Technology

Cells phones, tablets, laptops, e-readers. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest. On board? I am… well not on all of the above, but enough to be dangerous.

A friend’s daughter opened a shop on Etsy to sell reproductions of her hand drawn stationery and paintings. Somewhere in the midst of reading her email and looking at her Etsy shop, I stumbled upon her website, and from there, her blog. Curious of course, I clicked my way through the site and came upon paintings of normal sized naked women that reminded me of ancient Greek art, though I had no idea of what they represented or the young woman’s creative process. With her degree in art, I assume the subject matter was part of the curriculum.

Anyway, there were all these little social media buttons at the bottom of the blog post and, you guessed it, I clicked. I chose Pinterest, expecting to be connected to her Pinterest page, account, or whatever. I should have known that you just can’t hop into someone’s private online space without being friends or followers, but I found out. When nothing happened after my click, I had an Aha! moment, along with heat rising through my body. I dashed to my daughter’s room – Girl #2 – to inquire into what just happened, though I was 99.99% certain. I’d posted the naked woman onto my Pinterest page… or would that be, pinned to my board?

During my two second sprint, awkwardness changed to a fit of laughter that lasted at least a minute as I tried to explain what I’d done. Between my tears, snorting, and doubling over, I managed to get the story out. Girl #2 said, “Come on Mommy, let’s see what you’ve done and fix it."

Fortunately, I was able to locate my Pinterest username and password (one of 500 +/- usernames and passwords… an exaggeration, but you get the point), and signed in; whereupon my daughter and I found the naked woman. Because the account is seriously inactive with only three followers, two being my daughters (Girl #2 and Girl #3), I didn’t feel I would have to do any widespread social media damage control. Girl #2 showed me how to delete the image and that was it.

By the way, my young friend’s painting is Art, and definitely not confused with pornography… or there would be no laughing; especially because my third follower is a minor.

I was reminded of this episode while dressing in my bathroom. Our huge mirror over the double sink vanity is a daily poke of life’s imperfections. Today, feeling confident, I was assessing the results of the Christmas cookies. Not too bad, I thought. “Butttt…,” I continued to think, “What you see in a mirror and on a photo is often different,” as I looked at my phone charging near the sink. And then another thought – “Snap a picture to see if your ‘not too bad’ assessment is justified.”

Next thought: “Are you STUPID!!!” Press a wrong button, end up in the cloud, and you’re fried!

How do you feel about technology and social media? Any stories you care to share?

image found here