Monday, September 19, 2011

A "picture" of who we are, cemented in cyberspace forevermore...


In a friends recent events, an unfortunate loss occurred, and a friend of hers, a young woman, passed away. It's always sad to read stories like these.  "Gone too soon", the inevitable feeling that washes over us as we share our condolences and feel so sorry for their grief.

I was watching a Dateline special recently about a man that went missing. A few years later, his remains were found. Throughout the entire episode, his Facebook page kept appearing on the screen. It made me look, and sure enough, it's still there.

The woman that passed away also still has an intact Facebook page. The privacy settings are secure (thank goodness) but her picture is almost haunting now, her smile radiant as she holds her dog and grins at the camera. I say haunting only because I know she is gone.

I've been thinking about this for a few days now, what we say and write and do, leaving our "paw print" on the internet. A "picture" of who we are, cemented in cyberspace forevermore. If you have a Facebook page, go back and read your status updates over the last few months. Are they a true picture of who you are? Do they include what you would want everyone to know about you, if something unfortunate occurred and that was all that was left of what you've said?

This is probably why I don't do negativity in Social Media. It doesn't make anyone feel good, first of all, and secondly, what if that was the last thing I said? I wouldn't be a fan of that at all.

I've talked about our "signature" before, here: http://momentsofapiphany.blogspot.com/2010/03/may-i-borrow-pen.html  where I said "Your outlook on a day to day basis, begins and ends with your signature". I still believe this.

As I was writing this post, I did what I asked you to do. I went back and looked at my Facebook updates over the last few months.

The conclusion? It's Tiffany in there all right. I don't need to do any house cleaning. Oh but Zuckerberg, if you're listening, I'd love to add some music to my page, okay?

See you soon!
Tiffany

PS This whole "eating clean" idea has sparked some pretty interesting breakfasts of late. I wouldn't have dreamed of putting oatmeal in a fruit smoothy for example. Quite tasty!

2 comments:

Lane and Sylvia said...

I've gone and taken a look at deceased peoples' fb pages before. Or some local criminal or victim of some terrible thing. It's a weird feeling .... very voyeuristic.

Anonymous said...

It IS a weird feeling. I was thinking, why is that page still there? But that's the point I guess. It's cemented there. =)