Hi and Welcome to the A & J PEI Treasures E Jean Simpson Author Blog Post and Podcast. I’m your host, Jean coming to you from the beautiful Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada!! Today’s podcast and blog post centers on the need to be flexible in your approach to situations. If you want to find out more, including how I approached a very negative social media happening in my life then stay tuned!
It’s imperative that one have boundaries and be able to move forward when boundaries are being crossed. I spent a good part of two days trying to get one of my social media accounts back. I don’t know what happened, but it seems that the account may have been hacked or who knows what. It would not allow me to sign in. Of course, my cell phone was broken so the code they sent me didn’t get to me. Then they wanted more information than would be required to work for our Canadian Civil Service. If my account was disabled, it should have said so, but it didn’t and codes looked like they wanted to be sent, but I wasn’t getting them. We tested my new cell and I was able to get texts. One must consider, then, would I have confidence in their being able to keep my information safe if they couldn’t even keep my account from being hacked? I used my husband’s professional account and what parts of my account that were left up to say goodbye to followers, friends and family. Well, followers and friends because my personal account essentially had disappeared totally, I didn’t get my account back. I have yet to get access and am still making requests for them to close the accounts.
Of course, that would leave a social media void in my life, but at the same time, it felt like a chance for a new beginning. It was both exciting and scary. My first thought was how to fill it. I did some reading. I looked at options. Finally, I decided that I would switch to Twitter. Note when they say never give up, they never said to stick with a plan that is just causing more and more pain. I can’t be hamstrung for long when it comes to social media. Social media is a necessity for authors, bloggers, pod casters and other artists and businesses. I switched because, it was the other forum’s refusal to give my account back to me after my cell was fixed and I complied with giving information which they rejected…one had a picture. Who are they, Government? So, I am very flexible when it comes to leaving things like that. I also have my limits. Once I reach the limit, I look for some other way. One of my mentors earlier on said “If at first you don’t succeed, give up and try it another way”. Thanks Reg. I still remember that piece of advice. One thing I feel about working on social media is that it shouldn’t be a struggle or feel like a struggle. It should be interesting or enjoyable. That is my choice for social networking. There are some things that aren’t incredibly fun, but it shouldn’t feel like pulling hens teeth. For those not in the know, they don’t have them.
Sometimes I feel that big faceless corporations seem to think that they own people. They can make whatever requirements that they want and everyone should jump hoops. Where do we draw the line with people requiring information that should not be sitting around online? Do we jump the hoops or do we say enough? I drew the line after providing a picture ID and other ID actually two ID’s and some photos. I don’t chew my cabbage twice and I don’t play games. I don’t lie and I don’t make stuff up. So, they can do as they wish. I process the loss and go on to something else. In today’s world with high hacking percentages, people have to think twice about what information they put up online. There seems to be a big push to make people provide more information online without any guarantee that the information will be safe from hackers nor any real need for it. Social Media accounts should not require a passport or driver’s license for their records. This seems excessive and unreasonable. A lot of the younger generation seem to do things without thinking of repercussions and would provide it in a flash. Ask yourself this, “How much is too much and what is invasion of privacy?” One has to answer these questions for themselves. It isn’t up to me to answer this question for you.
The story hasn’t ended yet. I have tried to get the accounts closed; to close my accounts both A & J PEI Treasures and my personal account EJ Stoo. So far it’s been very difficult and unproductive. I am not sure how far I will have to take this to get it removed. I guess I could get an RCMP affidavit which would be a lot of work. I know I’m no longer comfortable being in that forum and have opened my Twitter account https://twitter.com/EJS08026749. Feel free to join me on Twitter…the plus side to starting over is that you have a clean slate and can re-share some stuff, reintroduce yourself. The downside is that you’ve lost all your followers. At the same time, I’d rather walk alone than find myself going in the wrong direction.
Be realistically unrealistic and understand that the only person that has to live with your decisions is you. However, one bad decision, one wrong piece of information being given online and you could find yourself in a lot of grief. So, what happens when the faceless entity gets hacked? Your information ends up in the black market or stolen. Who pays for it? Who has their credit rating screwed up? Who loses? It isn’t the big faceless corporation, it’s you that gets the short end of that stick. As Stewart Stafford said, “The Internet is the most important tool for disseminating information we’ve had since the invention of the printing press. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the best ways of stealing or suppressing information and for putting out misinformation.” This is one of the reasons that we need to be responsible in our decision making and not let the big faceless corporations make the decisions for you. Be ethical in how you deal with your followers or friends and family. They are the ones that are caught in the cross fire in sad cases like this. They are the ones that got you where you are. They are the lifeblood of any author, blogger, pod caster or other artist or business. I would not have inconvenienced them if the problem could have been resolved. The issue could not be resolved. You may lose out on the interactions, but peace of mind needs to be more important.
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A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA 