Facebook and Snooping

As I was reading through Newsweek the other day I came across a story about facebook/myspace and how these social networking tools are directing our social perceptions and interactions even moreso than face to face contact might. (Particularly when face to face contact is infrequent.) We judge people based on how many friends they have. For example, too few friends and you are a loser. Conversely, have too many friends and you are a needy computer geek who is probably online stalking everyone in the state. We judge our friends by what they list as favorite books, movies, quotes, etc. We keep up with their lives through status updates. Is this a sad thing or a miracle of modern technology? Six of my acquaintances were recently proposed to during Christmas break. SIX. Well, my shock is a different story. Suffice it to say that I would probably only know about half of these gossip tidbits were it not for facebook. But luckily, I found out and got to shoot of a couple of congratulatory wall posts, displaying my true and continued interest in their lives, via facebook.

It has its bad side too. Facebook/myspace definately lends itself to forming more shallow relationships. It is easy to get caught up in an online flirtation with someone and let things get out of hand. Also, do I really need an hourly news feed on what my friends and acquaintances are doing at every moment? I think not. Privacy has become a big issue as facebook and myspace both use demographic information to shoot ads (disguised as news feeds) to users.

Privacy and technology has become an increasingly difficult battle anyway. For example, I have been contemplating for awhile now: how wrong is it to snoop through someone's phone or email? I know in theory it is very wrong; you should trust people and respect their privacy. But what about when the snooper finds something? The other day I heard about a couple who have been trying to work out their relationship. It was going well until he found some questionable text messages on her phone. I also know tons of girls who peek into a boyfriends email or phone messages if given an easy opportunity. If a person discovers foul play while snooping, yes it is an invasion of privacy, but isn't it better to know the truth? How bad is snooping a little in comparison with lying and cheating?

I am not saying that we should completely disregard respect for privacy, and I am NOT advocating snooping. I felt bad for days after I changed my name in Jacson's phone (to Lindz Awesome) because I saw who some of his other contacts were. I think privacy should be respected and I am not a snoop by nature. My point is that as it gets easier to track people's communication through technology, who is to blame when secrets are uncovered, whether inadvertently or by minor snooping? If people want to safeguard their privacy, maybe they should take more precautions.

Anyway, that is what I am contemplating as I sit at my office desk and space out. Facebook and privacy and technology. I am lucky that I am dating someone I trust and don't need to snoop to reassure myself, but I can't say I blame those snoopers too much...

Christmas, etc.

Yay for Christmas!! I love Christmas and all the church carols and spirit! On Christmas morning Allison and I both opened our gifts. She: cooking aprons, knitting supplies, cookbooks and cookware. Me: A bottle of wine and a quesadilla maker. Surely you can see the difference in our personalities reflected in the gifts my parents (or Santa) chose to give us.

A couple things I love:
- Old friends coming to town
- New sweaters
- Starting to write PR for my job (yay)
- Reading Calvin and Hobbes with the boy over hot cocoa
- Wearing the boy's comfy socks (when he shares his stuff)


A couple big pet peeves:
- People bailing out for lame reasons
- When you call someone and they let other people answer their phone and you have to deal with five minutes of "but this is him/her"
- When people don't chip in gas money. I know gas is expensive right now, but that's the point. I don't have any money either, so chip in and share the load.


Back to Grey's. More to write later on Monday at the office.... such a boring day at work it always is.

not enough credit

Got a note from the boy on facebook asking why I only ever write about him if I have a complaint. That made me feel pretty bad because, although I don't write about him in every entry, I do tend to focus on the negative things that have happened when I do write about us. That's not very fair. Blogging, at least for me, can sometimes be a way to vent (to no one in general) and sort out my thoughts but it isn't good when you don't give the people in your life enough credit for putting up with your bullshit all the time. So here's how I really feel:

I think my boyfriend is quite possibly the best man I have ever met (with the sole competition from my dad). He is always slow to anger and quick to listen. When I have down times, like I did earlier this week, I know I can count on him for support. I really admire the optimism and compassion that he faces the world with every day. He is the ONLY person I know who always has something good to say about everyone, and does so often. He goes out of his way to do special things for me, like getting John Furtado to sing a song for our one year, or e-mailing me poems. When I got back from Europe he not only picked me up, but set up a special surprise for me at my house.

So you see, it is not very fair that I have only written about my passing irritations with him, which as we all probably know are due in large part to my moodiness. I will try to do better in the future to also write about all the awesome and sweet things he has done for me, a list which far outweighs any small complaints.

Love.

Snow (Hey Oh)

Yes I stole that from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it was a fitting title. The show Grey's Anatomy steals all their episode title's from songs. So there.

My computer is doing a weird thing. It behaves as its normally fully functional self, when all of a sudden, Poof! It shuts off. This happens about every other day or so, but today it happened twice. If I weren't so poor I would take it in to the shop. But so it goes.

In studying for the GMAT's I have realized that nearly everthing that I learned in tenth grade geometry and algebra have left me, including the multiplication table for values higher than 5. Sad. So I am working on my second "GMAT study prep" math section book.

On Tuesday at work I am being job trained by the woman the company fired in order to make way for me... So that is a little intimidating. Last day at work at MBI (friday) was sad. They did bring me a delicious cake, which made me love them disproportionately more than normal, so that wasn't very fair.

I am feeling a little tempermental today and am chalking it up to PMS. Somedays people just get irritating, especially bossy people. The boy once told me that the deadly sin that would describe me best is wrath. This really hurt my feelings at the time and I'm still not happy about it, but I can see some truth in it. I am easily annoyed. I am seriously trying to work on that. What mostly ends up happening though is that I get silently easily annoyed. Still working...

I think I may go downstairs now to watch the Cutting Edge. Classic and perfect for a snowy snowy day. Hope it clears up for morning service at church, I will probably have to show up in a parka (I am always cold).