Simply Squirrel Food

London 2012 Social Media Olympics

2012-07-24T14:50:00.001-05:00

Technology has been a part of the Olympics modern era since 1896. Events of the early years were captured on still cameras and motion pictures. The first televised games were limited to a local audience in Berlin in 1936, while the rest of the world awaited results via telex and radio. The first live transmission and world-wide television coverage arrived in 1960 at the Rome Olympics.

For the past several decades network television has delivered front-row views of the excitement and events that happened many miles and time zones away direct to the comfort of our homes. Each day we'd pore over our daily newspapers as the go-to source for medal counts, event schedules and behind the scene information. In other words, how we viewed and followed the games changed very little in the 48 years from 1960 through 2008.

Look out world - mobile internet access and social media is changing everything! No longer confined to being couch-potatoes, our array of choices for receiving and sharing information will turn us all into active game participants from the opening ceremony until the last medal is awarded. No one yet knows who will win and who will lose, or what other newsworthy events will develop at these games, but one thing is for certain - social media will provide the biggest technological change to the games since the invention of television.

What events will you be following - and how will you follow them?

Source: 2012 Olympics Survey by TechBargains.com, your best source for deals and coupon codes.

Don't Be a Party Pooper

2012-07-17T09:51:00.000-05:00

Almost everyone likes a party - but nobody likes a party pooper. Thefreedictionary.com defines party pooper as: 1. One who declines to participate with enthusiasm, especially in the recreational activities of a group; 2. A person whose behaviour or personality spoils other people's enjoyment. While you might think you're all about fun, on Facebook you could be a party pooper and not even know it.

Many people have very strong feelings about politicians and their related parties. With the 2012 elections heading into the final months, Americans can expect to be confronted by political ads, news, opinions and commentary just about everywhere we turn - including Facebook. Many of us think it stinks that some of our friends feel their right to free speech includes the right to clutter everybody else's newsfeeds with propaganda that supports their candidates and platforms.

Honestly speaking, even if we aren't the type that wraps ourselves in the Stars and Stripes and proclaims from the rooftops our position on the wide variety of election hot- topics, we all still have opinions. Whether we identify strongly with a particular party or not, we are apt to favor one candidate or issue over another in the various races and matters that concern us. And just maybe, somewhere in the distant or recent past, we even ventured to quietly 'like' a political page or article we agreed with. Before we find ourselves unwittingly impersonating our politically overbearing friends, it is time to reconsider what we 'like' with regard to candidates and issues.

Facebook has rolled out a new 'feature' where they can publish posts, under a heading showing your name and related 'like', to your newsfeed without your knowledge or consent. For more on this topic go to: The Ed Bott Report - Is Facebook Damaging Your Reputation with Sneaky Political Posts? Following is a sample of an unauthorized post shown in the report:

The bad news is there is very little any of us can do to prevent these stories from appearing in our newsfeeds. We can hide each individual post but have no tools available to banish these featured posts from our newsfeeds altogether. The ultimate solution is to unfriend the people whose name the posts are appearing under - and that just doesn't seem right since they quite possibly didn't ever intend to initiate the problem.

In these times of controversial and divisive politics, do your friends a favor and edit out all things political from the 'like' list on your profile page. Don't be a party pooper (double entendre intended) or let Facebook ruin the goodwill you have created with your friend list that is likely comprised of people from both business and personal parts of your life, including those that don't agree with you politically.

Features are usually sold with benefits. Unless you are looking to shrink your group of friends in both your virtual and real worlds, I see no possible benefit to having Facebook make posts upon your behalf. It's manipulative and it stinks. And what happens when people aren't having fun at a party? They leave. Facebook just opened the door.

Related posts: Politics and Facebook Don't Mix, The Party Principle

Playing Hide & Seek on Facebook

2012-07-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

These days it seems that I have hidden or blocked so many things from my Facebook newsfeed there's not much left to read. Everytime I log in I'm treated to a new kind of hide-and-seek game. I hide everything (and nearly everyone) who is obnoxious while I seek entertaining and informative exchanges with friends. Though the childhood game involving groups of kids usually results in great fun, the Facebook version is anything but fun.

The most annoying thing I've blocked or hid is the real-time news Ticker on the right side of the newsfeed page. Some people call it the 'stalker ticker' as it creepily relates everything our friends comment on, like, read and listen to. Click on the arrow at the top right of the Ticker header to hide it. Rumor has it that Facebook may be eliminating it soon to free the space up for something else.

I've never understood why I should be interested in scores and levels achieved by my friends in the various game apps. The only interesting information those posts portray is how much time some people spend playing the games - particularly the ones who claim to be hard at work. Click on the arrow in the right corner of the post for the hiding options. Hiding the games can become a game in itself due to the number of new ones that keep popping up. Too bad I can't amass scores to brag about how many games I've killed from my newsfeed - now that would be fun!

Trending articles and trending videos have become annoying too. I really don't care what anybody else is listening to watching or reading. When they come across a particularly interesting article or video they usually post it to their feed anyway. To remove this clutter from your newsfeed click the arrow on the top right corner of the update for the choices available for removing it. This too may have to be done frequently as the updates are trending from various sources, e.g., Yahoo, The Washington Post, Spotify, etc.

Last, but not at all least, are the people. Yes, I have managed to 'friend' people who have proven to be too obnoxious for me. Some are trying to save my soul while others are trying to sell me their products, books or seminars. Others are chronic reposters (see previous post Repeating Bleating....baa baa!), and some just need to chronically share their appetite for gross and offensive humor. I haven't hidden anybody for the excessive posts about their kids yet, but they're now getting closer to the top of my annoying offenders list. If you are ready to elminate posts from people who bug you -there are two options:

Click the arrow at the right of their post for options to unsubscribe from some posts or hide them altogether, or
Move your cursor over the 'friends' button on their profile page and select 'unfriend'

If you ever want to go back and see who and what you've hidden, hover your cursor over 'Newsfeed' just under your profile photo on the left side of your newsfeed page. Click on the pencil that appears to view and, in case you've had a change of heart, make the changes to allow some updates back on your page.

Now that that we all know how to hide the annoying stuff, let's get out and seek the fun. OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!

Oversharing (Infographic)

2012-07-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Facebook is a social-sharing site. People share tidbits about various things in their lives. I won't try to address the riddle (at least not today) of: Do narcissists naturally take to Facebook like a duck to water - or is it Facebook that turns nice normal people into lunatic narcissists? But no matter who you ask the simple question of "Do people share too much on Facebook" the easy answer is almost always "yes".

The infographic Are People Sharing Too Much Online? reveals some interesting numbers.

Who's Watching the Children?

2012-06-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

There's been a lot of talk lately about children on Facebook and how to protect them. With Facebook's announcement that they may open the site up to pre-teens, a flurry of discussion was launched about how to protect children online. This is clearly a child-rearing challenge of modern times. When I was young - kids themselves were the technology threat when we picked up a telephone and made prank phone calls. As I mentioned in an earlier post, raising my kids with one landline and dial-up internet service, provided protection by limiting the amount of time my kids could spend online. Now with mobile devices and computers as the centerpiece of interpersonal communication, the challenges have become more difficult to manage.

I imagine that for all time, parents have wrestled with the challenges of finding the balance between being too permissive or too restrictive. I'm sure most, like myself, have felt the wrath of the "Bobby's parents said he can..." retort, accusingly pointing out there's something wrong with my logic. On the many occasions that exchange happened at my house, it always left me wondering what Bobby's parents were thinking. Even though I was clearly outnumbered, I'd stick to my decision much to the dismay of my unhappy children. I always felt that's what my role was - to make the best decisions for my children - whether they were going to like it or not.

Of the 900+ million Facebook subscribers, it is said that more than 7.5 million are children under age 13 with 5 million of them under age 10. Facebook clearly states in it's terms of service that subscribers must be a minimum age of 13. So how did 7.5 million children slip through the cracks? Quite simply, they lied about their age. And in many cases, they had the assistance of their parents to do it too. Now when you find yourself in this situation being challenged by your charmingly naive 10 year old who cries out that everybody else's parents think it's okay to have a Facebook page - your explanation that dishonesty is never a good decision won't provide much satisfaction for anyone.

The recent Fox News article Judge Upholds Indiana Facebook Ban for Sex Offenders addresses the complexities of protecting children online while balancing the civil rights of sex offenders who have been deemed to no longer be a threat. I truly am not familiar with the difficulties of monitoring sex offender's whereabouts and activities but I do question how easy that would be to do in the virtual world. Rather than identify themselves as a convicted offender while online, or refrain from Facebook participation altogether - couldn't they just simply make up a different name and identity? If Facebook cannot tell when a pre-teen child or his parent is lying, how will it be able to identify and block a sex offender who does the same? And at that point is it more Facebook's responsibility to protect the children than the parents? Though I understand the objectives, I question how effective it will really be to enact laws in an attempt to protect our vulnerable children online. Most laws will only come into play after a crime has been committed - and that is too late.

Protecting children from predators is not a new challenge. Technology didn't create the problem and won't resolve it either. Before we turn to our lawmakers, courts and society to protect our children - we must provide a solid level of security and protection at home. Old-fashioned parenting techniques still come into play: talk with your kids, know who they interact with, stay up-to-date on what they are involved in and don't be afraid to say no to things you're uncomfortable with - even if Bobby's parents or Mark Zuckerberg said it's okay.

What do you think is the appropriate minimum age for kids on Facebook? What can and should be done to protect children from predators while online?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Where Have All the People Gone?

2012-06-19T05:00:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I took to social media like the proverbial duck to water. As the self-designated "Queen of Small Talk" I found it to be a wonderful outlet to share daily events and observations. Everywhere I went I encouraged people to join me and engage in the fun on Facebook. The more my friend list grew, the more fun I had on the site. For me, fun is irresistible so I logged on frequently and shared in the seemingly never-ending clever repartee.

It actually saddens me that these days I'm finding Facebook to be far less entertaining and engaging. But why? My friend list continues to grow, though much slower than it did initially, and I'm certain these friends are just as clever now as they were before. But where did they go? Genuine engagements have nearly disappeared. My newsfeed is littered with posts that would've been caught in a spam filter if they were emails, making it a fairly tedious task to scroll through looking for glimmers of my friends' originality. With my fairly short attention span, this quickly leads to boredom. Once I leave bored, I'm not going to be in much of a hurry to return.

Though I'm sure there are many explanations for the diminishing engagements, I think one big cause of the change is marketing. In the early days of social media, businesses were wary about this new platform and were slow to adapt and utilize it for marketing purposes - leaving the site for purely social interactions. The impact of a marketing message grows commensurate with the size of the group it reaches. Once businesses and advertising agencies realized how fast Facebook was growing, they comprehended the power of being 'liked'. These days everywhere we look, we're being implored to 'like' a wide myriad of products and services and share it with our friends. The more we 'like', the more marketing-type posts we're going to find on our newsfeeds.

Marketing isn't limited to big business either. Many small and micro-business people continuously update about their business activities while seldomly sharing anything personal. Social media, and Facebook in particular, has to be a panacea for non-profits. Mimicking the practice of putting neighbors on our doorsteps to raise funds for worthy causes, we now have friends peddling for money on our newsfeeds.

Combining all these marketing messages with oft-repeated quotes, cute pictures of animals, pleas to show one's hate of cancer, love of God and country - and we'll manage quite sufficiently to squelch the clever wit of the people who at one time brought us genuine engagement and fun. And when that happens, we'll go somewhere else to find our fun.

I realize marketing is an integral part of the Facebook experience, afterall it foots the bills. But something needs to be done to restore and encourage people-to-people interactions or we'll soon be applying the Yogi Berra-ism "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded".

Do you agree? Do you access Facebook more or less than you once did?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Do You Have Facebook Addiction Disorder?

2012-06-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Following is an interesting infographic. It shows traits found in a newly described behavior - Facebook Addicition Disorder (FAD). Giving it the FAD acronym places it in the same alphabetical soup of better-known diagnoses and disorders like PTSD, ADD, ADHD, SAD, etc. Though I'm certain there is an ability to be addicted to just about anything, I'm not so sure that FAD is a real disorder - or if it is, that it's appropriately described and named.

If I have a related addiction, it would be to the internet and easy access to information. And yes, when I have a few minutes (several times each day) I go online to check various sites of interest. Facebook and Twitter are high on the list of sites I frequent, but so are others related to weather, sports and news. If I'm checking any online sites during a meeting, I see that as more of a reflection about how dull the meeting is than how captivating the world of social media is.

These days the advancement of mobile technology has made it easy to stay in touch and up-to-date on events that concern or interest us. I don't see that as much different than the hours spent gathering information from television, radio and newspapers from days gone by.

What do you think? Is Facebook Addiction Disorder real and appropriately named? Do you think you or someone you know has it?

Via: Rehab International

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

To Like or Not to Like - That is the Question.

2012-06-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, so who amongst us has never envisioned themselves featured in some kind of advertisement? Many of the print and television ads I see try to portray the model as a normal person, someone easy to identify with. And when I can truly relate to the model I start to think "hey, I could do that - why doesn't this company use me in their next ad?" With the wide variety of products and services being marketed these days, one could easily think there are opportunities for everyone to be in the spotlight. Well, there is - It's closer than you know and a lot less glamorous than you might've hoped. As for those dreams of making a ton of money as a product pitch-person - you can forget about it.

Everyone who has a Facebook account has agreed to it's Terms of Service. Certainly we've all read it and understand it - right? We may want to take a look again at Item #10 -the one about our chance to be featured in ads without even knowing it:

About Advertisements and Other Commercial
Content Served or Enhanced by Facebook

Our goal is to deliver ads that are not only valuable to advertisers, but also valuable to you. In order to do that, you agree to the following:

1.You can use your privacy settings to limit how your name and profile picture may be associated with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. You give us permission to use your name and profile picture in connection with that content, subject to the limits you place.

2.We do not give your content or information to advertisers without your consent.

3.You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such.

So what's the big deal? Even though the terms clearly state "You give us permission to use your name and profile picture" the use of that information for sponsored ads has caught people unaware. The New York Times Daily Report: What’s Behind Facebook’s ‘Sponsored Stories’ describes an incident of a man who jokingly 'liked' a 55 gallon barrel of personal lubricant - and now everyone knows it. To read about more incidents and reactions follow the link in the article to Do People Like Being Featured in Facebook Ads?

How do you feel about the practice of Facebook using you and your influence to collect revenue from sponsored ads? Do you think you'll be less inclined to 'like' product and services?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Friends and Frenemies

2012-05-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Almost everybody has heard the quote "Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer". Though the origins of the quote seem ancient and undocumented, modern lore attributes it to Vito Corleone as cited by his son Michael in The Godfather Part II. Surely, this advice is in play in social media these days with people accepting nearly every 'friend' request that comes their way. Probably, more than once, we've engaged in frenemy tactics by friending the enemy.

A frenemy is someone who poses as a friend but is more apt to be a rival of some sort. The most likely way this happens is by friending people at work. Unless you are the chief executive of your company, at least a few of your work friends are probably at the same job level as you - and as human nature would have it, some peers do not want you to be more successful than them. Allowing them an indepth view of your life via your Facebook profile and postings could prove to be problematic. Of course, not accepting their friend requests will result in trouble too.

Family members disguised as friends can be another issue entirely. Family members, both close and extended, are like co-workers and neighbors. You don't get to pick them but you have to figure out how to get along with them. This is completely opposite from how we develop true friendships. But in the world of social media, they're all lumped together - the good with the difficult. Dealing with family on Facebook can be like sitting at the Thanksgiving dinner table - bring your best manners and hope they remember their's too. Holiday gatherings often conjure up stories of events long ago, but nobody on Facebook needs to read how funny it was when you wet your pants in first grade. Agree to adopt the motto: "What happens in the family, stays in the family".

A small survey done last year by Eversave showed that 84% of Facebook users admit to being annoyed by friends on Facebook with their #1 pet-peeve being complainers. Also making the list were: political posts, brags about perfect lives, and too many updates about precious kids. These grievances were revealed by the survey but I'm sure many of us have a fairly lengthy list of our own. Here are a few I would add: being marketed and sold to, the brainiac who publicly corrects everybody's spelling and grammar, posting offensive and obnoxious photos gleaned from some website specializing in off-color content.

So what are we to do?

Create and use lists by sorting friends from frenemies
Unsubscribe from frenemy updates
When all else fails: Unfriend

More Godfather advice, this time from Michael Corleone: "Never hate your enemies, it clouds your judgement".

Do you have any known frenemies on Facebook? Why did you friend them? What behaviors bother you enough to label them as frenemies?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Link Me - Friend Me - Follow Me: A Comparison of Social Media Site Popularity

2012-05-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

Infographic by- GO-Gulf.com Web Design Company

How Rich Could You Have Been?

2012-05-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

Everywhere you go these days, it seems everyone is talking about Facebook and the long-awaited IPO. Well today's the day the company that originated on a college campus in 2004 goes public. In the span of slightly more than 8 years, Facebook has over 900 million users and is estimated to be worth billions of dollars.

Countless companies have started since 2004, was one of them yours? How much would your business be worth if you enjoyed the same level of meteoric success as Mark Zuckerberg? One Simply Squirrel Food reader sent me an interesting tool that allows you to calculate the value of your company if it had followed Facebook's rate of growth.

You can access it here:

What if I were Mark Zuckerberg?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Flying the Socially Friendly Skies

2012-05-15T06:26:00.000-05:00

Now that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been around for more than a decade, I thought I had figured out how to prepare for a flight to incur the least amount of interference and delay possible. I move all sharp and pointy objects from my purse and carry-on to my checked baggage, all necessary liquids are under 3 ounces and placed in a 1 quart clear plastic baggie, and my selection of shoes worn will be with the one intent of getting them off and on with ease and speed. With my ID and ticket in hand, I should be good to go. But wait...maybe not everyone is satisfied they know enough about me yet.

Earlier this year the Dutch carrier KLM rolled-out "Meet and Seat" which allows ticket-holders to share LinkedIn and Facebook profile information as a tool for selecting seat-mates. Not only will passengers have the opportunity to pick a coveted window or aisle seat, by sharing their social media profiles they can strive to find conversational compatability with fellow passengers as well. It's a totally voluntary option allowing in-flight meet and greets to those who are interested.

Though it sounds like a way to deliver some pleasantness and fun to the travails of flying, I can see some likely problems. First, basic profile information doesn't reveal the type of information one might find useful while contemplating a long flight in cramped quarters, like:

How much do you weigh? (How much of my seat are you going to appropriate?)
How much do you drink? (Are you fun or surly when intoxicated and how many times will you need to step over me to get to the lavatory?)
What viruses have you been exposed to in the past 2 weeks? (Why does a cough heard on an airplane always conjure up thoughts of some rare but deadly air-borne illness?)

Next, I know a woman who kindly describes any nosy and inquisitive person as simply being someone with a "high need-to-know". Matching that personality type with their equivalent "I have a high need for you to know" types makes me wonder if it's really a good idea to expand our social media platforms to real-life situations. What would be worse - being questioned for the duration of a flight about the details of your life or business; or being held captive to someone's ongoing braggadocio about theirs? Admittedly, both of these scenarios happen everyday and everywhere outside the realm of social media; but I'd have to admit to being both curious and nervous about why someone pre-selected me to be their seat-mate.

Lastly, sharing a flight with someone, in most cases, does not provide enough common ground to start a relationship. Without the benefit of pre-selecting the seat-mate, a passenger will typically greet each other cordially and make some small-talk conversation as a way to pass the time. At the end of the flight, each will extend to the other good wishes upon departure and go their merry way. Neither has the other's full name, place and position of employment or other personally identifiable information.

In the event the two personalities really hit it off and wish to continue to foster the budding relationship for either personal or business reasons, I see the end of the flight as the best time to share some limited contact information, and even then with an eye towards personal security.

At least for now, when flying, I'm going to leave the personal profile fact-gathering and interrogation to the TSA and not worry about passing muster with my randomly assigned seat-mate.

What do you think? Would you be interested in sharing your Facebook and/or LinkedIn profile info to be able to select your seat-mate? What info do you think would be good to know about a potential seat-mate?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Yogi Berra Logic & Social Media

2012-05-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

I love it when I can connect two of my favorite things - baseball and social media. I came across a wonderful piece about how some of Yogi Berra's sometimes mangled logic can be applied to social media. I know you'll find it both entertaining and useful. Enjoy!

Yogi Berra: 13 Social Media Lessons From The Mound [Quotes]

by Heidi Cohen

Social media can learn a lot from baseball, particularly in terms of consistently practicing to improve your results and putting the greater good of the team and its community ahead your personal feelings. (Read more)

Spying or Safeguarding?

2012-05-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Do you think it is okay for a parent to spy on their teenager's Facebook account? I know a couple of mothers who admittedly do, and I know they sometimes struggle with the mixed bag of guilt and sense of responsibility while doing it.

As an empty-nester, it's been a while since I've had teenagers at home so I never had to deal with this issue first-hand. In fact, my kids still remind me how stubborn I was about moving our internet connection from dial-up to the broadband offered by the cable TV provider. While they were sure I was being obstinate, I actually found dial-up to have one distinct advantage over the faster services - neither of my teenagers could be on the telephone and the internet at the same time. While one would always want to use the computer, the other was constantly nagging that they needed to make a phone call. Voila - restricted access to both technologies without my intervention. I thought it was brilliant! Oh, those were the days - not really all that long ago, but seems like decades since we relied on a single phone and shared computer access.

Though it's difficult to keep up with the speed of change, parenting needs to stay abreast of technology advances. I do not think it's a violation of privacy to monitor a teenager's Facebook page, in fact I think it's prudent to do so. From the moment of their birth, parents take on the responsibility of protecting their children from harm and monitoring social interaction is just an extension of that. Teenagers, in particular, are vulnerable to outside influences and when they're on the net they are exposed to a lot of 'outsiders'.

Read the recent MSNBC article: 60 percent of US parents spy on teens' Facebook accounts.

What's your opinion? Do you think it is okay for a parent to spy on a teenager's Facebook page?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Say No to Facebook's Health & Wellness Offer

2012-05-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

After dangling the promise of a 'life saving' Facebook announcement, earlier this week we learned that the behemoth social media site is now offering a place on each person's timeline to show their organ donor status. The announcement was met with great kudos from various media outlets as well as reportedly increased interest in organ donor inquiries and enrollments. At first glance, it looks like a benevolent move - but further thought leaves me bothered and disturbed.

First off, I wonder why we haven't heard a loud-resounding roar of objection from the privacy advocates. Though I don't expect anybody to object to the efforts to raise organ donor awareness, the Health and Wellness area of a user's timeline encourages people to divulge health information of a much more private nature. The additional sections that are available for completion are:

Overcame an Illness
Quit a Habit
New Eating Habits
Weight Loss
Glasses, Contacts, Other
Broken Bone
Other Life Event

Completing any one of these sections moves Facebook's actions far from the realm of benevolence. To locate the section go to your profile page, click on the Life Event listed in the same box as Status, Photo, and Place. Clicking on the Health & Wellness tab will open to the individual topics listed above.

Health care privacy is a very serious issue. All medical providers and insurers are bound by law to retain indvidual's health information in a secure manner allowing access to the protected health information (PHI) only upon the patient's informed consent to release it or for treatment, payment and operations (TPO). It's all laid out in the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act) and a myriad of state laws.

Why is patient privacy protection so important? Very simply, people will be comfortable seeking treatment when they are confident their information will not be used maliciously against them. With the high cost of employer-sponsored health care plans these days, consider how difficult it could be to get a job if you have a chronic disease like diabetes. Do you suppose a mortgage company may find health information useful in determining it's risk in underwriting a 30 year loan if you have a history of heart disease?

At this time there is no Federal or State law that extends patient privacy protections to social media sites - particularly when the patient posts the information themselves. Facebook is under no obligation to protect the information and already offers only dubious levels of privacy on non-sensitive matters. The possibilities of what Facebook and other parties could do with the information is both staggering and disturbing. Join me in objection by refusing to complete any part of the Health and Wellness section.

As for the organ donor awareness initiative - that's all it is. A marketing effort to raise awareness, and while sharing your donor status on your timeline might be good for awareness, it in itself will do nothing to deliver on Facebook's supposed mission to save lives.

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Discipline Lesson or Public Humiliation?

2012-05-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

With all the stories that keep coming up about how parents are utilizing Facebook as a tool to discipline their children, I'm really glad I was raised during an age when the latest-greatest technology was color TV. During that era, so long ago, discipline might've been no TV for a week! Hard to imagine now how harsh a punishment that was since we were being denied access to a mere total of 4 networks. But harsh it was, enough to keep us eating our vegetables, doing homework, and completing our household chores...at least most of the time.

It must be written in the "I am the parent - you are the kid" handbook, that it is not necessary to have a direct correlation between the real or perceived offense and the punishment. Ignoring the responsibility of feeding and walking the dog could earn the penalty of cleaning bathrooms. Refusing to eat green beans could result in doing the weekly ironing. It was the parental privilege to mete out the punishment as they saw fit. Other than the very few close friends the violation was confessed to, the incident stayed behind closed doors. Probably where the roots of the iconic Las Vegas slogan was born: what happens at home, stays at home.

Facebook seems to have changed all that. The recent story about an Ohio mother who chose to punish her daughter publicly via Facebook takes a disciplinary action from the privacy of home to the internet public. MSNBC has the story: Mom who used Facebook to discipline teen has no regrets. In summary, the 13 year old girl was disrespectful in the way she talked to her mother. In response the mother posted a picture on the girl's Facebook timeline that contained the following message: "I do not know how to keep my (mouth shut) I am no longer allowed on Facebook or my phone. Please ask why, my mom says I have to answer everyone that asks."

Both the girl and the mother claim she learned her lesson and will likely not re-offend in the same manner again. I think it's abuse. Even though this continues on the no correlation between the offense and the punishment path, this isn't an issue of clean the garage because you left the milk out. It's retaliation in a most public and humiliating way. And while the girl was duly punished, Mom is enjoying some bit of celebrity as she's being interviewed by various news outlets.

Perhaps life really was easier when an earlier generation was deprived access to TV for not eating liver and onions. With only 4 networks there was no room for the reality glimpses like this of disfunctional parenting.

What do you think? Do you think this mother was justified in her choice of discipline?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

The Billion Has a Lot of Zeros

2012-04-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

Recently it has been reported that Facebook has over 910 million monthly active users. The number is expected to exceed the one billion mark sometime within the next few months. To give the magnitude of that number perspective, consider: 1 billion is 3 times the population of the United States; and if Facebook was a country, it would be the third largest country in the world behind China and India.

I'm curious about who and what gets counted - and how many times. There seems to be no barrier to people creating multiple profiles as the only validation Facebook requires is a unique email address. How many of the monthly active accounts are for people who are deceased? Does the monthly active users list include business pages? The numbers don't really matter to me, however they're counted, the result definitely reflects the tremendous appeal of social media worldwide.

I came across an interesting site: Socialbakers where I found the following Facebook statistics:

The U.S. has the most users with 157,067,260 (out of a population of 311 million), followed by India and Brazil both with 45 million.
Jakarta, Indonesia leads the most users per city list with 17,484,300. New York comes in 14th (4,290,760), Los Angeles 17th (3,956,560) and Chicago 19th (3,056,280).
The most popular page is Facebook's own with 65,644,700 fans; Texas Hold 'Em Poker comes in second with 60,550,115.
The top brand position goes to Coca-Cola with 41,534,748 while their competitor Pepsi comes in 50th with 8,106,495.

To further explore Facebook and other social media statistics visit: http://www.socialbakers.com/ and http://www.zoomsphere.com/charts/facebook/countries

I'm not much of a numbers person, but I find that the stats tell a fascinating story. No matter how you count it, It's pretty clear to see that the numbers add up a major change in how the world engages, communicates and shares information. Social media is here to stay - count yourself in.

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They're There & Their Bad Grammar is Everywhere

2012-04-24T07:00:00.000-05:00

It's true, it's not what you say - it's how you say it that can really make a difference. Enjoy this fun and informative graphic!

Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger.

Is God Your Friend?

2012-04-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you www.OutThere-byGeorge.com for permission to use this great cartoon!

Some people just aren't comfortable embracing social media. Many see it as a waste of time while others are hesitant to post anything that promises to leave indelible impressions in such a public forum. Perhaps these people would find comfort and confidence in knowing that social media is not inherently bad and that even God has a Facebook page. In fact, he has several of them. If it's good enough for God, it has to be good enough for the rest of us.

But there are a few things I find perplexing. Even though God is 'all knowing' he seems to not know that Facebook frowns on people creating multiple accounts. And on some of these accounts he speaks of himself in the third person (I thought only star athletes did that). It should be comforting to us common folk to know that God has been known to make spelling and grammar errors too. For that I willingly offer up forgiveness, as I'm guessing English isn't his first language.

I was struck by a sense of profound disappointment when I learned that God is running popularity contests. I was so disheartened when I read this post on one of his pages: "What should we pray for next? Comment below with your requests. The one with the most "Likes" will be selected!" While it's comforting to know that God is open to prayer requests, I'm dismayed by the realization that only the popular ones will win. Who do we turn to for the ones that lose? It's kind of like reality TV infiltrating our petitions, tune in tomorrow to see which troublesome cause survives to the next prayer round.

And another thing, why is it that even though God has collected millions of likes on his various pages, he hasn't engaged socially by liking and poking anybody in return? Could it be God, or is it Facebook that keeps him from commenting directly on our walls? I'm sure they could both expect that if it were to happen, we'd be so startled we'd cancel our accounts and never log-in again. That would be a really bad thing especially as Facebook gets closer to their long-awaited IPO.

I wish God would 'like' this blog, the viral effect of that small action would boost the readership and page rank and be greatly appreciated. I'd pray for it, but with all the natural disasters, famine and disease in the world, it just seems so wrong to try to elicit those valuable 'likes' for such a selfish purpose.

The more I think about it, things just don't add up. In fact drawing from my beliefs and the evidence, I'm convinced these Facebook accounts weren't created by God at all. That can mean only one thing - God's identity has been stolen! That has to be the ultimate injustice, claiming to be God and doling out pearls of wisdom on his behalf to the millions of innocents who had no idea they weren't interacting with the real Supreme Being. To the brave souls who've had the courage to masquerade as God, I've only got one thing to say:

OMG! When the time comes for you to approach the pearly gates, you're going to have some 'splaining to do!

And to those of you who ignore all the warnings about revealing too much personal information, just think about this: If God's identity can be assumed, who in God's name can help the rest of us?

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To Be or Not to Be...A Friend

2012-04-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

Even though I've got my Facebook privacy settings buttoned down tight, I still manage to get friend requests from people I do not know. I'm sorry to say I don't always remember people's faces, but I usually remember the names of people even from my distant past. It can get more complicated with women due to name changes upon marrying. Sometimes I find myself peering at the tiny thumbprint profile picture searching for a glimmer of familiarity, and those that substitute the kids or pets for their own photo don't help me out at all. When all else fails, I look for hints by checking how many mutual friends we have. After that, if I still cannot connect this person to a time and place in my life, I disregard the invitation.

I have a couple of hundred people listed on my Facebook page as my 'friends'. They come from all parts of my life. Some are family, some are old classmates (sorry to keep calling you guys old!), and most are people I've met while working. Sprinkled in are a few kids of friends and friends of my kids. Some I know well, others more casually, yet I've met face-to-face each and everyone of them. I'm not so confident that, at least a few of my friends, can say the same.

Three people I know have over 1,000 Facebook friends, raising a few immediate questions like: 1. Why? 2. Where did they come from? 3. Who are they? Collecting a large number of friends on Facebook does not make one popular. If anything, it shows a lack of disregard for online security and that of the friends they actually know. While some people may find great adventure in engaging in risky online behavior, I for one, do not.

At this time, Facebook's privacy settings allow only two choices for who can send friend requests: everyone or friends-of-friends. Neither of these options offer an adequate shield from the thousands of phantom friends a few of my contacts have amassed. I get particularly concerned when any of these phantom individuals extend a friend request to me. I have no idea what their agenda is, but I'm certain it isn't to benefit me.

I advise everyone to familiarize themselves with the Facebook Privacy settings options. Restricting who can access your personal information is the first place to start. Whenever possible, disallow friend-of-friend exposure.

As for the people you really do know - connect and reconnect, interact and share...that's what makes a great friendship!

Additional reading:
Over-Disclosed is Over-Exposed
Invasion of the Apps

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Over-Disclosed is Over-Exposed

2012-04-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Social media sites like Facebook would like all of us to believe that the more personal information we disclose, the better our social online experiences will be. Many people offer up more details than needed, both on their profiles and by obsessively reporting the particulars of their lives.

While some profile information can be useful in helping long lost friends and acquaintances reconnect, most of the information requested serves little purpose other than to provide analytical details for marketing purposes. But when fallen into the wrong hands, it can become valuable resources for stalkers, spammers and identity thieves too. Where I went to school may be useful for old classmates to find me, but noting my wedding anniversary date does nothing to enhance my online interactions with friends and family.

Too bad the old TV series The Twilight Zone is no longer in production. A modern version of it might portray a woman, we'll call Betty, who goes to her bank to make a withdrawal only to find out another woman is already there who claims to be her. After Betty shakes off her initial shock she insists the banker stop the fraud and notify the authorities. Before the banker can do anything the other woman speaks up with indignation that she is the real Betty and the banker should detain the accuser as the fraud. Now what is the banker going to do?

Upon request, both women produce the exact same identification. Pictures are different but the details are the same. The banker accesses the account file looking for information that can end this stalemate. He comes back with a list of questions only the real Betty could know, like what is her mother's maiden name (classic bank account information), what is the address she lived at 5 years ago, and how many years has she been employed at the local retail store. Both ladies answer the questions completely and correctly.

Betty starts to stagger towards the door, confused and bewildered. How can she prove who she really is? As the theme music starts up, Rod Serling intones something like "Betty's been in a rut lately, she's been fantasizing what it would be like to swap lives with somebody else. Today she's going to get her chance as someone has already claimed her identity."

Sound preposterous? It isn't. With the detailed amount of information provided through social media profiles and postings, it would be very easy for anyone to easily compile enough information to become a very serious threat to an unsuspecting victim's finances, relationships, security and sanity. If it happens to you, having to prove your identity will feel like "you're traveling through another dimension" - a real life Twilight Zone.

Here's a simple test: Do you routinely read your friend's profiles? If you can say yes, consider what you're looking for (schools, jobs, interests, etc.) and share the same type of information. If your answer is no - you don't need the particulars of their information to maintain a relationship, then they won't need yours either.

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Invasion of the Apps

2012-04-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Much has been written and discussed about privacy and social media. I always advise users to post with full knowledge that updates and comments can be read by people they don't even know and might live on forever in cyber eternity. And while that can be pretty daunting, it's only the tip of the privacy iceberg. Serious privacy infractions can be hidden much deeper from view.

Think about the apps - short for applications. An application is software code written for many fun and useful tools to be utilized on social media sites and smartphones. The amazing array of offerings make them very hard to resist. Video games are not novel, but the ability to play interactive games with people from all over the world via the use of an app, has practically defined the term 'social' in our online world. Facebook and smartphones would be less appealing without these apps and certainly a lot less fun.

Some apps have a small fee and many are free. They've been written for so many utilities that the Apple slogan "There's an app for that" has become less of a marketing message and more a common refrain. So what's the risk? A quote attributed to blue-beetle might describe it best: If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold. The commodity is information.

Who really takes the time to read the permissions we're allowing in our haste to accept and download a cool new tool or game? How likely are we to actually understand these permissions even if we did read them? What information is being collected and how is it going to be used? Recognition that the privacy policies of social media sites and search engines are vague and confusing may cause some people to refrain from using any apps in an effort to protect their information. That can be a prudent step, but depending on the account privacy settings, could still allow the release of the information via a contact or friend's app usage.

When it comes to app permissions, it's all or nothing. We are not allowed the choice to elect some permissions and not others. Early on, I adopted the policy to not use any Facebook apps in an effort to keep my personal information private. However, I have recently added a smartphone and a tablet PC to my technology toybox, both of which are loaded with really cool apps - and yes, one of them is Facebook. I have a hunch I've just let the proverbial cat out of the bag.

A recent Wall Street Journal article gives an indepth look into the issue of apps and privacy: Selling You on Facebook

How do you feel about app permissions? What steps have you taken, if any, to protect your personal information?

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Bullying Behavior

2012-04-05T07:00:00.000-05:00

Though most of the readers of Simply Squirrel Food are not in the age group of school children who seem to be the prime targets of cyberbullying, the topic is serious enough for everyone to be on the watch for it. The term is defined on Wikipedia as follows: Cyberbullying is the use of the Internet and related technologies to harm other people, in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner.

Unfortunately, I don't think many of us made it through our school years without the experience of being bullied. The pain was deep yet usually kept personal as we didn't want to add any credibility to the notion that the bully's accusations might have merit. Usually all we had to do was avoid that person and/or report him or her to a superior if we feared physical harm. These days, with the prevalance of camera-equipped cell phones, text messaging and easy internet access, the issue of bullying has become much more serious than the days of old.

When bullying hits the internet, it can no longer be personal or private. The only person who is able to, at least initially, hide behind a veil of anonymity is the prepetrator. The ability to act maliciously and recklessly without being readily identified just adds fuel to the fire. Now even the timid people who would never speak-up for themselves publicly, can feel justified in exacting their revenge online. Once the defamatory information hits the cyber world, it can be easily seen by anyone and everyone and there's no getting it back.

Stories in the news:

'Most Beautiful Teen' Facebook Contest Shut Down As Parents Raise Concerns About Bullying, Safety - Huffington Post

Rutgers Student Dharun Ravi Found Guilty In CyberBullying Case - MTV.com

Cyber Bullying has Memphis Teen’s Family Taking Action - WREG News, Memphis

Though some will argue that a few stories don't add-up to a crisis, there is no question that if you or a family member becomes a victim of such an attack, you will find the matter to be serious and significant. Schools, organizations and government agencies are all trying to formulate and implement safeguards and controls in an effort to mitigate the damages after the fact. Awareness is the first step to protecting ourselves and our families proactively. I found the following website to be very informative: http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

Have you or anyone close been the victim of cyberbullying? How did you handle it? What advice can you share?

Have a topic you'd like to see discussed on Simply Squirrel Food? Send me an email I'd love to hear from you.

Juggling Personas

2012-04-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Persona is described as the outer part of a personality or character. We exhibit different traits when we are in our business personas than in our roles as spouse, friend, parent, child, etc. Trying to be everything to everyone is recognized as an impossible accomplishment, but it is exactly the expectation we are confronted with everytime we log-in to our social media sites. Juggling different personas as they collide in our virtual worlds can present some real-life challenges.

Awkwardness develops when we decline to spend time with one friend and then get tagged in pictures showing the great time we were having with another. Everyone has heard stories of people calling in sick to work and then being the surprise star of a photo spread detailing their actual activities that day. A recent Fox News article describes the potential impact on dating: Social media causing tension, jealousy in relationships.

Real-life relationships are sometimes forfeited for the companionship of virtual friends. The broad reach of social media, across all continents and time zones results in having 'friends' literally at your fingertips anytime you need them. Sadly, some people actually prefer the easy interaction and somewhat anonymity their online relationships offer over spending face time with their real friends. Longtime friendships can suffer in proportion to the amount of time spent with people you never have and probably never will meet.

Balancing work and life has always been a challenge, but with all the technological advancements we enjoy, it can seem like we're never off work. And if you have co-workers as friends and followers on your social sites, it might be best to act like you never are off work. Conflicts will arise when you try to maintain a serious and responsible persona by day yet continuously post the gritty details of a wild and crazy night life.

Sometimes balancing friends and family can produce unexpected results as well. Close friends and relatives can take exception to the fact that the first place they learned of a major life event such as an engagement, marriage, birth or death was via social media. The impersonalness of the announcement puts everyone in the awkward position of wondering what they are supposed to do next. Should they make a phone call to offer congratulations or condolences, or simply assume that it isn't expected as they weren't important enough to be informed in a more personal manner?

Even though the official minimum age to have a Facebook account is 13, estimates have been made that more than 7,000,000 users are younger than that. On the other end of the spectrum, senior citizens are utilizing Facebook as a good way to reconnect and stay in touch with old friends. Even if your friend list doesn't contain anybody from either of these age groups right now, it is likely that someday it will. Remembering that a young person may be looking at you as a role model, keep your online behavior in line with how you present yourself while in their company. As for the seniors, let's suppose they always thought you were a responsible individual, you sure wouldn't want to disappoint them now by proving them wrong.

Juggling all the roles at the same time can be challenging, but it can be done. Never lose sight of the fact that social media sites are not private, are not adequate as a truly personal form of communication, and are not limited to being read by just the small number of people you routinely interact with. It's your act, don't drop the ball.

More articles like this:
The Party Principle
Loose Lips & Loose Fingertips
Designate and Thinker if You're a Drinker

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Tag...You're It!

2012-03-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Tagging people in Facebook photos can add a lot of interest and fun for you and your friends. The act of tagging sends the photo to the identified person's wall too, allowing it to be seen by all of their friends, friends of friends, etc. The more people tagged, the more walls the post or image will appear on. But how much fun would it be if someone tagged you in a really offensive photo that you weren't even in?

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing my Facebook page, scrolling down through a wide variety of updates related to kids, dinner, music videos and, of course, the daily inspirational quotes and affirmations, etc. when I landed on a really gross picture. Not being a person who experiences the queasy feeling very often, you'll have to trust that this picture was exceptionally offensive. How did it land in my newsfeed? Somebody tagged one of my friends who wasn't even in the picture.

Turns out, without even realizing it, I managed to make the matter worse by placing a comment on the picture with the intent to notify both the tagger and friend how offensive I thought it was. My comment then appeared in the Facebook news ticker. Imagine my surprise and dismay when that same gross photo landed in my newsfeed again when another friend shared it from the news ticker.

I think it's really rude when people post intentionally offensive material online. And more outrageous is tagging people who are unaware it's even happening. In the virtual world - do you know who your friends really are? Honestly - all 600+ of them? Can you trust that none of them will cause you harm and embarassment? You might want to reconsider the Timeline and Tagging options in your Facebook Privacy Settings. If my experience doesn't convince you, maybe this will:

Excerpt from Facebook FAQ's regarding tagging:

Please keep in mind that the person who uploaded a photo chooses the audience for that photo. If other people are able to view photos you are tagged in, then it is because the owner of the photos has most likely set the privacy of the photo album so that everyone can see the photos in it. While there is the option to block people from viewing the "Photos of" section on your own profile (timeline), there is no way to restrict the visibility of a photo that you didn't upload.

Click here to read the entire Privacy for Tagged Photos information.

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