Social Media and the Delusion of Privacy

     "Don't tell them your story unless you want them being a part of it"

- meme from the internet

     Ten years ago, Clarion University held a discussion about privacy and the internet.  The discussion was sponsored by the CUP Athletic Department and the panel included several members of the NCAA.  The discussion came in the wake of reports of several students across the country being kicked out  or arrested for posting pictures of themselves committing illegal activities (mostly drug use and underage drinking) on social media sites such as MySpace, Friendster, ConnectU, Live Journal, and a relatively new site called Facebook.  

     Not only had schools taken to looking on social media, employers started looking, too.  Many people have and still do lose their jobs over the things they post on these sites.  Of course, there was the cry of unfair play from those who were directly affected as well as accusations of invasion of privacy by the more socially naive that didn't seem to understand that even though the interface through which they posted to these sites was in their bedroom, they were actually standing in the middle of the town square and announcing themselves to the world.

     As far back as 2006, the NCAA has had a social media provision in their policy of conduct for their student athletes.  They could have social media accounts, however if they chose to post ANYTHING that could potentially reflect badly on the NCAA, the participating school is expected to remove said athlete from the team and all scholarships, revoked. The specifics change as new platforms appear, but, the outcome remains the same.

     I should note that this was before many of these platforms had introduced "privacy" settings for individual users. Still, it's safe to say that the halcyon days  of anonymity on the internet are pretty much gone unless you code for a living.  Another thing to remember is that now our nebby neighbors can spy on us more easily without getting caught.  If you're worried about privacy on Facebook, just remember what my wife says: "you have plenty of privacy on Facebook. As long as you don't post anything."

     Recently, it occurred to me that this issue is still relevant.  Not only is it relevant but it has created a new creature.  A kind of attention whore who desires attention, but, once attention is received, tells people to mind their own business.  I'm sure psychologists have a name for this, I just don't know what it is. Maybe it's a form of narcissism.

     The problem then lies with the nature of just being on Facebook.  If you choose to post something for the world to see, you are posting with the understanding that you are inviting comments. I write this blog with the understanding that someone may have something to say about it, and I encourage it.   Like it or not, if you choose to go on the internet, you are agreeing to giving up your privacy.  Everyone's a public figure here. Just like in the real world, it's what you choose to share and how you choose to conduct yourself as to whether or not your experience is going to be pleasurable.

     Good night and may your god go with you.

Meaningful dialogue in middle America

     "The radio came alive with a vengeance; at the Texan station news of a flood was being delivered with such rapidity one gained the impression the commentator himself was in danger of drowning.  Another narrator in a higher voice gobbled bankruptcy, disaster, while yet another told of misery blanketing a threatened capital, people stumbling through debris littering dark streets, hurrying thousands seeking shelter in bomb-torn darkness.  How well he knew the jargon.  Darkness, disaster!  How the world fed on it.  In the war to come correspondents would assume unheard of importance, plunging through flame to feed the public its little gobbets of dehydrated excrement.  A bawling scream abruptly warned of stocks lower, or irregularly higher, the prices of grain, cotton, metal, munitions.  While static rattled on eternally below-poltergeists of the ether, claqueurs of the idiotic!"
                  - Malcolm Lowry Under the Volcano, 1947

     The last eleven days since my last post have been spent between Hebron, OH and Chattanooga, TN. Mostly sitting and getting paperwork together and of course talking current events, which in the U.S. means discussing politics.  There's an old saying that says the two things you should never discuss in polite company are religion and politics.  Which is true.  Folks hold on to their beliefs in both areas with a deep conviction.  This, however, becomes problematic in election years.  This year, the issues are big and complicated and can't be solved with buzzwords and catchphrases.  It is the stuff that causes fistfights and riots if one doesn't couch their ideas correctly.  As tense as it has been, the last couple weeks have taught me a lot about my fellow Americans, and myself as well.

     A couple days ago, in Chattanooga, TN a fellow driver asked me if I was voting for Hillary Clinton.  I took umbrage at this and sternly told him "who I vote for is none of your business." He responded by apologizing profusely and I realized, I must have intimidated him and then explained that, I'm trying to remain centered when discussing politics.  I also explained that since we use a secret ballot, we are not obligated to disclose to anyone who gets our vote.

    Last week in Hebron, OH, a driver decided to fling accusations at me because: a) I disagreed with him about a point in the Constitution and b) I was able to pull up a copy of the Constitution and back my point up. All he could say after we were done was "you mean you actually read that shit?" I should note this guy also proudly said he was voting for Trump because "he'd make sure the Constitution was upheld."  While there, folks like that were in the majority.

     I found staying generally neutral was enough to actually find where the consensus lies.  I was surprised at the number of conservatives out here that hate Trump.  I was also surprised at the number of liberals who like him.  One thing that we all agreed upon was this: like him or hate him, Trump has increased the number of voters.

     The thing that drove all these discussions was the news.  The TA in Hebron had Fox News, my company's terminal in Chatt. had a tv dedicated to CNN.  This background noise seemed to influence the mood of the discussion.  The discussions around Fox News bordered on hostile, the discussions around CNN tended to be more civil.  Although, I heard rumours about a fist fight breaking out in the CNN room but since I wasn't there, it's just hearsay to me.

     I realize the political discussion isn't over, technically, it never will be.  But, the one we need to have across the U.S. is just starting to ramp up and may get crazier.  I figure as long as a few of us can keep our cool, we'll be fine once the smoke clears.

     Good night and may your god go with you.  

Mix Tape #1

This week has been hectic to say the least.  I've been running every day since Friday, which is why I haven't posted until now. Today seems like a day for a quick run down of tunes from the truck.  The accompanying mix tape is just a sampling of stuff that is currently in rotation.  The link will be posted at the bottom. Here's the current rundown.  For those wishing to track any of this down, I'll share album info as well.

1. "Drums" - Laurie Anderson from You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With  Most folks seem to know Laurie Anderson for a few things she did in the early eighties and this is from that period. I will, however, recommend checking out her latest project, the film Heart of a Dog. Like her other work, it gives you another way of looking at things.
2. "Bognor Regis" - Frank Zappa unreleased.  I don't think this needs much explaining.
3. "Swan's Splashdown" - Perry & Kingsley from Incredibly Strange Music vol. 1  I'm a big fan of exotica.  Considering how square it's portrayed, it's actually some of the most adventurous pop music of the fifties and sixties.  This may sound familiar to fans of the band Smashmouth, especially since they pilfered this piece, heavily, for their song "Walking on the Sun."
4. "Boredom vs. SDI - Boredoms from Onanie Bomb Meets The Sex Pistols  I am also a fan of free jazz. Members of this group have worked extensively with John Zorn. Although it's clear they are cut from the same cloth as classic noise core bands like Sore Throat and Anal Cunt, the Boredoms are clearly less random and more deliberate, like Captain Beefheart.  In the realm of controlled chaos, these guys have few equals.
5. "Unjust Deserts" - Zoogz Rift from Villagers  People that really know me have heard me speak volumes about The Liquid Moamo.  To me, he's one of the most under appreciated artists of all time.  This little number is probably one of his most accessible tunes that clearly captures what he is about.  Musically, he was a dadaist and it shows in these lyrics with their oxymoronic wordplay and the omnipresent marimba clunking away. 
6. "Flesh" - Ken Nordine from  Incredibly Strange Music vol. 2 If Ken Nordine's voice sounds familiar, it's because he was a voice over artist for television and did a lot of commercials over the years.  He is also considered by some to be the inventor of "word jazz." this is one of his more far out pieces.
7. "The Spider and the Fly" - The Monocles from Pebbles vol. 3: The Acid Gallery  I love garage rock, I also like unbridled weirdness.  This fits both, well.  It builds and swells like great drama and leaves most confused.
8. "Woman" - The Cambodian Space Project and Kong Nay from The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Cambodia  Long before the Beatles started incorporating Eastern music into rock music, these Cambodian musicians were incorporating rock music into Eastern music.
9. "So What" - Lyrics from Pebbles vol. 2  I honestly don't know much about this band, but I love the sneer in this.
10. "Emily" - Girlpool from Before the World was Big One of my favourite albums of 2015 and one of my favourite new bands.  Girlpool is one of the most interesting female groups since The Slits or The Roches (depending on which calender you use).
11. "The War" - Bob Mould from Beauty & Ruin   Been a fan of Bob Mould since 1989.  His new album is due out, soon and I am looking forward to it.  This one is one of my faves from the last one and seemed like a fitting closer for this mix tape.

For those that choose to give this stuff a listen, I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Good night and may your god go with you.

Tonight on the news: Look a bunny!

     Earlier this evening, I sat back and watched the 11 o'clock news on our local NBC affiliate, WRAL. I was left dumbfounded. Not by any news story pertaining to "he who is popular among the poorly educated" or "she who has inherited her husband's credibility issues," but by two YouTube videos. One showed a man and his dog sitting on a sofa,  Not sure what was so funny about it, but, the anchors sure thought it was funny.  The other was yet another video of some hapless motor-cross biker crossing the finish line only to wipe out.  As amusing as these videos must be to those who haven't grown numb to them over the past couple decades, it left my wife and me asking one question: "How is this news?"

     I realize that CNN ushered in the era of news as a business with the 24 hour news channel.  When one runs such a beast, it is necessary to keep the viewer's attention for as along as possible. However, this doesn't explain the appearance of these videos during a late night news encapsulation on a local affiliate. 

     At this point, it would be easy to be cliche' and bring out references to just about every great satire from the past twenty years, including South Park, Idiocracy, and Wag The Dog. However, that's about as much time as I care to use on any of them today.  This problem isn't just on television news.  When I was growing up, My home town's local news paper was considered the paper of record for the region and published stories from around the world that appeared on the front page.  In the last several years, the only news to grace the front page of The Derrick with any regularity has been stuff about the Pittsburgh Steelers.

     The problem I see with all this is that we are living in heavy times, Big things are happening all around the world.  Several countries on the African Continent are struggling to keep from falling back into dictatorships, relations between the U.S. and Russia and China are tenuous at best, and several small groups of religious extremists in Africa, the US, and the Middle East have been staging random attacks (remember the guy that shot up the abortion clinic in Colorado a few months ago? of course not, look at this puppy).

     In his book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury described a world in which books had been banned because books contained ideas that made people sad and angry.  Is it possible that we have arrived at that time?  News in the US very rarely looks beyond it's own borders except to cover only US involvement. Are we as consumers of said news dictating that lack of information? 

     I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this, here, and on Facebook

     Good night and may your god go with you.