On The Internet

So. Hey. I'm 20. They don't warn you that birthdays kind of suck in the years between 16 and 20 (I mean, I kind of liked 18 but that's just because I wanted to vote). They're a lovely reminder that you have (insert multiple of 365) days until something important happens. Namely, turning 21. And then after that, more of the pointless birthdays.


But that is not the point of this post. I just thought I'd share that with you guys, my darling, darling readers.

My question for today is why various internet outlets (particularly social media outlets) want me to sync up all of my accounts. No, I don't want to follow the people that I'm friends with on facebook on Twitter...unless, that is, I know them well enough to know I actually have an interest in what they have to say. I do not WANT my internet persona to become some massively-integrated single entity. I mean, a younger me (okay, a current me) was (is) an obsessive user of Harry Potter fansites. I don't WANT that to become a part of what my facebook friends or my blog readers see of me.

Yes, I understand that the whole point is so they can get a better profile of the sites you use, the things you like, and the people you know, so that, ultimately, they can better market to you. But I don't want that. I just want to use every major social media site WITHOUT converging them all together. Is that so much to ask?

When that "Would you like to link this account to Facebook?" option comes up...burn it. Kill it with fire.

Yours in internet anonymity (ha),
Rachel Leigh

On Global News and International Security

I don't mean to sound unpatriotic.  I mean, I make a lot of comments about dumb Americans, but really, I just find most people to be dumb.  I am, in fact, quite proud of the country I live in.  But the people who are surprised that Shakeel Afridi, the doctor who helped the United States track Bin Laden to the compound in Pakistan where he was later killed (Hey, good job, Seal Team 6...no really, though, that was bad-ass) was tried and convicted of treason are....kind of naive, really.

I'm all for what he did, but just because he did the right thing doesn't mean there aren't legal consequences.  He reported internal affairs to an outside intelligence source.  That's treason.  And the 33 years in prison he would serve as a result?  Pretty light compared to the punishment for treason in most countries, which is death.

Doing the right thing in spite of its legality is something you still have to consider.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail focuses on the idea that we have a moral obligation to break immoral laws.  But we also have a responsibility to accept the punishment that comes with it.  That punishment is what makes civil disobedience different from outright criminal behavior.

I think Dr. Afridi did exactly the right thing -- he helped us catch and eliminate a dangerous criminal and a threat to international security.  But what he did was still a crime against his country, and they have a right to prosecute him for that.  If the same thing happened in the U.S., they'd have just as much a right to do the same thing.  I'd like to think we'd have the fairness and good judgment to overlook or downgrade the crime in the face of what was accomplished as a result, but when a country's security and sovereignty within their borders is threatened, they have the right to try the people responsible for treason and to go after them as they see fit.

Just my two cents on a big global news story.

Tiredly yours,
Rachel Leigh

On Facebook, Nerdfighteria, and Being The Product

John Green's video for the week this week on the vlogbrothers' channel on YouTube (Do I have to explain this?  Really?*) was called "You ARE The Product."  Once again, he made me smile by making more sense than you.  It was in response to the Facebook IPO, which is a topic far too complicated for me to try and flesh out right now and is not really the point of this post.

A lot of people have been wondering how Facebook's IPO could have estimated the company's worth at $100 billion.  That's enough money for me to pay off my student debt, make some significant head-way into the national deficit, buy each of my immediate family members a home, invest in MULTIPLE pools filled with jello or other delicious edible food-type products, and still have some to spare.  And it seems like a lot of money for a company that seems to have a business model that shouldn't be capable of generating a profit.  I, and most people I know, would never pay money for Facebook, which makes it seem kind of absurd that a company with no tangible product can be worth so much.

But that's the point John raised -- it's not that Facebook has no product, it's that we, as the users, are the product.  Our use of the site has commodified us and made us a product worth a multi-million dollar advertising market.  But, I mean, John really only focused on one aspect of how Facebook commodifies its users -- it's not only that we are exposed to the ads that Facebook gets paid to show us.  It seems naive to ignore or forget the fact that Facebook has been blasted several times for selling user information to companies and ad agencies, so those same companies get both the ad space they pay for and the added benefits of a helpful profile that makes sure they're not wasting their advertising dollars on people outside their target market.  Both literally and figuratively, your online personality has been turned into a product to be bought and sold, and THAT's what makes Facebook billions.

I guess the bigger question is -- does it matter?  Does the fact that the information I post and view on Facebook can be sold to an ad company so they better know how to market to me make me want to stop using Facebook?  Not really.  While the idea of treating human life as a commodity to be bought and sold is grotesque, in all honesty, the way Facebook does it doesn't leave me feeling that squicky, exploited feeling that I would have thought it would.

Just my two sense.  I miss you, darling readers!

Productively Yours,
Rachel Leigh

* John Green is one of the YouTube-famous "VlogBrothers," the famous and wonderful real-life brothers, John and Hank Green.  John Green is also a New York Times best-selling author and his videos (as well as Hank's) are alternately hilarious, breathtakingly brilliant, and, occasionally, both.  These two are also the co-creators of an online community known as Nerdfighteria (home of the Nerdfighters) whose home base used to be In Your Pants, but since Your Pants has been faulty for a while now, they've transitioned back to controlling the world through YouTube.  Just, like, go check them out.  I'm tired of trying to explain this.  DFTBA.

On Looking for Trouble

So the other day, a few of my friends were arguing on a post on my Facebook page about a movie poster for The Avengers (Joss Whedon, if you're reading this, I love you).*  It had to do with the posing of the characters on the movie poster and their costumes.  At first, I didn't really respond, because, honestly, while I could see both sides to the points they were making, I really didn't take it seriously.  I saw no need to.  It's a movie poster.

And that got me thinking.  People get so riled up about things and, in all honesty, I think sometimes it clouds the bigger issue.  The world has enough REAL issues worth fighting about -- war, torture, famine, violence, marginalization -- that I don't entirely understand the point of starting arguments or looking for problems in places where, honestly, it doesn't matter.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good rant as much as the next person.  And when I find something to rail about, I will in a heartbeat.  I just honestly don't see the point in looking for arguments in places where there really aren't any...the world has enough things to fight about.

I've got shit to Avenge,
Rachel Leigh

* No seriously.  Joss Whedon, and fellow Whedon fans, understand my love here.  I was already psyched for The Avengers because, honestly, I'm a hardcore Marvel dork, but then JOSS friggin WHEDON.  Writing amazing characters and then breaking my heart with them** for years and hopefully for years to come.


** "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

What is up, my darling readers?  After Hell Week, Finals, and then Beach Week in the sunny, sweaty haven that is Myrtle Beach, SC, I am officially exhausted.  And sunburnt in some awkward and uncomfortable places.  Don't judge me.

If you have the unfortunate lot in life of being one of my facebook friends, then you know me as one of two people:

1. That awesome girl who posts quality material, has FANTASTIC album names, and keeps your News Feed awesome.
2. That annoying bitch who won't stop posting and really needs to develop a social life off the internet.

I see nothing wrong with Facebook stalking, and I am absolutely tuned in to pretty much every social media outlet in some context (and have actually been working on/managing the social media aspect of a project at work), but I'm beginning to think I have a problem.

No lie, 11:30 last night I was ghetto-rigging internet on my laptop through the data and bluetooth on my phone so that I could upload pictures from Beach Week.  #firstworldproblems

I don't know why this turned into a random ramble.  Keep an eye out for more things.