Maybe I Should Have Thought This Through

So...

I use to be on several social networking sites. You know, the fancy name for websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, Yahoo! 360, Netlog... you get the point. And as everyone knows, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. There are cyber bullies, cyber stalkers, sexual predators, and US congressmen. I, myself, had problems in the stalker area (not me as a stalker but the other way around). So I decided just to shut them all down.

Awhile later I would get friends asking me if was on this site or the other site. I would say no and after a moment of their disbelief, shock, and inability to comprehend why anyone would not be on a social networking website, I would briefly explain what happened. Their answer was always the same: they have protections set up for that. Sure they do. I know it. But even if you cannot access that person's page without their permission, you can still discover if they are a member of that site. So then I got an idea.

It's not that I was in withdrawal of not being able to read stupid status updates of who was doing what every minute of their day. It's not that I hadn't just lived more than a year and survived without being on any social networking website. It's just that it appeared that no one else was willing to go back to the days of emails and phone calls to send info anymore. It appeared that if I wanted to know what was going on about a few things, I had to be a part of the group. Still, I didn't want my name popping up on a search, so my big idea was to make one up.

I created an alter ego complete with profile picture, date of birth, and hometown. I, of course, had to let my friends know what I was up to so they would accept this stranger as a friend. It felt kinda good to be in the loop again and it was kinda fun to do it with an alter ego. Then I heard about a contest.

A local radio station was giving away tickets to an event if you went to their page and submitted a poem. Others could read them and vote on them. The one with the most votes won. Pretty simple. I thought, "why not" and submitted a poem. Then I got to thinking, what if I win? How am I going to claim the tickets when I am not the person I said I was when I submitted the poem?

Luckily for me, I didn't win so I didn't have to figure out how to remedy the situation. But it did get me thinking about the possible limitations I may have placed on myself with my brilliant idea of this alter ego. I suppose there maybe things I miss out on to protect my identity, then again, I missed out on them for over a year not being on the sites in the first place. Not a bad trade off I suppose. I guess there's always a virtual farm that needs tending somewhere.