Perils Of The Information Age
My whole life has been spent in the age of computers. I was born just after the founding of Microsoft; I grew up learning reverse Polish notation on my dad's HP calculator. When I was seven, my parents acquired their first personal computer (a "hand-me-down" that was being replaced at my dad's business) and I was one of the first kids in my class to know a) how to type with moderate proficiency and b) how to start and play "Oregon Trail" without assistance from my teacher.
[Side note: We had that computer until I was 14, well after Windows 95 had come out and our old DOS-based system made the computers at school look brand new. To this day it's the longest I've ever known a computer to last. Suppose it helps that it couldn't be attacked by viruses...]
When I was born, computers weren't common. Less than three decades later, they're everywhere.
How weird is that.
Anyway!
Despite this omniscience, it wasn't until last night that I realized just how much is out there. And in a less than surprising move, I never had to leave Facebook.
I'm trying to get invitations out for the Admiral's going away party. Armed with just three Facebook friends and a handful of first names, I managed to find and invite no less than fifteen people in the course of half an hour. Several of them had privacy settings that made them un-searchable ... but as it turns out, there are loopholes I'm not going to share here. (Anyone could find them. My accelerated proficiency ended at the turn of the millennium.)
By the end of that half-hour, I had managed to completely creep myself out. For the first time in years, I felt downright naive -- somehow I hadn't grasped how easy it could be to find people or how much you can learn in half a glance at the computer screen.
Sure, I've had similar experiences with Google, but the information there comes from everywhere and can be rather unwieldy. It doesn't have the same effect.
After I change my privacy settings, I think I need to go to the B. Time for some low-tech mental stimulation. And a little more anonymity.
[Side note: We had that computer until I was 14, well after Windows 95 had come out and our old DOS-based system made the computers at school look brand new. To this day it's the longest I've ever known a computer to last. Suppose it helps that it couldn't be attacked by viruses...]
When I was born, computers weren't common. Less than three decades later, they're everywhere.
How weird is that.
Anyway!
Despite this omniscience, it wasn't until last night that I realized just how much is out there. And in a less than surprising move, I never had to leave Facebook.
I'm trying to get invitations out for the Admiral's going away party. Armed with just three Facebook friends and a handful of first names, I managed to find and invite no less than fifteen people in the course of half an hour. Several of them had privacy settings that made them un-searchable ... but as it turns out, there are loopholes I'm not going to share here. (Anyone could find them. My accelerated proficiency ended at the turn of the millennium.)
By the end of that half-hour, I had managed to completely creep myself out. For the first time in years, I felt downright naive -- somehow I hadn't grasped how easy it could be to find people or how much you can learn in half a glance at the computer screen.
Sure, I've had similar experiences with Google, but the information there comes from everywhere and can be rather unwieldy. It doesn't have the same effect.
After I change my privacy settings, I think I need to go to the B. Time for some low-tech mental stimulation. And a little more anonymity.
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