I absolutely have no opinion about the TikTok ban. I've read about it, and I see both sides of the debate, but the ones begging not to ban it were doing so for emotional reasons, not logical, business, or ethical reasons; at least, that I saw. Did it need to be banned? I could opine on that if I'd ever used it. But I never did. I never once even thought about it. Was it like a video platform? Like Instagram, that moves? We all know all you would have gotten out of me are videos of the two Pittsburgh Zoo tigers, Steelers, and Penguins games. Maybe some dogs running around the backyard action. I'd have hardly gone "Influencer" on it.
I know people claimed it helped enhance lives. I know people said it was responsible for some lives lost. I know people said China was gathering information about users. Meta does, too, which is how it builds the algorithm that feeds me endless dog stories. Is that better because it's an American-based company? I'm no longer sure I believe my information is safer in American hands than anyone else's. And it's scary how information about us is out there. Case in point, I was researching skin tags on this laptop the other day because Carly has one. Two days later, I got an unsolicited text advertising ways to eliminate skin tags. Yeah, Big Brother is real. And he doesn't just speak Chinese. This tiny blog is probably not a good thing to publish if I want to be private. I don't care about TikTok, Snapchat, or anything else I don't know about. At some point, post-60, pop culture, and social media are just too hard to keep up with. I am the out-of-touch fuddy-duddies. I always complained that my parents were back in the MTV days (when it actually played music videos).
I do my fair share of social media. For someone isolated due to work and caretaking, it's a way to get some contact. I loved Twitter. Loved it. It was built for sports fans. When you have the jitters during a tight game, you could get on Twitter and just zing away. And you were sure to find a familiar crowd because everyone else was doing the same thing. The vast array of .gifs made it possible to illustrate exactly how you feel amusingly. Like this...
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| When the Pens blow a lead |
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| When the Pens hang on to win |
I met some great people through Twitter. I've even physically met some of them. Sports fans, dog lovers, and Rush fans. I got political occasionally, but I dialed it back after the 2012 election, realizing I didn't like the heavy-handed feel of the Republicans spouting on the platform, so the same was true for Democrats. Let's keep it light. Until this election cycle and the gloves came off again, that is. But that's not the point, really. The fact is, I was comfortable there. Until I wasn't. So I went fishing for a new home to spout about sports and opened a Mastodon account.
That didn't last long. It was appropriately named because it's a beast. It allows up to 500 characters per message; you can have photos but no GIFs. And it was hard to get set up. Creating a profile was oddly not intuitive. And no one really is on it. Well, the sports teams are all on it. I doubt there's a trick that they miss, but the only follower I got was a right-wing creeper. Long story short, I spent about a week on it.
Then, I moved to Threads. I have found a new home there, which initially appeared to have a more positive vibe overall. As the Inauguration approached, that changed a little. That will be true for a few weeks, no doubt, and then taper back off. Of course, if things go off the rails, it might never calm back down. But while I'm pretty active on it, I don't fully understand it. For example, can I use more than one hashtag - which isn't really a thing there - it doesn't "show" the hashtags? Seemingly, it limits you to one. I know there's a character limit, but not sure what it is. Then, I don't get the Follower thing there - I got a notification the other day that my niece had accepted my invitation to follow me. I didn't ask her to follow me. We follow one another on Instagram, so did it automatically solicit her to follow me on Threads? A couple of days later, I apparently "followed" someone. I didn't remember following that account, so I looked at it. That person hadn't made any "threads," so why would I have? I unfollowed them. Sorry person I don't know...maybe you're a nice guy, but...
So, in short, it's leading me around by the nose, not vice versa. I understand why older people are victims of fraud so much more than our younger counterparts. But when I need a diversion, I can find it there—there are lots and lots of dog-lover accounts, so I've stuck with it for now.
All of this might be quaintly amusing, but it also might be dangerous. If we aren't in complete control of the technology we use, how can we be sure it is not releasing information we don't want? You'd think I'd be particularly cautious, having had my identity stolen a couple of years back. Yet here I am, blogging away, and I will undoubtedly post the link on Threads.
I don't know that our generation will ever be as vulnerable as my parents were. Mother wanted a computer, so I set her up with a used laptop and created an email account. I showed her how to use it and sent her a test email. She replied, and I quote, "I got your email." I believe that was the first and last email she ever sent. Thank God. I look back and shudder to think how badly she could've been scammed by "Nigerian princes" looking for money. We know not to click on suspicious links. We are more suspicious of texts telling us the IRS is coming to arrest us for tax evasion. But technology moves so fast, and I, for one, am not moving fast enough to keep pace. The thing I learned when my identity was stolen is that scammers are savvy. Very. The amazing things they could do if they weren't bad people. So, how vulnerable are we out there in the fast-moving cyber world? The fact that I'm asking the question without an honest answer makes me think it's "very."
How do you protect yourselves online yet still enjoy some of the social interaction it offers?
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