The Internet can be a Very Scary Place

I have been on the Internet since I was in the 5th grade. I am 31 now so it was pretty new back then. I started out on Prodigy when it was just message boards. Looking back now I realized that I was a possible victim of solicitation of a minor. I remember  when I was on Prodigy, a guy asked me what my bra size was. I had no clue I was a naive kid. I said 50. No letter just 50. When I got AOL in the 7th grade I started going in to chat rooms. These were just town square rooms. I was 13. I would talk to these guys who I thought liked me. I felt special because they were like 17. I remember one in particular who was 17 or 18 could have been older. He told me that he had a sister my  age and I chatted with her. I never questioned if she was real or him on a screen name. I just thought it was so cool that this guy was talking to me. I am sure that is a common feeling for girls that age. He lived in Lakeland Florida and I lived in the suburbs in a nice community in Indiana.

There were other guys that would talk to me, some not so appropriately.  They weren't totally vulgar but more sneakily vulgar. There was definitely grooming going on too. That's basically where they get you to trust them and are really nice to you. The good thing is that they were all over the country and I wasn't stupid enough to send pictures of my body. Even good girls can be fooled. It is so important to monitor your children online. I hate to say it but trust is not enough. You can trust your child but you can't trust the other person. It doesn't matter what the kid says it could be all a lie. Pictures don't mean anything. Anyone can pretend to look like someone online. Teach your children when it comes to people online to trust no one.  I don't care if they are nice. It doesn't matter if they are cute. You don't talk to strangers when they offer you candy. You don't have private convos with strangers online. Even if they say they are a nun.

It really concerns me because even though we know more about online predators and pedophiles, with social media and everyone feeling the need to share every location and thing they are doing, it's really harmful. I see that kids have Facebook and Twitter who shouldn't. People are posting their private business with the masses. I think that Facebook and Twitter should tighten up their age requirement. Facebook and Twitter should require an actual way to verify age. Parents need to install monitoring software. This is not a trust issue. It is not a oh my kid is a good kid and wouldn't do that issue. It's a safety measure. If your perfect little angel becomes a victim of an Internet crime including bullying. You need a record. You need to be able to know who these people are in case there is something that needs your attention. If your child decides to meet someone online you need to know who this person is just in case. Some kind of contact number or an ip. Just having your computer in an open space isn't enough you can't watch them like a hawk all the time.

Your child probably will be mad if you monitor them with software. They may question if you trust them. You might have an argument over it. It's not a trust issue it's for their safety and when they are a parent they will understand and probably thank you. They will look back and think wow I really was fearless and did a lot of stupid things. Just as I did. I was totally fearless. I was a good polite kid and I did a lot of stupid stuff that people probably thought I wouldn't do. I thought I was invincible and nothing could hurt me.

The Birth of Social Media

Everyone is always joking about what we did before Facebook or social media. It has been a topic that is always brought up and surely due to our dependency of social media. I am a blogger so of course it is a huge part of my job. The real question is what did they do before social media? I am 31 so obviously I haven't always had social media or the Internet. So, what did people use? Sure there was regular mail and the phone but to share with everyone that would be a lot of time on the phone and many stamps. They had weekly dinners and would see people at the store or at the beauty parlor and around town, but that didn't reach everyone. I guess they spent a lot of time wondering where people were or did they?  Was there perhaps a "Facebook" before Facebook?

I often get bored and search things. I am constantly seeking to learn new things about anything I can. I have always been interested in family history and learning more about family. My grandma Rose wrote a complete family history of her dad’s family. I used to read it over and over. I loved to hear stories about my family. Family is really important to me. So, I decided to yet again Google my Grandma Rose's name, I am not sure why as there is never anything new. I ended up adding her city because there was another person who was dominating the search results.  I had found all the normal information about this person results, an article a distant relative wrote about our family history and even her obituary.  I also found something I had never seen before. A newspaper clipping that my Great Grandma wrote, thanking her children for taking care of her when she was sick. This was actually the newspaper. I kept looking through newspaper articles that I found and there were a ton about my family.  It wasn’t really news as in the traditional sense. It was like Mr. and Mrs. SoandSo had their children over for Sunday Dinner and Mrs. SoandSo is sick and was taken to the hospital and is now at home resting.  I really love those people that decided to scan in old newspapers so I could discover this really cool family history.

I thought it was really cool that I was reading about all of this. My grandma Rose always wrote things in datebooks. You could look at it and find out who called that day, who visited, who she called, what she did every day. I still like to look at them.  At first I thought, they must have no news in this town. I knew it was a really small town as I have visited them still having family living there.  I had to share this with my mom thinking how cool it was and how she would probably get a kick out of it. Then I realized, this was their Social Media. This was the way they communicated with each other in their town. This is how people in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s did it. I obviously know that newspapers have been around for forever, but now you can’t find out that your neighbor had their family over for dinner or your neighbor’s granddaughter was a finalist for the National Merit Scholarship Award.  Those are the things we would write about on Facebook or tweet on Twitter.  They didn’t have the internet so they couldn’t just send an update instantly.  If they haven’t see Thelma in a while, they couldn’t have signed on Facebook and saw that Thelma was in the hospital. They would read about it in the paper.  The news in the paper wasn’t always about crime and politics and traditional news. It was about your neighbors’ news, the people that you shared your lives with daily, your friends, that was the most important news.

 In my opinion social media has been around a lot longer than you think, it just wasn’t digitalized until recently.

A Better World Facebook App Review

Everyone is on Facebook. One of the coolest features besides being able to find old friends and keep in touch with family is the apps. There are so many of them, there is all kinds of games, horoscopes, television apps. I spend quite a bit of time on Facebook talking to my friends and playing some games. I have found some really cool games and some really boring ones that I only played once. I had the opportunity to try out a game on Facebook called A Better World. I really like A Better World because it is a game about doing good deeds. There are so many games online about shooting and fighting, so I love that A Better World is one of those positive games. I think that it could inspire people to do good deeds in real life.



Here is the official press release about A Better World:

A Better World, a Facebook game that rewards players not just for in-game activities but also for real world acts of kindness and expressions of gratitude, has soared to more than 120,000 players.

Popular with women, A Better World, adds a new layer of social activity to casual gaming. Gameplay activities are designed to help everyone who participates feel better about themselves, be supportive of others and make positive choices in their everyday lives. Players also can play mini games with inspirational themes; personalize their own characters and spaces in the game and play with and care for virtual pets.

The game offers more than 15 locations for community members to explore, including the:

• Department of Do Good – A place you can share real world good deeds you’ve performed and see what other members of the community have done

• Gratitude Grotto – A charming area where you can reveal what you are thankful for and express your support for messages left by others

• Sanctuary of Hope – A building where you can communicate your hopes and dreams and send encouragement to other players

• Arcade – A play area with uplifting mini-games to enjoy alone or with friends

• A new feature is the Better Pets Pet Shop, filled with adorable puppies, cute kittens or even a magical unicorn

A Better World was created by ToonUps, a digital entertainment company that has focused on developing digital content that encourages a positive outlook and altruistic behavior for more than a decade.

ToonUps hopes A Better World’s original approach could usher in a new genre of “do good gaming.” Research shows that being encouraged to think about things they are thankful for and doing activities that provide encouragement to others improves their mental, emotional and spiritual well being.

I enjoyed playing A Better World. It was really cool to see my friends houses were in my neighborhood. We are so far away in real life it is pretty neat that we are so close together in the game. I don’t have to hunt for them, they are all there. I had fun designing my character. I normally make characters to look like me. So, no crazy hair or outfits for me, I found an outfit that was similar to something I own. I even named my character Sheila. I have spent some time looking around the game and I really like the message and how much fun it is. It did take me a little bit to figure out the game. I must have hit invite friends a half a dozen times, when I didn’t want to invite anyone at that time. I hope you check it out and let me know what you think.

Play A Better World at http://www.facebook.com/ABetterWorld

I was given the opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions on A Better World. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

No, I Will NOT Be Facebook Friends with You!

I have been thinking about high school or school in general. It has been 10 years since I was in school and really, not sure how it came up in my head but it just did. There are some pretty random thoughts in my head sometimes so why not blog about them. Two different things came to mind. The first one has to do with Facebook. It seems like almost everyone is on Facebook now. I like it, it is a great way to talk to family that I would normally not talk to. Not, because I don’t like them but because it is so easy to do on Facebook. I am sure I am not the first or the last to think about this but why do people add other people just because they went to school with them or they “knew” them in school. I can totally understand if it is like an old friend you lost contact with. That makes sense. I find it weird that people add people that they weren’t friends with or worse, people they never got a long with. That they hated for some stupid reason. I am all for putting the past behind me and not holding a grudge but really? I don’t really see the point. It definitely seems pretty hinky to me.

I don’t sit up late at night and wonder why so and so didn’t like me, but on the other hand I don’t search them out and friend them on Facebook, in hopes of some magical reunion to work out “our differences” from over 10 years ago. I guess if those people want to be “friends” with someone on Facebook more power to them. For example there is this girl I went to school with I will call her Bobby Sue for privacy reasons who added me as a friend on Facebook. I didn’t accept her request, for a few reasons. One being we were never friends and I couldn’t stand her. Now she just makes my skin crawl and I have no interest what so ever having anything to do with her. She makes my skin crawl because she worked at a brothel for a few years. I don’t want someone like that around my family or in my life. I have no desire to be “Facebook Friends” with someone I didn’t really talk to or wasn’t really friends with. I would much rather put it in my past and not deal with that person again. I totally understand that people change and all that but why even open up that potential Pandora’s Box?

It also leads to talking about being in school again and inquiring about or gossiping about other people. Things I rather not do with someone I wasn’t friends with in the first place. See, no matter how much you think someone has changed or how hard they convince you that catty high school girl comes back out. Of course I don’t mean everyone but more often than not it does. I am not sure if it is because you stir up old memories or feelings about then or what, but it happens. I’ll pass on being involved in all of that. I am not trying to sound like a cynic and I am sure some differences and new found friendships have blossomed on Facebook, it is just not for me.

Do you have any insights in to this? I look forward to hearing from my readers.

PostEgram Connects Families

We live in such a digital age, everything is done on a computer, we have email, Facebook and blogs. When was the last time you got a hand written letter from a loved one? It has been a while for me I know. I used to get handwritten letters from my grandma Rose. Not everyone is up to date with the digital times, which is fine. I remember the first time I showed my grandma the internet. She thought it was really neat. I am not sure it was something that she could of gotten in to. Some older people choose not to use the internet; it can be kind of confusing even to me. There is a great website called PostEgram. They will print out your Facebook statuses and photos or whatever you want as like a newsletter to send to your loved one and mail it to them through Snail Mail. We went from snail mail to email, well PostEgram made our email now snail mail. It is a pretty cool service.

I also think about how not everyone has a computer. It is somewhat of a luxury item or someone just might not want one in their home for whatever reason. Not everyone can afford the internet. Maybe they live in a rural area where they only get dial up that doesn’t seem worth it. There are many reasons why someone doesn’t have a computer or the internet. However, everyone has a mail box. Now with PostEgram you can sign up for your updates on Facebook either 4 times a month, twice a month or once a month. They also have subscriptions to help you save money.

When my aunt and uncle were visiting from California, I was talking about different things going on with my cousins and I mentioned that I am friends with them on Facebook. Now my aunt and uncle are electronic wizards, after all they had their own electronics store and are very computer smart but they are not on Facebook. They live in the mountains though and they are so busy doing other things on their home. I think it would be really cool for my cousins and I to send something like that to my aunt and uncle because they are so far away and that way they could stay in the loop so to speak.
I hope you all check out PostEgram for more information.

$5 Amazon.com Giftcard from It's All Free Online Giveaway!

I love free samples. Signing up for them has been a hobby of mine for quite some time. My favorite free samples have been from Makers Mark. When I signed up for their Ambassador program, I received two really nice cups and some swizzle sticks. Every so often they will send me an invitation to an event. Last Christmas, I received a random package from the mailman. I had no clue what it was. I opened it and it was wrapping paper with little bottles of Maker's Mark in snow flake patterns. I thought it was really cool.

My friend Matt owns a website called It's All Free Online. You can find the best free samples on his website. There are new ones added all the time. You can find something for everyone. The website is really easy to navigate and is kept up to date. Check it out for all your Freebie needs.

Matt is such a generous guy that he wanted my help to hold a giveaway.

One (1) person will win a five dollar Amazon.com gift card which can be used on any purchase on Amazon.com They sell almost everything. You can either have the gift code emailed to you or Matt will send you an actual Amazon Gift Card in the Mail. I personally prefer the code cause you get it faster. But the choice is up to the winner!

Thanks to Its All Free Online for giving me the opportunity to share his website with you all and providing the Amazon Gift Card.

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This Giveaway will end November 24, 2009 at 11:59 pm ET