Social Media: I have a stalker(s)....

     I talked a little about social media last week and how we should be mindful of the content we are putting out there. Well, I've been thinking a lot about what my personal responsibilities are. Contrary to what some people think about bloggers I'm not using blogging as a way to call people out, gossip or air dirty laundry. Although I admit that I have as many passive/aggressive tendencies as the next person, my blog is more a place for me to work out the thoughts running through my head and I try to limit the content to topics that affect me and my family directly (with a whole lot of random thrown in there for humor's sake).

I have 3 very big responsibilities that I need to keep in mind.

     I've stated many times that I am always surprised that anyone actually reads my blog. I'm not glamorous or famous, I'm not particularly handy or crafty; what I have to offer is often in question but here you are none the less. Apparently there is something to it all because it seems that I have a few cyber-stalkers and not necessarily the good kind.
     Did you know that on Facebook there is a subscriber button? Those subscribers don't have to be your approved friends. In fact, you may not even know that they are watching you. I just became aware of this feature a few weeks ago and I have considered disabling it entirely because it kinda creeps me out. People I don't know, have never even interacted with are watching what I'm posting. (And I don't know why blogging doesn't bother me for the same reasons but it doesn't.)
      A couple of my subscribers I know. One is a friend of a friend, she follows along because she's interested in my autism posts. One is a "friend" that has unfriended me on Facebook but still feels the need to keep tabs on me. Another is a person that I know in my community, but we've never been formally introduced (and why "Tiny Cowboy" feels the need to subscribe I will never understand). But the rest of these subscribers I have no idea who they are or why they have chosen to stalk me.
     I have resigned myself to the fact that "they" are out there because I choose to live in the open, so to speak. I don't disable the function because of that friend of a friend. I want her to have access to what I put out there, in the most convenient way for her to receive it. But it still gives me pause and occasionally it wigs me out.
     Over the weekend I clicked on a thread, on Facebook, that I didn't mean to and then a questionable video appeared in my feed. Within moments a friend commented about whether I meant to share the video. I didn't and I was thankful she pointed it out, but it made me realize that people are actually watching me. I need to be ever vigilant that the person I show the web is the person I want them to see and the person I want to be.

*Tiny Cowboy can be best described as a fun-sized, Ginger, Sasquatch who feels the need to wear a cowboy hat, boots, shorts and a tank top everywhere he goes.

**Please note The Mommy doesn't discriminate against those of Sasquatch decent but I do discriminate against those that wear cowboy boots and flowered Bermuda shorts to the grocery store.

Peace Out!
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