Time to Kill the Bird

Is NO Medium Safe For Me?



I have a cell phone because the students I tutor refuse to check email, citing it's "old-fashioned" format, preferring a medium that is at least from this century. So, I allow/encourage texting because I refuse to wait for an appointment. While I'm not a technophobe, I feel that a certain amount of privacy is good. I think it was Thoreau who noted that "Good fences make good neighbors." I can wall myself off by checking Facebook only on rare occasions (usually if someone I know sends me a message), and I generally screen my caller ID on my land line (now having a land line is old fashioned!) because I just do not want to waste my time with telemarketers who get through in spite of my signing up for a no-call list. And that's only part of it. In this age of 24/7, 365 political campaigning, I refuse to listen to any taped message from ANY candidate extolling his or her virtues ad nauseam. I just won't. And that's another reason that I avoid Twitter.
Oh, I have an account: one of my sons wanted me to read a comment that someone had made so I had to create an account. I didn't save my password, and I have not been tempted to return to Twitter since. I hear and read enough stupid things that people say every day without seeking out more...and now, it's about to get even MORE stupid and invasive: the politicians are on board.
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, 85 senators have Twitter accounts, as do 360 members of the House of Representatives, 42 governors, and 35 world leaders. The fact that these people use this medium tells me one thing: all of them are trying to get re-elected. Why else would anyone think others care so much about their minute-to-minute activities? But, now it gets worse.
Starting today, Twitter is selling advertising space to politicians! OMG! Yet another reason to avoid Twitter, and yet another unwanted intrusion into our lives by people who don't really care about us but care only about getting re-elected....and I thought avoiding them on the phone was a pain (and it was)! For those addicted to Twitter, this will become the only way they get any political slant...unless Glenn Beck is also tweeting constantly.
Really, I am overcome with a desire to find a cave somewhere and survive on nuts and berries until the grid blows up, and we can return to some kind of sanity...and I won't be taking my phone (though the iPod is a must...hmmm...how to charge it without the grid?)
Crap!