That’s Life

Do You Have Your Digital Citizenship?

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Four children at computer terminals (depth of field/high key)Last week I went to a dinner party with other families where the conversation naturally gravitated to getting kids ready to get back into school mode.  A couple of mothers were concerned about and asked me how their tween daughters can use the Internet safely and responsibly.

I usually teach something called “digital citizenship” to all my students in my basic computer literacy classes.  Some of these tips are based on my own experiences – both good and bad. Here are the citizen tips I gave to the concerned mothers:

Branding

Like I discussed a couple of weeks ago, online personal branding is very important today.  What you say and do today online give others a perception – both good and bad.  Most kids don’t realize that their actions on Facebook or Instagram permanently stay online, and can affect them later in life, like getting accepted into college or getting a job.  It is always better to side on your conscience.  I always say that if you are not sure you want to say or post something online because it might be seen as offensive, go with your gut feeling.

Password Security

Make sure your kids know how to create secure passwords for all their various social media profiles.  This is especially important for online banking and email accounts.  Having a hard time remembering all your passwords? Use LastPass or other apps that allow you to safely store your passwords.

Images

Kids (and everyone for that matter) love taking pictures on their mobiles, but it is not a good idea to post every type of image online. Images that reveal where you live can entice some really creepy people.  It’s a good idea to turn off the geotagging feature.   Also, don’t post provocative (sexual, violent etc.) images.  In many municipalities, sharing sexually explicit images online, especially of minors, can get you arrested and put on the sex offender registry!

Private Information

It’s a given to not share home addresses, private phone numbers and emails online.  But you also want to be careful about sharing information about your family members online as well.  There is a reason I don’t really talk about my private life online.  Also, be careful about revealing too much about routine behavior, like where you go for your coffee or morning jog.  If you go on vacation or leave your home for any extending period for any reason, it’s better to wait until you are home to share your vacation pictures.  Don’t inadvertently let potential burglars know when you are not home.

Friends

You might have thousands of “friends” or followers on Twitter or Facebook, but I am pretty sure most of them are not actually your friends.  Heck, you may not have actually met most of them in person.  If you don’t know someone who is seeking a friend request, carefully vet that person.  You are not obligated to be “friends” with everyone online.

Online Protection

Teach your kids about viruses, malware and how to protect themselves from identity theft.

 Intellectual Property

The Internet has made it easier to use someone else’s words or images without giving the author credit.  It’s a good idea to learn and understand basic copyright law at Creative Commons so you don’t run into a problem later.

Fact vs. Fiction

If you find something online that is too good to be true, it most likely isn’t.  Not everything you see online is true or a truthful source.  Wikipedia is a great resource, but because it is mostly an open source website, a lot of stuff there is false, erroneous and just plain wrong.  Vet and verify information you find online.  I like using a website called Snopes to get the truth.

General Netiquette

The lines between our professional and personal lives are blurring more and more every day.  How you talk to your boss in an email is not the same as how you text your buddies on a late night.  Also, the Internet is global; pretty much anyone in the world can see your social media or websites.  Be careful about using colloquialism and double entendre online.  What might be a silly joke among your American “friends” might be taken the wrong way by someone else living in another country.

I may have rained all over your digital parade, but this is the new normal of dealing in cyberspace, and the moms definitely took note.  Everyone should be a responsible digital citizen!

Why You Need To Do That Side Project Right Now

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passion-projectEveryone has a side passion project, or at least aspires to have one.  Some people spend their evenings and weekends working on projects that test their creativity, learn new skills and experiment with their comfort levels.

Side projects are not usually money-making businesses, but they can turn into one if you really put the time and work into it.  That is how Global Wire Associates started 10 years ago, when it was just me blogging about communications and human rights.  I would have never thought that a blog would be a jumping off point for a new career as an entrepreneur.  In today’s changing economy, more people want (and need) their passion projects to turn into a paying job.

But most people don’t do passion projects for income.  I think it is a great idea that for everyone to have a side project because it helps to reveal your deeper desires and lets you focus on what is important to you.  Whether you had a bad day at your job, got into an argument with your significant other or just tired of all the crappy news about mass shootings, police brutality, ISIS and other awful things happening in the world, having a side project can be an outlet for relieving stress.

Most importantly, life is too precious and short to not to find time to do something you really love.  One day you will be older and regretting not doing something.

What is my passion project?  Well, actually, I have two projects.  I like collecting vintage posters, postcards and book covers and trying to recreate them in Photoshop or Illustrator, or creating a website complimentary to the art.  Sometimes I sell the posters and book covers for some good money!  It is work-related, but it is a great way to learn visual communication history, find inspiration and improve my designing skills.  I have also been working on a documentary for a while that I hope to finish one day…

So go out there and write that novel, knit that sweater, paint that portrait or start blog ging.  Summer is a great time to start doing something.

Stop with the excuses and indulge in your passion (project).

Car-Free Urban Areas are the Future

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orange line mbtaNow that Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics is over, can we now get back to the business of fixing the city’s infrastructure?

The dear departed Mayor Menino once said “the car is no longer king in Boston.”  I am a strong advocate for car-free urban areas not only for health and environmental reasons; but also because it just makes better urban planning sense.    Unlike Washington DC and New York City, Boston was not a planned city.  This is why most of the city streets, especially in the downtown area, are so awkwardly designed for modern transportation.

This is also why I suggested a few weeks ago that cars should be banned in all of downtown, including the financial district and parts of Back Bay, with the exception for buses and delivery trucks.  The narrow roads and the erratic driving is a terrible combination for traffic accidents.  I can’t tell you how many times I almost got ran over by a car that came out of nowhere and didn’t care to yield to pedestrians or cyclists.

Cars may be going by the wayside in the near future.  Statistically, millennials don’t  want to own or drive cars.  Yes, these youngsters want to live in urban areas where there is more diversity and use their money instead on purchasing the latest “iThing.”

In my neighborhood there is a new apartment complex going up.  Many of the long-term, older residents are concerned that no one will want to rent in this building because the facility doesn’t have its own parking lot and there is limited street parking.  The building developers argue that the complex is designed specifically for young professionals (millennials), who they anticipate will mostly use public transit or cycling to get around.  There are other such developments going up around the city as well.

If this is the future of urban housing, than I think the city needs to seriously consider putting more thought into a more comprehensive, car-free strategy for its urban policy.  I’m not a trained urban planner, but being a lifelong Boston resident who has never owned a car gives me some perspective on this issue.  I have been lucky to travel to many American and Europeans cities where they are proactively curbing car use.  They all use really interesting, innovative techniques that Boston should emulate:

  1. Car Bans: I notice in Madrid that cars are permanently banned in central, mostly congested areas.  The city just extended this banned into residential areas.  People who live in those neighborhoods can still drive their cars, but non-residents driving into those neighborhoods are fined.  If there can’t be a permanent ban, why not just a temporary ban on weekends and holidays?
  2. Incentives: Give people discounts or vouchers for using public transit or bikes.  Personally, I would like a discount on my monthly MBTA pass for being a frequent user.  (But knowing how the T operates, I don’t see this happening anytime soon, unfortunately…)
  3. More Bike Sharing: The Hubway bikes seem to be mostly stationed in central, more touristy parts of the city.  It would be great to have more bike sharing stations spread out in residential areas, especially in transit-starved Mattapan, Roxbury and parts of Dorchester.
  4. More Bike Lanes: It would be nice to have more bike lanes, or in Copenhagen’s case, more bike “superhighways” dedicated to both commuter and recreational cyclists alike.  I went riding on the Minuteman Bikeway recently and thought to myself why doesn’t Boston have more bike paths like this one.
  5. More Pedestrian Zones: More green spaces, upgraded parks and wider sidewalks would be nice.  As a runner, I would like to see more jogging paths and other recreational spaces that are designed to be easier on the knees when the foot strikes the ground, such as asphalt pathways.
  6. Extend Subway Lines and Service: This might be a good time for the city to think about extending rapid transit into areas that really need it, like along bus routes 28 and 32.  And, no, not another Silver Line; a real subway line is needed.  I don’t know how this can be done, but more efficient public transit is needed in those areas.  Also, if residents become more reliant on public transit, the MBTA should consider starting 24-hour service.  (I know it’s a stretch, but we can all dream sometimes!)

Test Out Your Americanism

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american-flagAround this time of the year, Americans think about their collective histories and what makes this country great.  The United States truly is a great country with opportunities not found in many other countries.  My family moved to the United States in the 1970s to take advantage of the opportunities and freedoms for a better life.

I am very grateful to be an American myself.  I had the opportunity to grow up in a nice home, get a decent education, have a career as a journalist and start a business.  There are not many places in the world where someone like me could do the things that I do.

Sometimes we Americans take for granted these freedoms and opportunities.  I have a great deal of friends from around the world who want to come to this country to live, and they spend months training themselves for the naturalization test. As a US citizen born on American soil, I never had to take this test.  This past weekend I was talking to my friend Rita from Eritrea about her upcoming test.  She came here as a political refugee five years ago with her husband and 4 children.

“You Americans have it so easy,” she said. “I had to study for this test for three months.  You just have to be born here and you automatically get citizenship.”

So I took the official 25-question self test online and another test from the Atlantic just for fun, and I did pretty good.

citizenship test

 

Actually, I am in the minority.  According to a study, only one in three native-born Americans would fail the civics portion of the naturalization test, compared to 97.5 percent of immigrants that pass the test.  If the pass rate was 7 out of ten, about half the native-born population would fail.

Test out your Americanism by watching the video:

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