The above items have gotten me through the day.
Warning – liquid lidocaine mends a sore throat but leads to a bruised ego due to involuntary drooling. E to the Z to the 123Ouch! Sore throat.
Month: May 2010
Why the nickname/handle/blog title? Warning: LONG blog post
My first venture with social media was a forced situation, not pleasant. Identity theft is common, social media identity theft is not as common. While in high school during the rise of early social networks, and prior to lawsuits for digital bullying, a profile was created in my name with a photo that slightly resembled me (if I was a lingerie model) and my personal information. By personal information I mean my name, telephone number, life details, and most importantly/scarily… my address. The profile was discovered after several (more than ten) creepy phone calls to my house from men that wanted to meet me. As a seventeen yearold, this was petrifying and mortifying. Not only was I attempting to navigate high school, I was now thrown into the real world of online sex solicitations without my knowledge, let alone consent. The profile created under my name was every parents nightmare for their daughter.
Instinctively, we searched for the site after one of the callers explained where he found my information. My dad quickly found the page, my mom quickly freaked out, and I quickly started crying. All of this was very quick. In any crisis, I smile, I process, and then I say, “oh shit. plan of attack? Go!” With zero prior knowledge of any sort of social media, we emailed the company asking for the page to be removed. Step two, call the police. With that type of personal information out there, we felt this was logical. Not surprising, the police chuckled, explained there was nothing they could do, and said, “Sounds like a high school prank, did you make any enemies for yourself?” Again, I’m in panic mode so I’m simply absorbing everything coming my way.
I hang up and ask myself, “Wait, did that cop just ask me if I made any enemies?” As in, enemies are something I clearly brought upon myself, and I deserve this so-called high school prank? The email response from the folks at unsaid-social-network explained to me that without a “supina” there was nothing they could do. Correct, you read that as they wrote it, “supina.” My dad and I read the email with frustration not only of the situation but of the sheer stupidity of the person on the other side of the chain of communication. Someone claiming to be from the legal team just spelled subpoena incorrectly. Obviously we weren’t getting anywhere with them, but the site was removed. So, we bandaged my severely bruised ego, I vowed never to tell the story to anyone, and I swore off this “social media” devil for life.
Fast forward five-ish years. I’m a senior in college preparing to graduate and I’m fully aware of the networking, marketing, research, and FUN that is associated with social media. Like most my age, I use Facebook daily, my profile is set up on LinkedIn and I’m active watching this new Twitter trend that is spreading like wildfire. Next thing I know, it is 2009, I’m working in marketing, and I’m doing research on ways to connect with customers. I decide to try out Twitter but don’t want my real name associated with ANYTHING social media. Considering I had a fake name for most other things online, I considered using that, but hesitated because I was realizing the true value of social media. I needed something that said “Eliza” (me) without using my name. Do you remember the video-game character, Duke Nukem from the early to mid-90s? No? Google it. I decided to call myself NewNukem on Twitter because ‘nukem’ is phonetically similar to my name and I’m not the Duke, but I’m ‘new’ to the world of Twitter. So, NewNukem was created.
A wise word to the weary and untrusting of social media: everything is scary until you understand it. The best way to understand it is to do it, slowly at first. Skepticism is good, skepticism of powerful things is better. Social media is powerful, I was skeptical, I researched the hell out of it to understand the background, and now I love it. Go figure. And as of May 11, 2010, all things about me online have my real name associated with them. My name is Eliza, I am a recovering social-media-phobe.
Old age is hard to swallow
Last night at around 1:30 a.m. I woke to Jenny from the Block blaring through my windows and rattling my floorboards. By 2:30 I'd heard the entire Goo Goo Dolls album circa 8th grade (2000), various Taylor Swift remixes and techno you would expect out of a club. I posted on my Facebook wall at 2:45, "If someone could please tell the frat boys below me to shut the fuck up, that would be awesome. Thanks." I hoped that one of my younger friends studying for finals in the library would read this and somehow relay the message to the frat boys. I live close to my college campus, so I've come to expect this type of behavior on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. But on a Tuesday? Unacceptable.
Shortly after I asked my Facebook world to lend my sleep a hand, the music was turned down to a respectable volume. Saved by social media? It's possible, but I'll never know. After cursing these gents all night and through today (I was so tired!), one of them held the apartment door open for me. All I wanted to do was ask if he was going to have another impromptu dance party and scowl at him. Of course, this is not my nature. Rather, I took a step back and reassessed my stance on the situation. These boys are graduating from college this week. They had a day off from finals (today was a study day so there were no morning finals), and they were celebrating. Good for them!??
I've decided to learn from the brash, youthful assholes, ahem, gents, that live below me.??I will blast music, sing loudly, maybe even dance around a little. I will act irresponsibly (at least once in a while). The only thing that will allow me to get old is my attitude. That attitude that I had last night and throughout the day: OLD. I've kicked it to the curb. Time to be young again. Jamming loudly to a favorite song of my college days. It's by Mac Lethal and even listening to it makes me feel a little irresponsible (ask me the title if you must know). That's all my old bones can handle. "Colt 45" just came on next, the playlist is titled College. Yikes.
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Eliza Grey in Love 