FLASHBACK september 2006

facebook is open to EVERYONE 13 and older with a valid email address. before that it was open to employees of certain businesses. before that? to high school students with valid high school emails. and before that? only to college students.
FLASHBACK july 2006
twitter launches. it doesn't gain popularity until late 2009. now people can express an opinion, or tweet about their day, in 140 characters or less.
FLASH FORWARD october 2012
166.1 million americans have a facebook account.
FLASH FORWARD december 2012
200 million people, world~wide, have active twitter accounts.
FLASH FORWARD today
facebook and twitter are the place to be for people that want to keep up with family and friends that live far away. wish happy birthday to people they haven't seen since high school. reconnect with long~lost friends/loves. and express their opinion on everything from aardvarks to zyzzyvas. and express opinions they do...often with the mistaken notion that the person they are EXPRESSING about will never know. WRONG!!! ESPECIALLY in the case of twitter...even if you THINK you are set totally private, people have ways of finding out. 
friend #1...trying hard to have a baby of her own...is less than excited for a co~worker who is the mother of a soon~to~be teen mom. she tells the woman this. later, she posts a status basically saying "sorry, but i am not excited that your daughter is a teen mom." no names. could be talking about any mother of a pregnant teenager. AND the person doesn't have facebook, so no worries, right? right? WRONG! another co~worker sees the status and tells other people at work. friend #1, then, gets called into her boss's office because her post hurt someone's feelings. ummmmmm.... 
friend #2 and i have a disagreement...who doesn't have occasional disagreements with friends?...and it should have ended right then. but friend #2 goes home, changes her twitter settings to private, and blocks anyone she thinks will tell me. she, then, tweets about the disagreement prompting quite a few of her "followers" to chime in. friend #2 thinks it's private, but, of course, i find out. how? after being told about it, i do a twitter search and find all the tweets friend #2 is mentioned in. no...i can't see what friend #2 is saying, but the tweets she is mentioned in make it PERFECTLY clear what is being said. 
so. is there a way to prevent this from happening to you? is there a way to protect your posts and tweets? sort of...

on facebook, you can set different levels of privacy. additionally, you can completely block individuals that you have no desire to be friends with. after her incident, friend #1 decided to be very careful who she was facebook friends with. she went thru her list and "unfriended" people that she doesn't have a real relationship with and then set her privacy settings on the highest level. how do you change your facebook privacy?

• log on to your account and then click on the settings tool
• under "who can see my stuff" click edit and decide between public, friends, friends except acquaintances, only me, or custom. *hint: choose friends. you don't want your stuff public but...why be friends with people if you don't want to share with them?*
• under "who can look me up" click edit and decide who can search for you via the email or phone number you provided (everyone, friends of friends, or friends). *hint: choose everyone. why be on facebook if you don't want to be found? you can, then, choose to accept a friend request or ignore it*
• you can set individual posts to be seen by a select group of people. again, i feel like this tool is unnecessary...you shouldn't be facebook friends with people you aren't comfortable sharing everything with...but if you want to, it's there. 

a google search of my name brings up my facebook page. all the person sees is my profile pic, my cover photo, a list of pages i have liked, and where i went to high school. all these are items i decided everyone can see, and i can change the setting at any time. that being said, i CANNOT control what my so~called friends decide to show my mortal enemies...so, again, it's not always TOTALLY private.

twitter is a little more difficult. as i said, friend #2 set her tweets to private but i still could find her in mentions by her followers. the only way friend #2 could prevent this is to only follow people who are also set to private. and that's nearly impossible. i am not a fan of private twitter accounts. the whole point of twitter is to connect with the world. if i had been set to private, alec baldwin would have never seen my tweet to him...meaning he would have never tweeted me back...meaning i would not have had top tweet that day. but, should you want to be private, here are the steps:

• log on to your account
• go to settings...on your computer: click the person icon at top right corner and then click settings...on your phone: go to your profile and click on tool bar icon.
• click "protect my tweets" and then click save changes

now you will have the option to approve followers and only those people will see your tweets. but i CANNOT stress enough...you will still be seen in mentions, and people aren't stupid. if you are talking about them, they will know.

another hint for facebooking or tweeting...and i have said this 45,000 times before...THINK BEFORE YOU POST. friend #1 had every right to post what she did, and was only repeating what she had already said to the woman, personally. she had NO intention of hurting anyone's feelings. changes she made to her account were made because of the way her post got blown out of proportion. but friend #2? well she, also, had every right to post what she did...however...she is upset that i found out what she was posting. if friend #2 wasn't comfortable with the fact that something she posted might become public knowledge she should NOT have posted it. 

happy posting!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. and lo, the angel of the lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. and the angel said unto them, "fear not: for behold, i bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. for unto you is born this day in the city of david a savior, which is christ the lord. and this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising god, and saying, "glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."...

merry christmas!!

FLASHBACK 1966

festivus is celebrated, for the first time, in celebration of writer dan o'keefe's first date with his future wife. it eventually became the family's way of protesting the pressures and commercialism of christmas and is celebrated on december 23. 
FLASH FORWARD 1997
daniel o'keefe, dan's son, incorporates the holiday into an episode of "seinfeld" and people all over the country embrace it!
FLASH FORWARD december 22, 2012
i work retail. i work retail during the holidays. everybody warned me. everybody. warned. me. not to work retail during the holidays. "i know you! you're gonna want to punch people in the throat!" no i won't...don't be silly! "people are horrible!" nuh uh!! and they were wrong. most...not all...but most, of my customers have been amazing. until. until....3 days before christmas. now they're frantic. now they're demanding. now they're vicious and cruel. "i want to pay my bill." okay ma'am, how much would you like to pay? "all of it!! you people are so rude!! i'm paying it off and never using it again! i may never shop here!!" i'm so sorry ma'am, i wish there was some way i could help..."you can! you can tell them not to hire so many damn foreigners!! there is nothing i hate worse than a damn foreigner!!" *silence as i take her payment and feel horrible for the long line of foreigners that are ready to make purchases*..."you had a purse here two weeks ago...where is it?" describe it to me ma'am..."it's black...with a zipper" ummmmmm...."it looks just like this brown one, only it's black" we sold the last one and we won't be getting any new in...would you like me to see if another store has it? "yes...please! thank you!!" the closest store is in brooklyn..."can they ship it to me? i need it before christmas!!" ummmm....*okay. i am pretty magical and can get the customers ALMOST everything they want...but...BUT...it's 11:45p on a saturday night 3 days before christmas...it's not going to happen.*
FLASH FORWARD today
today is festivus..."a festivus for the rest of us"...and after the night i had i am all for protesting the commercialism and pressures of christmas. so, how exactly does one celebrate festivus?

1. get a festivus pole. it's just an unadorned aluminum pole...
2. prepare a festivus dinner...the meal is important for step 3...it should be turkey or ham followed by a pepperidge farm cake decorated with m&m's
3. the "airing of the grievances": this takes place during the meal. each member of the family takes turns lashing out at everyone for all the disappointments of the past year.
4. festivus miracles: a festivus miracle is an easily explainable event. example? you bump into me at the store..."what are YOU doing here?!" i work here. "it's a festivus miracle!!!"
5. feats of strength: after the festivus meal, the head of household chooses a challenger for the "feats of strength"...a wrestling match. festivus does not end until the head of household is pinned. 

a silly and fun party idea as you prepare for the real deal...a mere 2 days away...