I am a 32-year-old fossil!
Despite my lifelong interest in Murder She Wrote, Inspector Gadget and Get Smart and as exciting as it would be… I’m NOT a spy, I don’t work for Customs, I don’t have access to intelligence that could threaten Australia’s security if revealed, and my Cluedo skills are disappointing. So why online anonymity and privacy?
I have always had a “thing” about giving people too much information. Like revealing information about myself somehow limits my freedom. (Yes, crazy)
I reached a milestone today… I realised that you’re meant to register and show your face on Facebook so that others can find you! This “ah ha experience” took a lot of work. In a society where anonymity is a foreign concept and freedom of information is a given… I felt like a fossil trapped in a 32 year old’s body, mostly brought on by the challenge put forward in my ‘Blogging for Beginners’ course to get out there and promote our opinions, ideas and writing.
I created a Facebook account last year (feeling very modern and up-to-date), only to realise that the very concept freaked me out. So to fix this, today I decided to upload a photo of myself, not my best angle… my face is a little chubby and I look so rugged up that snowdrifts would suit the background… the waterfall is worth looking at though.
From the simple action of uploading a photo there was no stopping me. So I did the unbelievable… I told the world (well the 22 friends I have given permission via my incredibly high privacy settings) that I like to bushwalk, I got engaged last year, my favourite TV show is NCIS and that my hero of all time is Jim Henson. Gasp!
Did my world fall in? No! Did a flood of undesirable people come hounding me for my personal details? No! Did I receive advertisements targeted at my updated profile? Yes! Like I needed any more Wedding Advertisements in my life.
I DID however get back in touch with a number of Primary School friends, a few I haven’t seen or spoken to for over 20 years. I also learnt how to connect to groups and even decided to go the whole hog and sign up for Twitter.
Today, Facebook… tomorrow, ASIO Agent #378!
Ahh... Serenity 