I am
definitely old school. I have embraced much of the technology that exists today
and have a dependence upon on some of it. I emphasize some of it.
I have put the word some in both italics and bold
to highlight the emphasis.
I just did it
again.
I confess that
I do get anxiety when I am traveling for my work and I get disconnected from my
emails and texts and calls. This happens not infrequently when working in some
parts of some countries that my job takes me. Countries where Networks are huge
and growing and where User loads are heavy such as India and China. Countries
where there is no National Broadband Network like Australia. My work is email
dependent and if I don't respond to it stuff accumulates and then people ring
me. The people who ring me are often the English and they are demanding.
I don't like
that.
I agree that I
am unnaturally dependent upon connection with my Blackberry however it is to me
a simple work tool. It is often cursed and occasionally blessed but it is used
mostly for work and not for play.
I purposefully
disconnect sometimes though. I disconnect with intent when I am in distant and
remote places where I sometimes choose to go when I am not working. This is 'Me'
time and the Himalaya is such a place. I disconnect with intent in high
mountain villages. I electronically switch off there and I emotionally switch on to more important
stuff. These are non cyber or electronic things.
I put my
"Out of Office' On - my OOO. I embrace the simplicity of life and the lack
of devices and I do without Connectivity or Instantaneity and it is very nice.
I have not
though adopted or accepted things like Facebook and I reject them in fact. I
give enough updates of my life in this blog.
I sometimes
alarm my Mum. Sorry Mum - I don't mean any harm or to cause you worry or
anxiety. I do not 'Instagram' and I don't 'WhatsApp' or 'Tweet' or
'Twitter' and I also don't 'Play Facebook'.
A lot of
people do 'Play Facebook'. I know this because I watch them and they are
everywhere. They are mostly the teens and the twenties and the thirties that do
it - the youngsters. I watch my two kids Totty and Tom do it and their cousins
Ben and Georgie as well. All their mates do too.
They 'Check
In' by constantly updating where they are and they takes photos of their food
and they 'Upload' them. They then 'Post' and 'Share' them and wait for people
to 'Like' them. I am not sure whether an 'I Don't Like' button exists. I know
there is not an 'Unlike' action but you can take your 'Like' back.
I don't
"Like' that.
I understand
that people do this because they can and that Technology allows and encourages
it. However I wouldn't do it myself and I don't. I can't see the point but I
get it though. If I were a teen or in my twenties or thirties I would
probably do it.
I would 'Play
Facebook'.
I know lots of
people who are constant Facebook Users. I have talked to them about this and I
sometimes refer to a few of them as Facebook Animals. These are the ones that
constantly provide updates of their lives as to what they are eating and where
they are going and where they have been. They provide updates on who they are
with and the ‘tag’ people in photographs that they post on their Facebook pages.
These are the type who I think of as Facebook Animals. I know a few of them and
they don't like it when I refer to them as Facebook Animals.
They get a bit
defensive.
Many people
tell me they are Facebook Users just because it is convenient to keep in
contact with friends and family who are scattered around the globe. They chat
and share events and I get this and I think that it is a very good and useful
tool from that perspective.
I am on it but
it is not the real me. I use a pseudonym.
Facebook Users
generally don't like it either when I ask them if they are 'Playing Facebook'. Both
the Animals and the occasional users tell me that they don’t like it.
Many people
are 'on' their hand-held devices all of the time. They tell me it is just
instant communication and it t is socializing and that they are uploading
descriptions of events with images and video and text. They do this instantly
and on a massive scale. They tell me that they are just using the available
technology and that it is easy and it is what is done.
I see the
appeal and I get it.
I understand
all of this however much of the dialogue that is on Facebook seems to occur
between strangers and acquaintances at best. Many people don't actually know a
large number of the people who they are communicating with. Not properly and often
not at all. I find this a bit disturbing and I see the potential sinister in
it. The exploitation for bullying and other devious purposes also worries me as
there have been many cases.
I find the
whole "Friending" and "Unfriending" process strange and
disturbing as well. I would not like to be "Unfriended" in either the
cyber or real world. I think it would be very hurtful.
The data
aspect concerns me too. The data that Facebook must have and are accumulating
is staggering. I recall talking to a very interesting super nerd IT geek man once
who was and probably still is designing and building Facebook uber data
centers. He told me some of the very very very big figures of the data that
Facebook generated and I checked it. Facebook Servers host more than two
hundred and forty billion photo images. That is billion.
I have
highlighted this in italics and bold as well to emphasize once
again. That is an enormous number.
In excess of
fifty million further images are uploaded each day.
Facebook have
billions of names and numbers and ISP Server identities as well. They have addresses
and faces and photos of food. Facebook have mega data on a large hunk of the
population and they are collecting more and more. Every minute of every day
their data bases swell with information. Facebook know where people go and they
know who was with who and what they were eating. They own and are still
building data centers that can now store exabytes of data. An exabyte is:
A unit
of information equal to one quintillion (10 18) bytes, or one
billion gigabytes.
You will note
that I have once again 'bold' and 'italicized' this. Facebook own
this data. It is given to them. We gave it freely and we give it constantly.
The gifts of the data ownership of our Facebook data is detailed in the
rarely-read conditions of agreement that apply when a Facebook account is
created and activated.
It is
estimated that Facebook run and use in excess of 180,000 Servers and that is a
lot. There are more than one billion users and growing. That is a lot too. The
Facebook data centers are huge and their energy consumption is extraordinary.
The data they have on us is massive and accumulating. There are exabytes of it.
The Facebook
data is now so much that they are even storing it now in Clouds.
I am concerned
what additional effect that the storage of data in clouds will have on the
abomination that is Climate Change that we are - and will continue to
experience. Climate Change is very real and it is human-escalated. We chew and
spew out carbon and we are choking our atmospheres.
We must stop or
slow down for our planet is in peril.
The data that
Facebook have on us is immense. What will they do with it? What are they doing
with it? What can they do with it? They are capable of being the Biggest of Big
Brothers and they perhaps already are.
I prefer face
to face discussions and conversations over coffee or tea or wine or beer. I
like meeting new people and talking to strangers and I enjoy making new
friends. In the real world and not the cyber one though. I like travelling and
seeing real places and being there.
Using all five
senses is important to me. Touch and smell are absent in the cyber world and there
are many people and things on Facebook that are not real. Facebook alarms me a
bit for I suspect that Monsters lurk within.
Scary ones.
I am on it but
it is not the real me and I don't "Play Facebook'. I am definitely
old school and writing this is more than enough.
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