Ha, I feel like one more day of this thread being open and it will actually become political.
-
-
One of my favorite aspects of this forum over the years has been the no political rule.Comment
-
Here's some advice I was given a long, long time ago that will help the original poster. And it has actually nothing to do with politics, but EVERYTHING to do with how people get information.
This was back last century, 94 or early 95ish. I'm attending the local community college, taking some computer courses, hanging out in the computer labs to take advantage of their dedicated T1 line instead of suffering through a 28.8 kbps dial-up at home. I'm just a dumb kid fresh out of high school. One of the older students working as a lab monitor gave me some advice when I was having some trouble setting up a Telnet chat room client. (And if any of that makes sense to you, hello of my fellow Gen X Nerd)
He said the internet has 3 rules to survival.
1: Never post things under your own name.
2: Once posted, whatever your wrote is not under your control anymore, and may be there forever.
3: Assume EVERYTHING everyone else posts is a lie.
Number 1 is for basic safety. Lots of horrible people out there, and they're all on-line, so give them nothing to track you down in real life. Plus people change, get older, their frontal cortex finishes developing. So you don't want what you posted as a dumb stupid edgelord kid getting connected to your adult life.
Number 2 is a continuation of that, but is specific to how information is handled on-line. That's not on YOUR computer, or written in some journal you can tear up to destroy forever. That information is on someone ELSE'S computer, which you only have limited access to. You post something stupid and often you CAN'T delete it, and even if you can it may very well be copied and re-posted by someone else with it seconds. So for your own good, best not make that stupid edgelord post in the first place. Though with the age of the internet is also means that resources you assumed would be on-line forever may disappear at any time.
And number 3 is the most important one today. People lie. Bad people lie a lot. Good people lie to, but maybe for what they feel is a good reason to. And it's 1000X worse on-line. No, that Nigerian prince won't send you a million dollars, no the post office doesn't have an undelivered package for you, no you don't need to click on that link in the e-mail immediately to secure your Amazon account....
And no that perfect vacation your friend posted about on facebook wasn't actually that perfect, they just showed you the best parts and didn't mention the 2 days of rain, the malfunctioning boat, or the crazy amount of mosquitos that forced everyone inside all night.
No, that instagram model you follow isn't actually that hot, she's using a filter.
No, that guy doesn't have proof the earth is flat, he's just a crazy guy going through an existential crisis and needs to feel significant.
And no, that crazy "truth" posted on social media that makes "the other political party" look bad isn't true at all. Just someone making up stuff to try and get likes and retweets or whatever gives them a dopamine hit on that particular platform.Comment
-
We were in school the same time it sounds. It's literally why I made a "private" section that google doesn't see, so it can't be cached for all time. That bugs me a lot, so it's why that area exists and literally the reason for it.
As for information... Apps. Phone apps in particular. Apps have trackers in them that snag all your information. That's a rabbit hole that once you go down, you'll start removing them. -
I spend a fair amount of time trying to limit the trackers on my phone. The big reason this phone was purchased at full price from the manufacturer to limit the amount of bloat wear already installed then I still went through the process of jailbreaking and rooting the phone and have limited the amount of apps I load. I am not particular paranoid or feel I am being targeted as an individual I just get sick and tired of people tracking and selling what I do. The ironic thing is I am a Field Performance Analyst for my company and make use of app tracking and telemetry as part of my day to day job. I suppose that makes me some type of hypocrite
-
Comment