Vindication?

Check out this video that has gone viral.  If things don’t work or don’t look right please go to the bottom of this email and go to my blog via the link.    – I will reserve my comments until after you have watched it…

All I can say is, “WOW!”  I often wonder how to get through to our child and this is inspiring on so many levels.  I can see how many would think that this man is vindictive and childish but I can also see that this man has had ENOUGH! 

It is sure funny that those “things” we provide them with to have access to the internet come back and bite us in the butt.  I would not shoot the laptop just because I can use it and I would hate to shoot all that money.  In my case I can just cut off the child's access to our internet that we also pay for every month.  See, there it is again – we provide those items.  What they don’t think about is that if we provide those items we can also take them away.  This father in the video did just that – he took it away!

I remember being a selfish little teen idiot myself.  I was mean and spiteful to my parents and I thought everything was about me.  I guess it is something all kids go through but it is getting seriously out of hand now days.  I  don’t remember calling my parents names and going out into the public square to announce that they were lazy “bad words”.  I don’t remember wanting to shoot everyone in my school.  I do remember being one of those mean girls at school and now I hate that I was that way; it was my defense mechanism to keep people away and get through school.

Being one of those mean girls has come back to haunt me every now and then since Facebook has come on scene.  People still assume that you are the same person you were in high school because that is what they remember.  Thankfully I am a fairly well adjusted person because my parents raised me well and they loved me enough to be stern and follow through with punishments that were well deserved on my part.  The embarrassment of reliving my “mean girl” status is also deserved but it is also uncomfortable and a sore reminder of the person I was in school.

What are the sore reminders that today’s kids will be reliving in 20 or 30 years?  It won’t just be their actions in public or private that certain people will remember – it will also be documentation that they are piling up everywhere with social media.  I will use Facebook as an example since that is what I am familiar with and what is used on this video.  Time and time again I see people writing things on FB that they would never say to a person’s face.  Venting about your boss or the company you work for are swimming in a deadly area of water.  People assume that no one will hold them accountable for what they write of FB and that is why they don’t use the filter that normally works on the mouth. 

How about the flagrant cursing that family and friends are the audience to.  If you are a nice young lady looking for a job in an office environment and you swear like a longshoreman on FB you might be ruled out before you ever even get in the door for an interview.  I know that I don’t want one of my mother’s sorority friends to say something derogatory about me to her based on my postings – it would be embarrassing to both of us and especially hurtful to my mother.

You also have to realize that everyone knows someone that knows you!  If you are on FB and the person is friends with you on FB they can log in and show that “other” person everything you have done on FB – they can even print it out in living color to be distributed at the office party 2 years from now!  It can even be used in court to prove the person you really are when you think that no one is looking…  Here’s another one for you – your kids can see it and so can their friends and the rest of your family.  Maybe not now but maybe in 2 years when it is very inconvenient for you. 

At some point we move from being a selfish autonomous person to being concerned about other’s thoughts and feelings…at least we hope!  I do see several people that produce an attitude or say things that are less than becoming of them on FB and I know that I think twice about them and wonder why they cannot just be nice.  I had to learn to be nice in order to get along in the world.  Unfortunately, it took more than a couple of hard lessons and embarrassment before I started behaving like I should have been all along.  Looking back I am sure that it affected promotions and relationships at work in a significantly negative way.  In the end, it is just not worth it.  You’ve got to think about what you should be doing differently today instead of wondering what would have happened after you have lost your job or been embarrassed for something that is impossible to change.

Of course there is always KARMA and you know what they say about her!

OK – I guess I can get off my soapbox now.  I am happy to report that all of those lessons have served me well.  If nothing else I am very aware of my actions and even though it is always a “work in progress” I feel positive about the way I treat others.  I try to keep improving – especially in those areas that have become habit.  If I feel better about my actions I feel better about myself and every little bit helps!  I wish this was the solution to all my “ISSUES”…

Now, what to do about the mounds of paper that need to be entered and filed?