To Share or Not to Share?

Late, as always, to the newest technology, I have only recently begun to use Spotify to listen to music.

If you don’t know what Spotify is, I have taken the liberty of wikipediaing it for you (because we all know that’s the most reliable source of information)…

'Spotify is a music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels[…]'

Sounds great, right? Until the day you arrive at work to be told by a giggling colleague that she’s noticed that you have been listening to a lot of ‘Glee’ lately…

It’s not that I am embarrassed (when your best friends are the guys that write this blog, embarrassment is so frequently experienced that it becomes natural). My problem here is that of privacy. The internet is outing me to my friends. Recently, my 633 ‘friends’ have been informed that I’ve read a geeky article on the places the government will not let you see on Google Earth and that on Easter Sunday I enjoyed an extended Westlife sesh.

I know that I can use Spotify like a bloody secret agent in ‘Private Mode’, but I just don’t want to. Sure, social networking sites are potentially dangerous in terms of privacy, and irritating in an attention-seeking sort of way, but I think what is worse is how people are beginning to use them to construct an identity that they think their friends want…

And so, from this day forward, I am making a conscious effort not to change my virtual self.

May your news feeds be full of me listening to Riverdance and Phil Collins.

With this in mind, I’d like to briefly take you back to my Monday night…

Having been at work all day I’ve slipped into over-tired toddler mode and, feeling giggly, decided to phone Alex to discuss an article planned for the next few weeks. After avidly listening to tales of his drunken escapades and reminding him of his inebriated offer that he and I should cover ourselves in paint and have sex on a canvas, I phone Will. Luckily (and ironically), Will did not answer his phone and I was able to leave the following message, inspired by Saturday’s instalment of Britain’s Got Talent:

Have you ever been in dat situation where you lost your keys and you lost your phone?
Where me keys? Where me phone? Where me keys? Where me phone?

Overwhelmed by just how hilarious I find myself, I decide to calm myself down with a little MoZella – too diverse for Spotify, I click over to YouTube – it is not until I’m scrolling through my viewing history that I realise I’m not signed in on my Google account but the Pessimist Chronicles'.

I have never seen anything like it.

FrankSinatra.ABBA.TheLionKing.Taekwondo.TheNolans.Morrissey.Skrillex.Boyzone.Blur.
FrogOvaries.NyanCat.GreggsSausageRollsAreMadeOfPigPuss.MichaelBolton.AvrilLavigne.
CatPlayingWithABird.TeenageRapePreventionAdvert.性感的宜家傢俬.GothicsDeathDrive-VideoAbstract.Salt-N-Pepa.TulisaSexTape.ZoidbergWoopWoopWoop.Let’sPlayDeadRising.
OfficialTrailerTangled.EnterShikari.EnglishFootballHooligans.BeeGees.SirTrevorMcDonaldRacismJoke.

Although there are some videos I haven’t included (we will be having words, boys) I am happy to know that my friends are as ridiculously uncool as I am.

And so, stay geeky readers J

Harriet Baker

p.s – check back in the next few weeks for articles from both Will and myself surrounding social networking issues…