The new world of social media, email, Twitter
and Facebook is hard to get your head around, especially if you’ve been forced
to confront it ah, let’s say late in life. You want to get involved but
sometimes you do the wrong thing and a patient colleague or sighing grandchild
will point it out to you, making you feel bad. Here are a couple of tips to help you
avoid some of the common blunders.
On Facebook, don’t post replies to other
people’s posts in your own status box. If you do that it will show up on all
your friends’ pages as a separate item that bears no relation to the item you
posted about. When you want to comment on something someone else has posted,
use the comment box directly beneath their post. Or to reply to a comment that’s
already there, click on the word ‘reply’ to get a new box you can type into.
On both Facebook and email, don’t share any
article that screams ‘tell everyone!!!!!’ without checking it first. Almost every time,
that dramatic plea to ‘please share with everyone you know…THIS IS AN IMPORTANT
MESSAGE’ is either a hoax or a total waste of time. How can you find out? Here’s
a typical email warning.
[Collected via e-mail,
November 2014]
Feel free to pass this
along to anyone you want. Better safe than sorry.
GPS left on dashboard in
the sun - WOW! Keep those electronics with Lithium Batteries out of the
sun!!!!!!!!
Looks like a good lesson
to learn. I would bet this also applies to Cell phones, tablets, digital
cameras, and other devices that use lithium batteries. You think this may be a
reason why the US Postal Service will not ship electronic devices that contain
lithium batteries any longer?
GPS was placed in its
bracket in the windshield and left in the sun. The battery overheated and exploded!
Can you say
"Totaled"?
Gosh, that sounds serious. Several of my
friends have GPS in their car. Should I warn them right away? NO! Check it
first by taking the key words from the message that cover what it’s about, like
‘GPS dashboard fire’ and type them into Google. You should see a whole set of
articles on the subject from a range of sites, and good ones to look for are www.snopes.com or hoaxbusters.
Here’s the GPS fire link at http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/gpsfire.asp#o2Rbq8PHGIcPZa0w.99
so you can see the true story.
Just spending a few minutes browsing
through the Snopes site will arm you with all the latest hoax stories doing the
rounds and help you to recognise new ones.
Don’t be discouraged or put off from
sharing things online – everyone likes a good inspirational quote or a picture
of a rainbow, and there are great benefits to be had from your online friends.
As a writer I have a wonderful and supportive community at my fingertips every
day, always quick with a pat on the back for success or a word of sympathy when
times are hard. Follow me on https://www.facebook.com/BevRobitai
and I’ll be nice, I promise!
Bev
Robitai
You forgot pictures of cats :p
ReplyDeleteOtherwise - fantastic article.
Thanks, Z! I would have added some cat photos and all sorts of other helpful illustrations if only the blasted blog site would allow me to use Explorer to do it. But when I upload a picture it shows it onscreen then sits there mocking me with the slowly unfolding coloured circle indicating something is happening...but it isn't. Ever. Even if I go away for an hour and come back. Nothing but a slowly unfolding coloured circle until the end of time.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bev. I tend to learn through trial and error which makes my Facebook page look like a bombsite - then I don't know how to tidy it up. Always sound advice from Our Bev!
ReplyDeleteHigh, girl!
ReplyDeleteWhile I realize my penname is quite morbid, yet,
you shall find in our blogs a lotta (subliminal) moxie
which has taken this mortal sinner yeeeeers to compile:
I lay it ALL out for you, dear - neet-o, packaged, concise.
Nevertheless, wouldn’t ya love an endless eternity
of aplomBombs falling on thy indelible cranium?
An XtraXcitinXpose with no
zooillogical-expiration-date,
with an IQ much higher than K2,
and an extraordinarily, anti-establishment victory??
Here’s what the exquisite, prolific GODy sed
(with a most excellent detector of bull§ht):
“Faith, hope, and love,
the greatest of these is love -
jump into faith...
and you'll see with love”
Doesn’t matter if you don’t believe (what I write);
God believes in you.
Meet me Upstairs, girl, where the Son never goes down
from a passionate, lucrative iconoclasm where you’ll find
nonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsXnonillionsX…
of deluxe-HTTP [<- pi] opportunities for excitement BTW.
Do it. Do the deed, dude. Sign into the Big House.