The view outside my tent, Valley of Fire State Park, NV

So this is my first post of the year. So how about it? Who’s already broken those New Year’s resolutions? Me… I want to post more this year. Bad start, I know. The month is half way over and I’m just getting on the boards. I’ll get there. You just keep following, reading, and commenting. Feedback helps.

Another view out my tent

My tent!

Moving on. Something that I was wondering about today was what can you tell about a person by looking at their favorites and likes …whether on dA, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. It sort of threw me off guard once when I was perusing the galleries of some of my fave people on dA. I decided to take a look at their Favorites gallery and was surprised to see that many in their collection was nothing like what they might do themselves. Now I look at everybody’s Fav when I visit their profiles. I unconsciously began to think about what kind of person he or she is. Am I making judgements, maybe so, but I don’t think its any different than what we normally do anytime we meet somebody. We check ’em out from head to toe. How are they groomed? What’s their style of fashion? Do they have all of their teeth…whatever. The point is that we do this all the time. Even when we read about someone or hear about them. We try to imagine what they are like and sometimes fill in the blanks whether they are accurate or not. How many among you began to dislike an actor/actress because they play some sort of sick, deviant role in a movie. You start to associate what you see on film as their real lives. And you can flip that scenario to a person who plays the perfect angel in a role, but in real life, they’re butt-heads.

Me!

Fire Canyon Overlook, Valley of Fire State Park, NV

But I also wonder if we’re giving out too much info about ourselves on these social networks. Well, let me re-say that… I mean to say, I KNOW we are giving out too much information about ourselves. So the statement begs the answer to the question of why do we do it. In our own realities, we are much more private. We keep the drapes pulled at night. The doors are triple-locked. We have locks inside the house for our bedrooms and bathrooms. The car is not left with the key and we don’t write the PIN number on our debit cards. So why do we choose to divulge so much info on social sites? Marketing companies such as Amazon encodes cookies on your computer that reports on stuff you often look at. Facebook captures information about music, movies, and products you “like”. Yeah, they do it so well, they have increased their worth to $50 billion. So why did Goldman Sachs and friends, just jump on the bandwagon to the tune of $500 million in stock purchases? Obviously they all feel like they are going to make big bucks on this. Since FB is free to you and me, where does it make its money? Advertisers, who pay to know what you are likely to buy and are willing to dish out the big bucks to a company who gives them lots of accurate and timely data on YOU.

Looks like I’m starting the new year out on a rant. No worries. These will be few and far between. Oh, I started out my new year camping…what’d you do?