Please Rob Me... of my sanity

I love blogging, and I am not just saying that because this is a blog. I like the concept. It is great that people can voice their feelings, opinions, and occasional expertise online - with minimal effort.

Twitter is another matter. Why someone would wish to post random thoughts as they go about their day is beyond me. I understand the interest in celebrities (my hero, Neil deGrasse Tyson tweets), but it is not for the majority of us - without agents or interns.

Here is why it is a bad idea - no edit mode. It is too easy to post just anything that comes to mind without giving it some thought. There have been cases of people losing their jobs over bad tweets, and people have even divorced their spouse over Twitter. It is not a good thing.

Witness Please Rob Me. This Web site posts a listing of people giving their location – and they are not home. Why is this a bad idea? As the site explains,

"The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home." _{(http://pleaserobme.com/why)}

Do not think that you have to be a technical guru to find this information. It only takes a simple search on Twitter to come up with this information.

Fortunately, sites like Please Rob Me are raising this kind of awareness.

"…The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information." _{(http://pleaserobme.com/why)}

Do yourself a favor and do not follow in the blind footsteps of these people. Tweet, if you must. Tell us too much if you will, but do not tell us you are not at home. You have trees. We have toilet paper – and lots of it.