Just a quick post , inspired by an article I read not 5 minutes ago about the levels of online violence directed at women.
Quite horrifying numbers. And when you distill the stats and numbers down to the real people behind them, and the real comments being leveled at these women, it’s quite frightening.
I must confess though, to having never thus far been the target of anything quite like that, on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. I might have on G+, but I almost never actually check my G+ profile so I wouldn’t know even if it was.
If so, the trolls have wandered off because of my lack of response.
I am baffled to be frank, because on LinkedIn, apparently, women specifically are being targeted and approached by people and offered a wide range of criminal enterprise entry level positions.
Never, ever, happened to me. (And here I go tempting fate)
Perhaps I am inviting trouble with this blog post. Who knows.
I am very, discerning though in my social media. I am exactly as discerning as I would be in real life. I am not connected to people I haven’t checked out, know personally or been introduced to.
In real life, that would be at a business networking function, online, it would be within the context of a mutual connection, or a clear and obvious compelling reason for us to speak to each other.
I don’t speak to strangers unless the context is clear. I’m not unfriendly by any means – but if you look spammy and you act “salesy”, we are not going to be connecting.
I also scrutinise every single follow on Twitter. It’s getting harder to do as my connections grow, but I always check out every single account at some point after they have followed me. I regularly block the accounts that look fake or suspicious. I have had what I would consider to be ‘almost-terrorists’ follow me . And I have blocked them after using Google Translate to find out what their Arabic tweets are actually saying. Same for wanna be porn stars. And any other number of suspicious looking accounts. If you look fake, I block you.
Before all you argumentative noobs go jumping up and down, no, I do not block everyone with a different opinion to me, in fact I relish intelligent conversations from several people who sit on the opposite side of the fence to me. Those who can have a different opinion without insulting my female bits, my hair, my clothes, my brain capacity or ability to write. And I have a lot of contacts across the digital space and in the printing and paper space. A lot of people with a lot of opinions.
I don’t automatically follow back. And perhaps I am a bit quick to block suspicious looking accounts. It seems to be working so far though …
