Buh bye FACE.xx.-l78.xBOOQC

I got sucked in to that friendly site about a year ago (extra characters and misspelling in my title are by design....umm, paranoid much, Irma?)

I have had a wonky feeling about that place for a while, I decided to leave about five months ago but I was convinced (by well meaning friends) to stay. But now? I'm outta there. No real reason, but the place has started to creep me out.

For the same reason, I abandonned my old (much loved by me) blog which contained my real name in the frigging ADDRESS (God I was young and stupid) and came to this site instead. Most of us know that my name isn't actually Irma, right? (Although I must admit, the name Irma is starting to grow on me. )

I find it fascinating how much we are all willing to pour in to our on-line diaries, simply because we all get complacent and think of these sites as the diaries we kept when we were young, those slim volumes bound in fake leather with that lame little brass key. Well, we all know how well that dumb key kept our younger brothers out of our personal thoughts and info, so why do we trust the internet MORE? Believe me, I recognize that, despite my attempts to "hide my true identity", it would probably take a 10 year old, anywhere in the world, 20 minutes to piece together exactly who I am, where I live, and what I had for lunch today. I am not saying my goal is total anonymity...if that was the case, I wouldn't BLOG.

I guess I just assume that most people understand that I want to express myself while protecting my identity, and I have to believe that most people respect that, and have more important things to do than put two and two together = her REAL NAME.

But that Face place? Man, I had my real name out there, I had pictures out there, none of my child, thank God, but still pictures. And my general location, And my birthday. And I did it all because it seemed like such a sunny, happy place, full of (legitimate) people who wanted to contact me. But what about all the shady characters?

NO THANK YOU

Today, in a totally unrelated matter, a friend if mine was contacted by her bank today to let her know she is the victim of identity theft. No no, it had nothing to do with anything she did on-line, the bank thinks it happened when she used her credit card at a store almost two months ago. But now my friend has to change her phone number, cancel her credit cards, close her bank accounts, transfer her mortgage, etc. Not because SHE did anything wrong, but because Someone found a way to tap in to her info.

I love the internet, but I fear it at the same time.