Category: Personal Stories

Some thoughts on Privacy in the age of Social Media.

Privacy on the internet has become a major concern for many people, especially as it relates to social media. Social media platforms collect a vast amount of personal information about their users, including their names, location, age, interests, and even their relationships. This information is often used to target users with advertisements and to build profiles of their habits and preferences.

One of the main concerns with privacy on social media is the lack of control that users have over their personal information. Once you share something on the internet, it can be nearly impossible to take it back. Even if you delete a post or account, there is still the potential for that information to be saved by someone else or to be cached by a search engine.

Another concern is the use of third-party tracking and profiling. Many social media platforms allow third-party companies to track user’s activity and use that information for targeted advertising. This means that even if you are careful about the information you share on social media, you could still be tracked and profiled based on your online activity.

There are steps that you can take to protect your privacy on social media. One of the most important is to be mindful of the information you share. Think carefully about what you post and consider whether you are comfortable with that information being publicly available. You should also be cautious about accepting friend requests or connections from people you do not know.

Another important step is to review your privacy settings on social media platforms. Most platforms allow you to customize your privacy settings to limit the information that is visible to others. You should also be careful about the apps and services you connect to your social media accounts, as these can also access your personal information.

Overall, it is important to be aware of the potential risks to your privacy on social media and to take steps to protect yourself. While it may not be possible to completely eliminate the risks, being proactive about your privacy can help you feel more secure when using social media.

Why I deleted most of my social media accounts and the reasons you should consider doing it yourself.

Recently, I have been deleting and removing just about every social media account I created in the past. Now, this is for a multitude of reasons. Many of these accounts I just simply neglect, I don’t have the time or the energy to maintain them all.


As well, many of these accounts were created simply for reasons to advertise my website or other reasons other than just what those platforms were meant to be used for. Meaning, that the motive behind some, but not all, social media platforms was simply to try and drive traffic to where I wanted it to go.


That is really a bad motive to create something that is a “social platform”, it contradicts the intentions of the creators of those platforms. It is selfish to do this, you wouldn’t want someone to create an account on a website you built just to convince others to visit something you did on a different website.


As well, the reason I deleted many of these accounts is that I wanted to make my online profile as streamlined as possible. If someone wanted to find me, then they can do so here, on my own website. There is no reason to go to other websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora, and so on.


Having multiple accounts all over the internet increased the chances of my username/password being breached in a data breach. While I strive to make sure each password, I use is different on each website the usernames may overlap. The more data I put out there for someone to find the more likely they may be able to guess a password of mine.


You are not obligated to create accounts on all these social websites. The fact that each website is free simply means you are the product. Why chose to participate in something like that? You aren’t being paid to share such information, and the people who are enriching themselves off your data aren’t exactly doing so for charity or to make the world a better place. Many of these upper executives have very bad motives for the profits that they derive from the data you freely share.


Choosing to not participate in something is empowering. Not being a part of an endless cycle of spreading hate and misinformation means you can live truly free.
I believe as a society we must get back to being more private about our lives. We don’t need to share every aspect of what is going on.


Now, I may still use some of these platforms, but to spread education. I want to spread positivity, not hatred. We need to design platforms that discourage hatred but encourage positivity. Currently, these platforms base everything upon engagement and not the intent of the message. That needs to change.


Choosing to delete your social media profiles may be difficult to some, but I believe the rewards far exceed any potential drawbacks.

The Unvarnished Truth about Prolific Authors

Recently, I came across a blog post from someone in my past. In that blog post, this person mentioned she was part of some group where there was an author who has published some 100+ books in his lifetime. While this number is very impressive, it is also a sign of someone who truly understands the business of writing and publishing.

You see prolific authors are so prolific because fundamentally publishing books or other works is in itself a business. Each work can act very similar to an annuity of sorts in that the payment for any written work can be paid over the course of one’s lifetime. So, therefore it behooves a writer to be as prolific as possible to keep growing this level of income.

The simple fact is that many of the most prolific authors didn’t write every single word they had published. It wouldn’t make good business sense to do so! Rather, by outsourcing, at least some of their time to researchers or even those who help create rough drafts is a better use of their time.

How would I possibly know about this? Well, I have spent some time ghostwriting for some of these so-called prolific authors myself. Of course, because of privacy reasons, as well as Non-Disclosure Forms, I am not able to talk about whom I have helped in the past.

I also know there are several large businesses that supply ghost writing services for some of the most famous authors that you may read. Again, this is something not talked about in the writing community, but it does happen.

It is folly to compare yourself as a writer to those whom you may feel are more prolific than yourself. In fact, it is folly to compare yourself to anyone else.

As well, in regards to the ethics of using ghostwriters to help you out that is beyond the scope of this particular post.

My point in writing this is that once you fully grasp that writing and publishing are, in fact, a business, you will be better able to leverage your time and resources to become far more productive. You can’t just blame your current situation for your lack of time to get things done.

Just write, write every single day.

My Return to Facebook – How to use Facebook to your advantage!

Hey,

As everyone is removing or deleting their Facebook accounts I want to just briefly mention the reasons why I returned to Facebook. Quite simply this is best said in my YouTube video I posted up just a few hours ago.

Of course, not everyone will agree with me and that is perfectly fine. Using social media should be to your advantage and not to the detriment of your own social life. As always, be cautious of what you read, think critically, and just be wise about your time.

Quick Update…

Quick Update….

This is just a quick update. I haven’t maintained this website very well and I am truly sorry for that. Truthfully, I have been more concerned getting my clients work done then writing here. Even though I made a commitment to this blog early on I was worried that I wouldn’t keep up with it, and that ended up being what actually happened.

As far as my health is concerned I am doing well. I had a brief scare of skin cancer early in January but that turned out to be a weird mole growth on my leg. That is why I always wear sunscreen when out in the sun for long periods of time, at least from now on.

I do have some updates to this blog and I have been meaning to finish up those reviews of the books I started early on. That is what you can expect in the future. As well I will probably write a bit more about how to get fit as that is something I am always working on, everyday it is crucial to get some form of exercise.
This website has lost direction and I may change that in the future. I just need to decide what direction I want to take this website and then proceed forward. Hopefully, then I can be more focused on creating actionable and useful content that others will find valuable.

In the meantime I am busy working on various projects….

Where have I been?

To be honest I have not kept up to date with this blog as much as I have wanted. Personally this is just my own fault and my goal for my personal blog is still active and I hope to keep you all up to date with various aspects of my life and the various experiments or case studies I am working on.

In that regards I have decided to spin off my health related posts to a new blog, I have not decided on the domain name just yet but I can assure you it will not be an exact match domain that is a common term but rather a brandable domain name, this is on purpose as I don’t want to relate my personal health stories and possible struggles with any particular search term that would rather help others out.

As well I also decided to possibly create a financial blog, one that would be focused solely on the personal economy of an individual, essentially a guide on how to create a better financial future.

So in the next several posts I will update you on the creation of these blogs and there location. This separation will help better delineate between my various interests and possibly give me more focus and also more targeted traffic.

Finally, I have begun to work on my personal development project, which will be a series of Kindle books that should be able to help everyone who is struggling day to day. This should be a series for those who want to start a new business; later on I will include separate editions that will cover health and possibly also some schoolwork motivation.

So that is what I have been doing and this is where I think I should go in the future. You can see that this blog has started to evolve already; it may further change as I get guidance from those who have more experience than I do.

Remembering 9-11-2001

Okay since everyone seems to be bringing back memories of where they were during 9/11/2001 I think I will do the same. First off I was in college taking a class on religion, ironically, and since it was a 2 hour class we were given a 15 minute break in between.

After the break I noticed practically no one showed up for the second half of the class, just about everyone was picking up their bags and leaving. Normally, I would get up and walk outside of the classroom to stretch my legs but that day I didn’t. Outside of the classroom was the building atrium and a crowd was noticeably gathering, it was quite noisy outside of the class and people started to ask what was going on. The professor just kept teaching the class because he had no idea of the events of the day that were transpiring.

Immediately after class was finished I noticed there was a television in the lobby of the building and people were watching the twin towers burning. Clearly, I thought this was some mistake or something. So I asked some of the other students what was going on, basically they yelled at me and said “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK.”

I just couldn’t believe it. It was like watching a bad action movie or something but this was real and it was happening live on television. Many of the professors that were still in the building were telling the students to go back to their dorms or back to their homes because the campus was going to be shut down in a couple hours for security reasons.

So as I headed home on I-75 to Bradenton from Tampa I noticed an awful lot of State Troopers, Police cars, and other military vehicles heading towards Tampa, they were obviously headed towards MacDill Air Force Base where I was sure the President would stop on his first trip back to Washington, DC. You see, at the time, President Bush was in Sarasota reading to some kids in Booker Elementary, I am sure you have seen that footage before.

One item that really shook me was a caravan of about 15 to 20 State Troopers along with the secret service vans and what seemed to me like it could be the press corps that traveled with the President. Never before did I see so much activity at that time. F16’s and other fighter jets were clearly above in the air.

As I listened to NPR on my drive back I couldn’t but think that this may be the start of WW3 and was completely baffled by who could have attacked us and why we were not prepared for it.

From the time I got home, to late in the evening, I couldn’t help but watch the news stations and the coverage of that attack. The repeated images of seeing those buildings on fire, the people dropping from the rooftops, the people scrambling for cover as the towers fell and the debris that covered New York City at the time will forever be burned into my memory.

I mourn the passing of those lives that were lost on 9/11/2001 because that not only that forever changed the course of all of those families that were affected but it changed the course of many other American lives. That day is a day I cannot forget, I am not sure if I want to forget it. Remember 9/11 not for just the lives lost but what happened to all of us afterwards. Truly that day changed the world for so many of us.