I Can't Keep Up.......

Image from edudemic.com. Even the website for this image knows what I'm talking about.

I consider myself fairly literate when it comes to technology, but I tend to jump on the bandwagon (there goes my goal of writing an entire blog post without resorting to cliches) fairly late. Then I have to play catch-up, and I never do. Catch up, that is.

When I got my first computer (at school, mind you, it would be several MORE years before I got a home computer), it was a teeny-tiny little Mac. CPU and monitor were a single unit, and the screen was about six or eight inches wide. Black and white.

I was very, very proud of it.

I was so proud, in fact, that as soon as someone showed me how to put a game called Tetris on it (copied from a floppy disk, mind you), I took it home for the weekend. It was small enough to do that with very little effort. But I would have happily exerted a lot of effort anyway.

I took it home on a Friday afternoon and started playing Tetris. My then-husband had a penchant for falling asleep on the sofa (or passing out drunk on the sofa, take your pick), and I sat at the kitchen table playing on my new toy. When he eventually stirred and I looked up at the clock, it was 4:30. AM. Houston, we have a problem. An addiction, if you will.



I love learning new things related to technology, and I love teaching myself how to stretch that knowledge to new boundaries. When I was teaching online, I tried all sorts of new things. Embedding, coding, surveying, recording online sessions, I wanted to do it all. When my full-time job was using a computer-based curriculum in the classroom, I used technology to supplement. I wrote quizzes, created dropboxes, used wikis, engineered voice threads, and implemented discussion boards, all using technology.

But I can't keep up.

I came to the sometimes-nightmare that is Facebook, and it took me a long time to embrace it. In fact, I created an account, established some connections and re-established others, and deleted my account. I said (rather smugly) that if the only way I could know when my daughter made the Dean's List was by Facebook, that was a sad state of affairs. Then I realized that if the only way I could know when my daughter made the Dean's List was by Facebook, I needed it more than ever.

I go through spells of using Facebook. I certainly don't use it as a "good morning, world!" and a "good night, world!" and an "everything in between, world!" like one of my former students. I tend to use it a lot when I'm traveling, to post updates on where I am and what I'm doing. I'm not even sure why I do THAT, but it seems an innocent enough use of social media and not (as) annoying. I hope.

I resisted the Twitter craze for a long time, mainly because I couldn't tell the difference between it and Facebook. I still can't. Except that Twitter requires one to be terse and succinct, and we can already tell by the length of this post that I'm incapable of THAT. I eventually created a Twitter account, and while I rarely tweet, I do check it every day to see what people are up to. Mainly UGA athletes. People I do not know and will probably never meet in person (with the exception of gymnasts, who cannot escape me at the team tailgates because it's such a small environment). Why do I feel it necessary to know their thoughts and activities?

I don't have a clue.

But I figure it's innocent enough, and there are lots worse things I could be addicted to. Besides, I do sometimes get worthwhile information from Twitter, and while it may not be stop-the-presses-this-is-world-changing, it is usually significant. That's how I found out the other day that we lost ANOTHER wide receiver to a knee injury, and his college football career is over.

(Aside: I just figured out why women don't play football. There's no way in hell any of us would be willing to play a position called "wide receiver." Mystery solved.)

So I'm on Facebook, and I'm on Twitter (but mostly as a stalker), and then I find out there are things called Pinterest, Instagram, and a whole host of other media outlets for which I SIMPLY DON'T HAVE TIME!!!

I will probably be the 21st century equivalent of a writer who still composes on a Royal typewriter. A manual one. I'll be clinging to my Facebook and Twitter (although the grasp on the latter will be a tenuous one at best), and the rest of the world will have moved on to telepathy and smellavision.

It will just have to leave me behind. My hard drive is full.

Politics and Facebook.....

I'm not going to spend a lot of time and energy here debating the pros and cons of social sites like Facebook. I resisted FB for a long time, but I've actually come to enjoy using it sparingly. I have my own self-imposed rules about what I post.

1. I try not to post more than once a day, unless something significant or important is going on.
2. I do not post personal information.
3. I do not post information about other people they may not want to be public knowledge.
4. I do not post pictures of other people without their permission. Well, except for Hubby, but I think there's something about implied consent in our marriage vows.
5. Perhaps most importantly, I do not post my political/social/religious opinions.

That last one is a biggie for me. It's not that I'm ashamed of my beliefs; I just don't think I need to hammer people over the head with them. (Forgive me if that's a mixed metaphor.) I try to approach Facebook the same way I would when I run into a friend at the grocery store: brief, light, friendly.

I tried to hint subtly to some of my FB friends a couple of weeks ago when I posted the following:

If we are truly friends, you already know my social, political, and religious views. You will NOT find them here.

Sometimes I get embarrassed FOR some people for the things they say on FB and don't care whom they might offend. I try not to take some comments personally, but if a friend or relative posts an opinion that IS personal (even if they don't know it), I can't help but be affected.

See, this trying not to be too personal is getting awkward. I could give you a couple of specific examples, but then I'd be breaking my own rules. Admittedly, I tend to include information that's a LITTLE more personal on my blog, but I feel that after all this time I have a pretty good grasp of who my readers are and what I can post. Ironically, as I wrote not long after I started blogging, the more people one includes in one's blogging circle, the less stuff it's really safe to post. Does that make sense?

I don't mean people shouldn't have the RIGHT to say whatever they want on social media sites. I wouldn't go so far as to deny them that privilege. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I try to post on FB exactly the same way I would speak to people in person. And some of these people I read on FB couldn't possibly feel comfortable saying the things they do in writing. Could they?

I'm not just talking about people whose opinions are different from mine, either. Even if I DO agree with some of the views I come across on FB, I cringe at the way the views are stated.

I got extremely sad when I read the post that was the catalyst for this blog post. It is from someone who has been a friend since high school. This person sat with my family when my step-father died. We haven't always been in contact, but we reconnected in the last few years through FB. I have tried to ignore the political rants, the angst-filled personal revelations, the adolescent emotional outbursts, the almost-daily changing of the profile picture. This one was a little much, though:

Hi I am back! I went away during the Republican Convention. I watched it. I stayed quiet. I have to say NO WAY! I do not want commentary on this status. I want you off my page and out of my life if you believe in the "vision" of the Republican Party and the Romney Ryan ticket. No hate here, no love lost, no need to be connected anymore, by the choke on your next Chic-fil-a sandwich!!

I commented on the post; I couldn't NOT comment on it. But all I said was, "Wow." I guess that could be taken in a number of ways, but I hope this person is intuitive enough to realize how damaging such statements can be.

Another friend, someone I don't know, challenged the writer of this post:

Really??? You want people who believe differently out of your life? Not the words of an open-minded person I must say. But no problem, I will honor your request.

And I found the response almost as sad as the original post:

yes Jay you need to go. you need to go and all of "those" that have your beliefs and values, sucks doesn't it?it is what i have alway gotten.. Not any more. No hate. just nothing to bind us anymore you ...... You are very toxic

I am going to "unfriend" this person, because apparently I am toxic too. It has nothing to do with whether or not I share the individual's personal beliefs; it's more a case of someone putting political beliefs ahead of relationships. Is that what our country has come to? Please, someone tell me it's just a small segment. Please tell me that.

Wow.

 
 

Unfriending.....

I was reluctant to use Facebook for a long time. I'm still not one of those people who post every single move they make ("Having a sandwich..." "Watching a movie..." "Cleaning the refrigerator), but I am interacting more and more with friends.

We could argue the pros and cons of social networking all day long, and I'm not sure I would have a fiercely strong opinion one way or the other. Just like anything else related to technology (perhaps anything related to ANYTHING), social networks have their uses. And just like anything else, people will misuse/abuse/confuse it according to their own needs/wants.

That's not what I'm here for.

The whole idea of "accepting" or "ignoring" friend requests causes me a little discomfort. It's hard for me to "friend" someone just because we happened to go to high school together. If we never shared a joke or studied together or marched in the band or had a class together, I'm not sure we have a whole lot to talk about on Facebook. But I feel mean ignoring requests. I realize the person doesn't get something from Facebook that says, "Oh, by the way, Bragger doesn't WANT to be your FB friend," but it still feels ... I don't know ... middle schoolish. Like when mean girls gang up together and decide someone else isn't worthy to be in the group. After a while I guess the person who made the request realizes you never responded, and sometimes he or she might make the request again.

There was one person I absolutely refused to "friend" on FB. She is the ex-wife of my niece's husband, and why she kept requesting to be my friend I'll never know. We have absolutely nothing in common other than this tenuous second-marriage link (oh, and she wanted me to sing at her wedding but that's another story), so why would we want to communicate on FB? She and my niece get along fine ... now ... but they had a very rocky beginning when my niece and her husband (and the FB person's EX-husband) got married, and some very mean things were said. If my niece wants to be nice to her for the children's sake, that's all well and good, and I admire her for it. But I don't have to be her friend.

I've "unfriended" a couple of people lately, and while I felt my actions were completely justified, it still felt wrong. Sort of like those notes in the fourth grade when you wrote and told someone you didn't like him or her anymore. Just mean.

One unfriending was a former student. I like the girl okay, and it's not that her posts were offensive in any way, there were just so darn many OF them. Every time I opened Facebook, there would be a string of something like 10 different posts from this same girl. Sometimes they were poetry (not very good) that she had written, sometimes they were song lyrics (other people's), sometimes they were just random thoughts. If I remember correctly, random thoughts were about the best this girl could do. I didn't want her posts trashing up my page, so I unfriended her. Is that justifiable?

I unfriended another former student because his language was offensive and his posts revealed details about his life I'm better off not knowing. Is it wrong of me to choose not to know some things? I unfriended another one because she wrote entirely in slang, and the English teacher in me just can't handle that. I will occasionally throw an "ain't" out there, but to write constantly in slang is borderline criminal. Or stupid. Or both.

I also unfriended a guy with whom I graduated from high school because he insisted on posting his personal political views. It's okay with me if he wants to share his views with the world, but I keep mine to myself. And if I don't want to read his, does that make me a bad person?

I guess it would hurt my feelings if some of my FB "friends" suddenly unfriended me, and if I realized it, I would want to know why. But I probably wouldn't ask. I would just stew about it and feel icky.

Maybe "unsocial networking" would be a better term for these relationships.

Twit(ter) That I Am.........

I have read with great curiosity (mostly in Sports Illustrated because that's about the only magazine I read these days) some of the things people post on Twitter. I have not given into the Twitter craze (yet) because I honestly can't figure out what the big deal is. I'm already a Facebook failure; I don't need something else that I do but don't know why.

What, pray tell, is the point of Twitter? Is it a duplication of what people put on Facebook? Do these people really have countless hours of time to spend letting other people know what they are doing? It's obvious what they're doing - They are twittering and facebooking!

Yes, I know it's called tweeting. I even refuse to learn the terminology. Or at least use it correctly.

And how does the whole "following" thing even work? Does someone have to be on the computer to get my twitteritions? Or would my followers (if I had any) get emails letting them know that ..... GASP! .... Bragger has gone to the vending machine!???? I can just see my friend Neena, in the middle of her prospectus defense next Monday (please send up a little prayer for her), telling her doctoral committee, "I'm so sorry for the interruption, but my friend Bragger just twitted that she's almost finished reading my prospectus."

It's not like I'm important enough for anyone (except for possibly my sisters, God bless them) to care about what I'm doing at any given moment of the day. I'm not Pioneer Woman, after all. Or an athlete. Or a movie star. I'm not even the most important teacher on our staff, and there are only 5 of us. So who would care?

If I were on Twitter (which I'm not), here are some of the things I would have twittered today:

@Bragger: Ugh.....Hearing the alarm go off at 6:00 on a Saturday is so not cool.

@Bragger: Of COURSE the grocery store is out of the canned chicken with the dollar off coupon.

@Bragger: I just folded a king-sized fitted sheet all by myself.

@Bragger:  I'm graduating from Mario Brothers and moving on to Zelda on the Wii.

@Bragger: I'm too retarded to play Zelda on the Wii.

@Bragger: Why do I even have to clean a shower? I get in it EVERY DAY for the sole purpose of getting clean.

@Bragger: Is it rude to wish my sister-in-law would drown in my pool?

@Bragger:  My college football addiction is getting serious. I'm watching the replay of a UGA game from 2005. I know, right? At least this time I don't have to watch commercials. (I'm pretty sure this one went over the 140-character limit. Let me check......Yep, it was 168. Another reason I'm not on Twitter.)


@Bragger: Why will NBC show ten minutes of them putting R. Bross in a wheelchair and not show a replay of how she hurt her knee?

@Bragger: Go ahead, all you hot shot gymnasts, sign with Florida. Just how many of you do you think can compete on any given night?

@Bragger: I have officially stopped saying, "Tell me again why the Braves got Dan Uggla." Two homers again tonight.

@Bragger: I hope no one saw me fall down the embankment when I was using the push mower.

@Bragger: Housework becomes almost enjoyable with Billy Joel music blasting. Today it was the Storm Front CD. I don't think there's a bad track on the whole CD. (Crap. That one's over the limit too.)

@Bragger: Hubby has done well at the casino. This time.

@Bragger: Yum. Chicken salad with Miracle Whip instead of mayo. Because Hubby is out of town at the casino.

 @Bragger: Is it really necessary for Shawn Johnson to be THAT cute?


@Bragger: I hate it when my DOG tells me it's time to go to bed.
 
There. Would you seriously "follow" such drivel? I mean, on purpose? I realize I just tricked you into reading it here. And for that I (almost) sincerely apologize.

Facebook 'Em, Dano.....

I resisted the Facebook craze for a long time. I was a Facebook snob, thinking those people were just narcissistic (thanks for the word, Katydid!) or full of themselves or something.

Then I kept hearing people talk about their Facebook pages and seeing things on Facebook and I felt left out, so I joined.

But I really couldn't see what the big deal was. I'd forget to check it, and when I did check it, I usually learned that some people have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands. Is it really important how many crops someone has on Farmville? Or how many causes someone else has and sends annoying messages to join? I don't join ANYTHING, even if I believe in it.

Some posts are written by people who I KNOW are at work at the time, and hello? Is that really what you're supposed to be doing on company time? In addition, some of those posts border on unprofessional. Would some of these people really want their bosses to read about their social lives? Written on a company computer during company hours? Hmmmm.....

Then of course there is the whole issue about the teacher in our county who was asked to resign (her story, of course) because she posted pictures of herself holding a glass of wine during a trip to Europe in the summer. Boy, that's a lot of prepositional phrases strung together.

It's not that I've ever had to worry about posting anything inappropriate on Facebook. Hell, I don't DO anything inappropriate. I just don't do much of anything that I think most people out there give a rip about. I'm already committed to my blog, and that's about all the daily requirements I can handle.

It also occurred to me that if I am really, really, really close to someone, I already know what is going on in his/her life without checking the internet. If I have to see a Facebook post to know what is up with you, we're probably not that close anyway. If I'm NOT that close to you, I'm also probably not interested in the fact that you just ran into your ex-girlfriend's mother's cousin's boyfriend's lover. Or the fact that your in-laws are coming into town. Or that you just cleaned your apartment. Or that you wish stupid people would stay out of your way.

So I have deactivated my Facebook account. I don't think anyone will miss me.

Don't even get me started on Twitter.....

Our County Looks Like a Bunch of Idiots.....Again.....

At the risk of being asked to resign, I'm going to vent here about my lovable progressive understanding politically aware retarded school system.

A young woman who teaches in my county was asked to resign back in August for something she posted on Facebook. She has now filed a lawsuit, and the proverbial poo-poo has hit the proverbial fan.

If you want to read the whole story, here's the link. It's a pretty good read just to see all the folks who have commented (both ways) on her situation.

If you don't want to read the whole story, I'll summarize it for you.

She posted a picture of herself with a **gasp** glass of wine in her hand while she was on a trip to Europe. During the summer. Not on a school function. Not even during school time.

In a status update, she referred to an invitation to attend something called **gasp** Bitch Bingo at a metro Atlanta restaurant.

She was advised to resign, told by her principal (whom I actually like a LOT) that she could not win because of the combination of the word and the alcohol pictured. If there had been only ONE of those, she would have been fine.

Huh?

I am positive there are sides of this issue of which I am blissfully unaware.

Her Facebook status was set to "private," and she had friended no students or parents. Yet some parent complained about the objectionable (?) content, hence the coercion for her to resign. She has not even been able to ascertain the identity of her accuser, and isn't that somewhere in the Constitution or the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner or something?

I can see the point of those people who say that as a teacher she should have known not to post "objectionable" material on something as public as Facebook. Some even say that at 24 years of age, she should have known her rights concerning a hearing, due process, and suspension, and she should not have agreed to resign.

Come on, people! She was called out of her classroom on a Thursday morning when she has probably focused on getting 35 ninth graders to sit down and shut up long enough to discuss the pertinent themes in To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm exactly twice her age, and I'm not sure I would have known what to do in that situation. Except possibly to say, "Screw you, I'm two and a half years from retirement."

What she was doing in the picture is neither illegal nor immoral nor even reprehensible. How is it different from a student spotting her having a glass of wine with a meal in a restaurant? I THINK our county actually has a restaurant that serves wine. Probably from a screw-top bottle.

There is a new policy before our board of education right now concerning this matter (timing is everything, no?), and part of it says that teachers can be disciplined for posting information including, but not limited to, "provocative photographs, sexually explicit messages, use of alcohol, drugs or anything students are prohibited from doing."

Huh?

A lot of students are prohibited from driving. Can I get in trouble if I post a picture of myself driving?

How about voting?

Wearing flip-flops when I'm not at school?

I'm guessing I could be reprimanded/suspended/terminated/asked to resign for this blog. I don't give students the address, nor do I mention that I have one, but I guess one of them or their busy-body parents could stumble across it. It wouldn't be terribly difficult for them to figure out my identity, not in our backward quaint little town.

You'll have to excuse me now. I'm going to post the word "bitch" on my Facebook status.