This generation has entire databases online about each and every one of them.
That's not an exaggeration - it's a fact. There is no single organization trying to mindread, brainwash, or otherwise have a soccer game with your head - it's a collection of many different organizations quote openly and often honestly trying to learn as much as possible about you - as a consumer; as a customer; as a voter.
But that often results in nothing but better tailored ads (nothing like getting feminine care product emails in my inbox, as I'm sure most of you are tired of the ads for male enhancement nonsense).
Why bring up those specific things? They can get you fired.
Your boss is one of the new detectives.
Your Facebook, your blog, your friend's blog, in fact, everything you or anyone you know posts about you can be and often is read by your employer.
And whether they are capable of making good decisions based on what they read or not, they are making decisions based on it. Your career, and sometimes your private relationships, are based on what people read about you online.
And so you search your information, and the result? You just fed the computers even more information about yourself. The age of privacy is over - all hail the all-seeing eye. I'd start citing the Illuminati were it not debunked decades ago (or was it? Forget it - not interested).
Real people making career decisions based on partial information that they are embarrassed to take the time to double check by asking you are terrifying enough.
So here, before anyone digs up any dirt about me, is the dirt on me:
1) I have a personal life and personal history. I will never be President because of some of it. I've never taken drugs or been a drunk, though I smoked for six months after I had to for a part in a play. Decided it was worth the pain to stop and never smoked again. Never broken the law, either, in any serious way (I've sped, but actually follow the speed limit normally, much to the chagrin of many a driver). I've had rough times, and even been homeless for a short time (hardly worth the mention). When employers read such things, they make up all sorts of garbage in their heads instead of asking you.
So, since you are my audience, If ANY of this has ANYTHING to do with the veracity or accuracy of the posts I make or pass on to you, kindly prove it first before trying to waste our time with using character assassination as an attempt to evade the issues or try to fool us into dismissing them altogether. Such unethical methods of debate will be pointed out and their user revealed fully. Don't do it. Stay on topic.
2) I have a spiritual side - experienced a Cosmic Consciousness experience (read Cosmic Consciousness, by Bucke - you'd be surprised how many famous people have had such an experience of one sort or another). It's perfectly possible it was a psychotic break, or could have been something else. It's only resulted in good effects in my life and it never repeated. I'm no guru, saint, master, or anything of the sort, but it left me with some interesting side-effects that have served me well for life. But all of that is hearsay - not evidence. It's a personal experience that I write about elsewhere. Just prefer it not be interfering here. Nothing like having a boss (or audience) think they are helping people by pointing out you are a Mormon, a Catholic, a Muslim, a Jew, or whatever at your job because of their own biases and issues thinking they're actually helping anyone. Want to talk my spiritual side? Go to that blog, not here.
3) I have hobbies, including role-playing gaming. You'd be amazed at the ignorant comments I've received telling me what I do and what I am for such a simple thing, and what is now pretty much a mainstream hobby, not just by kids, or teens, but by adults. Some of us never lost our childhood and still play - we just do it with entire ecosystems, sociological studies, governmental conflicts, in-depth studies of cultures and mythology and more. Favorite game of Mensa for many decades has been Dungeons and Dragons (TM); the adults - not just the kids. I post elsewhere about that, but you may see a post here and there about the benefits for kids. Just please, don't take up our time here with my personal hobbies; I tend to get rather scathing when faced with personal attacks by people who don't know how to stay on the topic with relevant posts (my personal hobbies are not relevant). Save yourself the bad day.
4) I am a crusader. I'm also nobody. We all have our things we tilt at and sometimes it takes almost losing everything to make it worth your while to speak up.
I've reached that point, and am a disgruntled human. Any person who isn't a disgruntled person either hasn't lived very long or doesn't comprehend what is going on around them. If you disagree, you are disgruntled person in denial being disgruntled. Disgruntled persons welcome here, even if they are disgruntled about what I post. In fact, they are extra welcome - because it is those that disagree with you that most shape the accuracy and effectiveness of your ideas.
That all being said, I think it's time to post freely about everything in my life, each in a place where it serves the audience best. Hopefully this will be the WORST case of going off subject you'll experience from me.
We'll see.
But don't join the "web detectives" without adding three other things to your repertoire:
1) An open and honest relationship with those you research so you can talk freely about things you discover.
2) The ethic "Innocent until proved guilty" to be liberally used for everyone you research.
3) A quick reread about "Whose house is of glass, must not throw stones at another," and "There but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford" are in order, and in their original form to remember that what you see on the web is but a shadow of the truth of a person, if true at all.
Discretion, people, is the virtue of necessity in the 21st Century.
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