Living Life On-Line

Thanks go out to my Dad for emailing me the awesome snow pictures of our deck at the farm house. I am so loving being where there is actually a change of seasons.

I was at a rockin' good women's Bible study this morning. One of the nice things about being back in the States is how easy every thing is here including attending weekly Bible studies. I'm currently doing two; I'm a Bible study addict. I'm also totally addicted to coffee, but that's another matter entirely. If I can attend a Bible study AND drink coffee, then you know I am a seriously happy situation.

I was reading through the New York Times and came across the following article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/fashion/social-networking-App-allows-women-to-rate-men.html?pagewanted=1&ref=general&src=me

So...here is this new app thingy where women can log in and rate men. Really? Not cool folks. I realize that things happen like various ex's posting naked pictures of each other as break-up retaliation on-line, but does the world really need an app for girls to talk about guys? Posting anything 'not nice' (extreme understatement) about another person is just plain wrong. Period. Full stop. I'm not excusing the nasty horrid things that some men post on-line sometimes, but is this new app thing really helpful?

First, I think it is totally wrong to gossip about others. If I wouldn't want a picture of me in a certain pose or with a certain dumb expression on my face or whatever else posted on-line, than why would I ever do that to someone else?

I feel like I live my life on-line. Think about it: paying bills, emailing for work and personal stuff, various social media, blogging about stuff that like only 5 people might ever read. I love the internet. I love reading ancient text translations on-line, I read news, I laugh a funny cat videos, I read blogs, I write THIS blog. But, really.....I can't get over how the internet has taken bullying to a whole new level of badness.

My kids both use some social media - but not much.  I think they are concerned about what they put out there about themselves. I am glad they are not 'deep' into Facebook or Twitter. I'm not saying that Facebook and Twitter are bad things, but I do think that everyone, especially kids, have to be careful what they put out there for others to see.

So....my concerns as a mom of a boy about this new app for women to rate men......

This new app looks like it requires women to log in using their Facebook accounts. Here is what the app says it is collecting about a user's Facebook account: "Lulu will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, email address, relationships, birthday, education history, hometown, current city and photos and your friends' relationships, birthdays, education histories, hometowns and current cities." Ok....so? Well, if you log onto this thing, you just gave away a bunch of personal data. Plus, you may not be as anonymous as you think you are. Someone somewhere whom you don't know just got a whole bunch of info about you. So.....

It is very easy to create a fake Facebook account. I've seen Facebook accounts for family dogs, I've seen fake Facebook accounts set up for the express purpose of on-line gaming (not by me, but I've seen some).  Using a fake Facebook account, how easy would it be for an angry person to go on-line and anonymously post nasty false statements about a guy? True, I don't know a whole lot about how this new thing works, but I have deep concerns about it. Potential employers could even figure out a way to access it. Not cool.

I am seriously into teaching kids about on-line safety. I deeply believe that using internet filters just isn't enough. We have to teach our kids how to navigate the on-line world just like we teach them how to navigate in the '3D world'.  Because when our kids step out of our homes, the 'filters are off'.

There is a comment section below each blog post. Just click 'Comments' or 'No Comments' and type away. I preview all comments before they are actually published. As long as it is not profane etc....I publish them. Spam comments I delete/report.

Peace.