A heterosexual’s social media dilemma!

I had a phone call from a friend who sounded upset. He said, “I looked all around for you on facebook all morning, and I couldn’t find you, what’s up with that?”.

A moment later he added; “Hey, while I have you on the phone, give me your twitter address so we can stay in touch”.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, I took a deep breath and slowly said to him that if he thought about it, we actually were “in touch” at that moment, and all that he needed to do was click on my name in his cel phone’s directory to make that connection anytime he wanted to.

Nothing to see there, so I moved along and wrote the whole thing off as just a weird event. A few days later I was thinking how great it was that I was able to be in contact with everyone that I wanted to, and just as much as I wanted to by just making a call or sending an e-mail, and that I was able to receive or disseminate information in that manner as well. This went well for me until I tried to post a comment to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Something must have recently changed at the Times, because it said that I was not able to post unless I first logged in to the L.A. Times using Facebook. And to demonstrate the power of social media over the old school media, we find that they’ve borrowed a lot from the Microsoft baseball play book, the one that goes “Play ball with us or we shove the bat up your ass”.  Facebook arranged that the L.A. Times didn’t offer any other choices for this, not even logging using my Google account the way that I’ve always used in the past is an option. However, they were kind enough to offer me a direct link I could use so I would be able to join Facebook on the spot,

Hey,  even my Android (Google!) phone has a link

The reality is that I’m not now and never will be able to log in anywhere where Facebook (or that matter, twitter or any of the other so called social media sites) is the only choice. Perhaps this is because I’m an adult heterosexual male, and not a teenager of either sex or any of the various mid point options between those two main categories.  Also, I have no need for walls for others to post photos, wallpaper, or whatever else they do on them.

Is the meaning of this clear to you?

In my view of what’s going on (some may say paranoia) when I find an ad like the one above, or see one in the newspaper for an electronics store I go to that says I will need to log on to Facebook and friend them in order to get special discounts or other offers, maybe that time has come to push back.

I feel that there’s already far too much information on all of us out there, data that’s too easy to access by persons or businesses unknown to us, giving away information that we don’t care to share with anyone, close friends or otherwise.

So I make every effort I’m able to do to stay off that grid as much as possible by not adding any personal details that aren’t relevant but required an application, or optional input when I am funneled through a chute and asked to enter my birthdate, where I was born, what my first pet’s name was, the name of my high school, or any other information on me that has no bearing on what I want, material that’s likely swapped between an ever growing collection of interconnected data bases.

Watching those walls closing in?

Well, I’m sure it’s all different for you because…. eh, I’ll get back to you on that. Try to find yourself a comfortable place to sit, make sure your papers are in order, and keep an eye on your Facebook wall for any updates.

All photos, opinions, and quotes above belong to their actual creators.