Location (Bette Haley Shelby) Connect the Dots

Location has always mattered, think of the infamous phrase "location, location, location", important enough to say three times.

There's a comfort in knowing where you are, where your children are, being able to know the whereabouts of your pet.......

this information is accessible through the WWW (world wide web), and once it's on the WWW, it's a free-for-all. The information is accessible by everyone. You don't own where you are anymore, everyone has the right to that information, especially through the convoluted mess of terms of agreements. They have that right because YOU gave it to them. You "agreed".

The article on Gigaom.com written by Ryan Kim titled "Location: where is the new who" states, "Cell phones are the king of the location-based world." The location based world is expanding because the population of cell phone users is growing. Cell phones are becoming more affordable, the majority of people are cell phone owners. In fact, probably every person in our class owns a mobile device. 


Scary,
what will the courtrooms sound like?

a victim of a stalker says, "You can't just follow me everywhere, that's invasive."

and the stalker replies with, "Well why did you tell me exactly where you were, via facebook or twitter? You invited me here, or else why would you put it out there?"

Argue that one.

That's a nightmare I'm not prepared to face, but how do you stop it without halting innovation and progression and limiting yourself to the advancements of this age?


Who recognizes this?

Pros: why it is helpful and beneficial
Cons: why it is invasive

GPS
Pro: finding a destination, locating where you are hiking or driving
Con: businesses link into people who have accessed them because they've been near their store and they flood your email and home with coupons and deals

RFID (radio-frequency indentification)
Pro: useful for pet owners, medical identification/history, tracking license plates
Con: where else can these micro chips be placed discretly? especially on a network that you've already given permission to have your location?, Hacking

Facebook
Pro: someone FB chats with you from your group project at school and they went on vacation and you see from their location that they are back in town so you can meet with them promptly
Con: what if you didn't want your group partner to know you were back in town, you would have had to of been aware and remember that the location is telling on even a fb chat

Near Field Communication
Pro: card free
Cons: hacking, accidental purchases because of proximity to receivers



http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sharon-vinderine/geotagging_b_3165873.html



http://www.postplanner.com/9-things-you-should-never-share-on-facebook/

This article's tips emphasises how it is a bad idea to put one’s address online, or even “check-in” at one’s home.


This article goes over not posting about travel plans.
http://netsecurity.about.com/od/securityadvisorie1/fl/What-Not-to-Post-on-Facebook-While-Youre-on-Vacation.htm

This site gives a few more tips on vacation posting dos and don’ts.

here goes nothing

http://thearmysdaughter.blogspot.com




https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thearmysdaughter/343975895775613?ref=hl

Starting from Zero (fb profiling)

My vision for this Facebook page has been twenty-two years in the making, which means it's starting at zero. Initially, I will not have a single like. This is a brand new endeavor and it has the potential to push me past comfort zones that I don't even know. I may have to censor myself in an unexplored way. I'm starting a blog, I want it to reach the military community and I want it to be specific to the people that have grown up Army. If it is explored by people with no military affiliation, I am okay with that but it's directed to get military kids to feel like they belong. I want them to find comfort and I want them to be able to identify with my words on some level. I want to inspire them to write about their feelings and understand that the way they live is as unnormal as can be. There is a significant chance that military kids won't ever feel like they belong somewhere, so I want them to create one, a place they belong. Create a space where they can voice what it's actually like, how they deal with parents who go through the unthinkable.

I plan to create a Facebook page that promotes my blog and helps it reach the public and my past communities. I want to allow for a glimpse into the life of an Army kid, the perspective, the humor, the hurts, the triumphs and the way we understand our parents even. It's personalized to my perspective, my understanding, and so on. I won't argue that every military brat feels the way I do, or even could utilize this outlet, but I think that on some level someone somewhere is going to touch base with where I'm coming from. Sometimes I've ached for someone to say, yeah me too, and now that I am far away from a military community I am going to create that possibility through the internet and social networks. I don't want to lose touch with the people that have been, and always will be my family. I want to remember the stories that often get lost and unrecognized and I want to keep our struggles on the front burner because they matter.

I've had a relationship with the Army from moment zero, born on one of the largest military bases in the USA. I recognize that every bone in my body is army, and I've never even enlisted. I didn't sign my life over to the Army, I just was. Everyday has been a give and take system, army has me endure some roughage, and then propels me into something astounding. I'm the daughter of a retiree, and at that ceremony, me and the army squared up, we said alright our contract has been met. But, that is a load of bologna, I still believe I owe something to the army, and this is my way of coming through  for it cause in the end it came through for me. And still does.



Who....
Cares.....

The brand spanking new army wife
 of a private first class who has not two stinking clues about the army what in the world she is getting into. She may browse the internet for some sort of support group and pass by my page with a link to a blog about army kids. Funny, she was just talking to her soldier about when they want to start trying for kids. Secretly, she's a little nervous, one because she's heard brats are kind of trouble and she's stressing bringing a baby into the world on her pfc's salary. AH!(rightfully) She's 23 and she enjoys my young perspective and my honesty. Her husband has been in the army like a minute and she wrote and wrote him all through basic. She wants to know what it's going to be like when she has a baby in this culture. How she can answer questions that her family and friends ask her about her new life she's beginning when she is still figuring it all out herself. She may not even be aware that she is about to bring an army kid into the world one day... She's from Delaware and she's shipping out to Fort Benning, Georgia in a week, she's excited but terrified to leave the town she grew up in and planned to raise all her babies in.



The brat
the other me-s. The 19 year old kid who goes out to college in cedar Utah that doesn't realize Utah has a smaller military community and misses that feeling of support. He's hours away from a military base and his family is stationed in Heidelburg, Germany. He may want someone to know what the crap he's talking about when he says that he doesn't want to go eat at mcdonalds he would rather go chow at the DFAC, what the what? ( thats what his college roommate from sandy utah says, the dfac?) How do you explain something that was never even explained to you, it was just there. Uh, the dfac, the mess hall. thats where we get our chow on. They'll be like yeah I dunno what you mean by that sounds gross. The brat might want to hear me talk about four years ago (before the giant furloughs, when the DFAC used to do lobster and crab leg days) He may find comfort in reading an article of someone who has experienced something similar to him, for nostalgic purposes and homesick days.

The boy
who's dad died on the deployment that all our dads were on. The one that gets to see us years later via Facebook photographs going to our university football games with our dads. His dad didn't make it, and he gets to remember that everyday. Guess what? All of us remember it too, everyday, we just don't say so. He will seek my page and see me talking about it like it was yesterday proving that the occurrence, can't be forgotten because its a part of me too. He's going to feel a tie to the community that will always his family even if we all have to move on with our lives. He will get to see that I'm having a hard time with it too, he's not the only one even if my Facebook page makes it look like I'm carrying on just fine. Instead of burying deep down to pretend like it can't touch him, he might see that it's okay to talk about it, and it could be theraputic to write about it. Because instead of him bottling it up, I'd love to know what he's thinking about it. If his thoughts have changed or grown or worsened over the years.

The teenager
whose dad is gone. He's been gone a week and it all just hit her. How do you get along, "Can my dad really miss my hs graduation? How do i stay connected. How do i even know what he's really going through right now? His emails say he's fine he's tired but its great and they are progressing everyday.. "do your hw and practice the piano an extra hour this weekend" This blog might help her find humor or deep compassion for her dad, and it can help her not forget about him and the reality of the situation when sometimes you get so used to them being gone you chalk it up as a smaller deal. Don't get in the routine of, I miss him, I missed him yesterday, I'm going to miss him tomorrow so why boo hoo about it. NO. Miss him, feel it. Feel it worse on some days and feel it less on others. Miss him everyday but don't ever get used to it.

Refresh (Diane Rehm)

First and foremost can I say that I am so glad that I had a childhood before technology took over. The value of rollerblading, front porches, waterfights, well it's not lost on me. I'm lucky and I know it. Second, was it difficult for anyone else to listen to Diane Rehm's voice? Sure it was nostalgic to hear such a aged voice and hear her echo the words of my grandparents, but it basically lulled me to sleep, in the best way. I had to listen to the talk show through twice, I was aching for the whole thing to be typed up into words so I could re-read and make sure I wasn't lost especially with the multiple guests and the occasional callers. Then those commercials, wow what a tune. This isn't sarcastic, I really did enjoy the show especially the context, the discussion was interesting. The topic generally was made up of information that I have heard before though, this time I wasn't halfheartedly listening. Did i just admit that I halfheartedly listen when my grandparents tell me I'm too consumed in my mobile device? Shoot. I usually listen good. Swear. I started dwelling on the talking points they covered quick, like "Hey Bette do you realize most of your relationships in your life are online centered, like ballpark 80%? Uh, thats over half." But why. You heard her say that folks out in Sardinia are living much longer lives, while you're generically liking one of your pals photos on instagram.

Okay Diane, I hear ya. Internet is like crack to me and I soak up data like crazy. Guilty. I'm a military kid though, I've moved on average of every two years of my life, or something like that I quit keeping track a really long time ago. One of the age old sayings associated with the military life is, "Goodbyes are never forever", social media has given that saying a giant supportive boost. I know inherently that I am going to see my military comrades again, I'm going to run into a teacher I had back in Alaska at an airport someday, I might see a church friend from Italy down at Lake Powell. I don't doubt the happenstance and chance that life gives, but facebook and texting and skype, it's all connected that further. It's upped the possibility. I can keep up with the comings and goings and triumps and disappointments of all of my peers that I don't live anywhere close to. My inner circle, it's small and why wouldn't it be I've shown up to towns not knowing a soul but my family. My outer circle has tripled doubled and just grown with each and every move. I feel lucky to have gotten to meet all these people, and I would feel stupid if I didn't do my best to maintain those relationships. So yes, I am going to spend alittle more time on the internet corresponding with my relationships that due to distance, I have to keep up on the world wide web. If I see my swim teammate from tenth grade is going to be in Vegas because I saw on his facebook, well I am going to make the effort to go see him. Skype and gmail allowed my dad to tell me he was proud of me from eight hundred billion miles away, should I have been hiking or volunteering somewhere instead? I have logged too many hours on a number of sites, but I can't regret that. A handwritten letter is also a means of communication but facebook is a tool at your fingertips that connects you to not just one household but hundreds of people. I'm not shelled up in my apartment neglecting potential relationships because I'm too busy caring about my online outside circle, but while I am out there building new relationships I am checking my cell phone occasionally. Could I be missing out, and wasting valuable time, sure. But I am also smiling cause someone who was significant to me just got an A on their first college paper at Brown University, that information could of waited. But why wait. If that information can travel faster than faster, lemme hear about it faster than fast. Or.. read it.
Do I know my neighbors? No. But how many times has that been true in my life? Tons of moving trucks are proof of that. Doesnt bother me now because I've never really known my neighbors. If the situation arises, I'll chat them up no problem but they dont necessarily come first before my existing friends just because my neighbors are around in the flesh. I would absolutely feel more singled out and flattered if one of my friends actually called me to tell me that they are engaged rather than seeing a photo of it on my feed, I would love to hear the excitment in their voice and the nervous laughs but I'll take a photo and a caption over nothing at all any day.
I can say that I agree with the show, get off your phones back away from the laptop but I'd be a hypocrite. The web is vital for me, dramatic I know, but it's vital because I value these blurbs I get from people from my past. I know I get a narrow scope of their life, I get what they put out there, which diminishes some of the realness but so what. I'm not opposed to spending less time on my phone, I can start to cut back slowly and see what occurs with that change. However, I'm still going to check my phone, alot.