFN you ask? Haven’t I mentioned that to you? What started out as a bunch of local twitter people getting together for Phoenix First Friday (art walk every month), which turned into #PFN dinner/drinks at various locations every Friday night, which morphed into #EVFN for those of us who didn’t want to trot out to Phoenix every week. We select a different location in the east valley and anyone can show up. We’re up to about 25-30 people wandering in and socializing. We keep picking up new people who see we’re having such fun and get them on twitter too.
It’s a good start to a Friday night, and I’ve been going out with my friend twinklergirl after and watching her (and others) do karaoke. I’m | | this much closer to actually getting up and trying it myself. Who knows.
