Wednesday, October 20, 2010

twitter: social network or CIA spy tool...

so today . . . the first words spoken in my classroom were "i love lady gaga!"

and no, i am not the one who said them!

these words came out of the mouth of a cute little 4 year old girl. i wasn't quite sure how to respond. i am somewhat horrified by lady gaga, along with several other current pop stars. and yet there are certain current songs that make my head bob--even though the words are terrible! i don't purposefully choose to listen to these songs, but they are out there... just waiting to grab my head and make it bob. i hear them at the mall, at fast food restaurants, on t.v... and when i hear them, my head overrules my brain, and bobs.

i am not proud of this.

so as i was wrapping my brain around a four year old who even knows who lady gaga is, i tweeted. because that is what i do if i have an interesting thought. (if you follow my tweets, you will notice that there are days when i don't have even one interesting thought. my interesting thoughts seem to follow the "feast or famine" pattern...)

in less than five minutes i got a notification on my phone that my twitter account was now being followed by "lady gaga watch." less than five minutes. that is all it took for lady gaga watch to find me. and follow me...

now i am just a little bit unnerved. while i am not a conspiracy theorist, i do think big brother knows a whole lot more about me than i would like. i chafed at giving the state of california my thumbprint--i'm not a criminal--but finally succumbed when they refused to issue me a driver's license if i didn't. i don't join groups on facebook--even the guilt-inducing ones like "if you love your mom, click like,"-because that gives them access to my information. (i can't imagine what good it does for someone to know which games i play or how long i am on fb every day, but still, i don't want them to know... and for the record, i do love my mom--i just don't think i need to join a group to prove it.) i have so many different passwords that i have to keep a list--which should also be password protected, but isn't. yet. (i've got to get on that...) i try to minimize using words like gun, kill, and b*mb, because i am pretty sure homeland security could find me even faster than lady gaga watch (yes, some days it is awfully hard to blog without using those words, but i do my best...)

so being followed by "lady gaga watch" was not something i was comfortable with. because i am not a fan. and maybe they know that and were going to be watching me for signs of lady gaga mocking (although i have to say, she makes it awfully easy...) i immediately went to twitter to block this new follower. i don't need followers that badly.

although, i only have 13 followers. and i am pretty sure that at least half of them are some sort of marketing engines. or new people who will follow anyone. but it's ok. fewer followers means less backlash when i tweet something explosive--like "i need to walk my dogs," or "i think a brownie is calling to me." so usually i ignore my followers--anyone who wants to read my tweets is welcome to read them. but when i see the word "watch" in the name, then i start thinking maybe they aren't reading my tweets for entertainment--maybe they are reading them to make sure i only say nice things about lady gaga. maybe they are going to report me to someone if i say something uncomplimentary. maybe i should be worried...

...because while i did block "lady gaga watch" from my twitter account, maybe they won't like being blocked. maybe that will make them suspicious, and they will just start following me under an assumed name, like "i love puppies" or "chocolate is a food group." how would i know? how do i know who any of these people are? maybe they are all watching me... and keeping track of what i say... and reporting it to someone... somewhere...

maybe i am a conspiracy theorist after all...

:)

No comments: