Judging the Judgmental

Social Media Landscape
Image by fredcavazza via Flickr

I have a stalker.  Now before you contact the authorities on my behalf, let me be more clear.  My stalker watches my twitter feed, my Facebook status updates, views my Flickr photos and reads my blog posts.  Not bad, huh?  I mean that’s what I blog for, right?  My life is surrounded by social media, my goal is to be at the top of the search engines and all social media nuts love traffic.  So really… you can’t beat having a stalker!

Of course there is always a down side to everything.  My particular stalker reads my updates and takes them out of context to tell others.  For months I haven’t cared, I’ve laughed it off.  The only reason I am blogging about it today is because I want to clear some things up for everyone who reads my twitter stream, blog or follows me on Facebook.

  • A photo of me and a male does not mean I am intimate with this person. It does not mean I am dating them or plan to date them.  I had a very nice lunch with an old friend on Tuesday and since we hadn’t seen one another in months, I took a photo and we posted it.  I’m proud to say he’s my friend, don’t judge! I’ve discussed my views on friendships of opposite sex in the past.
  • When I tweet about looking for a position with a charity organization, that does not mean: please send me all MLM offers you have or home-based business pitches.  It honestly means: I want to work for a non-profit charity organization, period.
  • When I tweet a thought, after looking at a position with a charity for battered women, how I think physical and verbal abusive people must live a sad life to get off on conducting that kind of behavior and therefore I feel sorry for them… it means what it says.  It does not mean I have been abused and am tweeting to tell everyone.  I did not refer to myself in that tweet.  It was a random thought on twitter, like most tweets are.

Now with that being cleared up, don’t be afraid to reach out to me.  If you are one of my followers and you see me post something that you are curious about, ask me.  Don’t feel like you need to ask someone else.  If you wondered after my tweet about violence if I was a victim, ask.  If you wonder who someone is in a photo that I post, leave a comment and ask.  As for the marketers who just want to pitch their business, just do it with respect and not SPAM.  When I put something out there in social media, I put it out there for the world to see.  If I was going to be bothered by having a conversation about it, I wouldn’t put it out there.  Make sense?

Social media addicts love comments and conversation virtually.  That’s what we do.  So feel free to engage and join in.  I’ll be honest, the more comments means the more visits to my site which equals more traffic.  Bloggers always want more traffic.  The more traffic, the more we get paid.  I’ll gladly welcome you to visit my blog as often as you wish. The way I see it is, more clicks the better for me.  Whether you join in or just stalk, have at it.  However, if you are going to take something away when you go, please quote me accurately and don’t change the context.  That’s the least you can do and just remember the source from where you get your information is always there for anyone to check on.  That’s the beauty of social media.

djane

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18 Comments

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Judging the Judgmental | MommaDJane -- Topsy.com

  4. Thanks ladies! We have made our love for social media our jobs and it is frustrating when people change our context. The least they could do is ask us, we don’t bite. LOL 🙂

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  8. I haven’t blogged long enough to have a stalker…thank goodness, but in the back of my mind I do agonize over how much detail to post about my family. I post photos, but not names…although I’m sure someone could find that our names fairly quickly.

    My pet peeve after the spammers and the whiter teeth people — the people who only RT links or post quotes. No status updates. Seems to businessy for me. I like to read that someone has run out of eggs or had a good day. I like when the personality of a person comes through their tweets.
    .-= MusingsfromMe/Jill´s last blog ..Nature’s Peak Frozen Fruits Great in Smoothies =-.

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  9. I know exactly how you feel! I recently had a stalker issue I had to take to my laywer. This person actually went so far as to threaten the life of my son, all because I left a negative review of their book on Amazon. My words and actions were taken out of context as well and it’s so frustrating! GREAT post! Seriously you were so right on target and handled that really well. I hope everything works out okay! 🙂
    .-= Erin Pyle (@erinjeany)´s last blog ..How I stay warm… and avoid germs =-.

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  11. Whoa! A Stalker?? You are popular! 🙂

    Seriously, I sometimes worry about how much to blog; I don’t ever use my kid’s real name and I don’t use my real name or the name of my town. I really enjoy social media and hope that spammers and stalkers stay far far away from me!
    .-= A.Marie´s last blog ..SNOW DAY + TIME TO BLOG = AWESOME DEALS! =-.

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  13. Jennifer: It never hurts to be on guard, better safe than sorry, right?

    Jennifer S: Thanks for visiting and commenting, glad you enjoyed it.

    Trisha: I have heard some of your blogging problems. Thank God mine haven’t gone that far. I must say my use of the term stalk was lightly and just meaning they ‘stalk’ my blog, not me, thankfully. Also no threats to me, one problem is they never even come to me with questions. That’s the problem in itself.

    Jill: The longer your blog, the more views you publish the more likely to have haters, it happens. @brandyellen published a great blog post on her blog titled “You can’t please them all”. SPAM is a big pet peeve of mine as well.

    Erin: I am so sorry to hear you went through that. That is horrible. Companies should always be prepared, a review is just that, can go either way: negative or positive. Thankfully my experience has not been close to that bad. Just my words out of context or exaggeration.

    A. Marie: I do use my kids names and I am sure after being on Facebook everyone could find out our full names. I try to be safe but I believe no matter what someone calls their kids, if a person truly wants to find out, they will.

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  16. A huge hug and smiles/laughter is what old friends are all about. They take us away from daily struggles and bring us back to a wonderful time in our lives for a moment………our past. New friends take us to wonderful places yet to come……….our future. It is unfortunate that the whole world or even a few more individuals couldn’t be more open to these within themselves. But alas, that’s what makes us humans individuals. Some smother all the love around them with control while others are so open to it that they have enough to share with the world! The rest of us are inbetween somewhere! Hugs to you girl. From all of us in the “FROZEN” north! Do what you need for a peace in your mind and safety for the family. We all are here. Want us to send you a snowball for protection!!
    .-= Farmerdad´s last blog ..Icecicles galore! =-.

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  17. Eeekkk! Just so you know, your tweets came across to me, exactly what they were… just normal tweets commenting about things you were probably reading. Ack! I can’t believe someone thought you were being abused and then tweeting about it (like a cry for help… they must NOT know you very well irl!).

    Good post, very relevant. Many could benefit from reading this. Hey, maybe your stalker will read it (and take note!).
    .-= Amy @ Amy Loves It!´s last blog ..New Year’s Resolution: Getting your finances in order =-.

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