The Way I See It-Friday

The way I see it, modern gadgets are not bad.
The way in which they are utilized makes the real difference.
In other words, they can be used for EVIL and they can be used for GOOD.
So, I certainly will not do like one parent who virtually destroyed all of the television sets in her home because in her words, they were ‘EVIL’.
It is not the television set that is EVIL but it is what you choose to watch on it, that makes the difference between GOOD and EVIL.
Recently I attended a workshop in St. Kitts, which highlighted the positive and negative ways in which we use social media.
It was a very instructive course and the two facilitators were very knowledgeable and helpful.
Some of the things that were said were quite revealing and I was so impacted that I just feel like sharing some of the information with you.
Were you aware that when you go onto your Facebook page and somebody sent you a video, a picture or just some information and you click LIKE, THAT IN EFFECT IT REFLECTS YOU AND YOUR CHARACTER?
Well I newa!
Some of the participants admitted that sometimes they only click LIKE because they want the person to know that they saw or read the information—not that they really LIKED it.
However, it was further revealed that nowadays, when bosses are looking at the applications for jobs sent in by some persons, they use their Facebook page, as a point of reference.
In other words, instead of simply accepting the nice words submitted by your chosen persons of reference, like your past teacher or your Pastor, they simply go to your face book page and observe the kind of comments that you make; the things that you LIKE and so on.
They will then, based on that information, make a judgement call on the type of person that you really are.
So, in other words, we have to be extremely careful what we LIKE and the comments we make on such media outlets as twitter; Facebook and their related cousins.
Another shocking bit of information that I found to be really intriguing, was related to property rights.
The scenario was used where Miss West hired Mr. Tom to take some photos at her wedding.
Mr. Tom takes the photos, duly gives Miss West and her new husband, the photos and collects a big fat cheque of $2,000.00.
It was amazing to discover that after all of that, Mr. Tom can still use the same photos, which he still has stored on his memory card, for his own purposes!
So, it was impressed on our minds that in such cases, persons should have a signed agreement between the parties involved, clearly indicating what can and cannot be done with the photos and exactly what is expected of each party concerned.
Any breach of this signed agreement can then result in some serious court action; law suits etc.
It was also pointed out that even if we have factual information, we still have to be careful and sensitive in the way we go about relaying it.
The example was drawn, when in one instance a man was killed and the information was quickly placed up on somebody’s face book page.
When the daughter of the bereaved man was coming out of church sometime later, someone ran up to her to express condolences.
‘Condolences for what?’ was the natural question.
The girl literally fainted when she received the news.
Mind you, one of the participants was adamant that there no good way in passing on information of a death, to a related family member but I am convinced that the bible is correct when it states quite clearly: ‘Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’
So, we can apply some common sense and discretion in passing on such sad news.
You remember the story about the Sargeant in the army?
Well, the Colonel had just received the news that the mother of Private Jones had died and as he pondered on the correct way to relay the information, in stepped Sargeant Grant.
Well he told the Sargeant of his dilemma and immediately the Sargeant announced that he had the TACT and that he could handle it.
So, the Colonel told him to go ahead and inform Private Jones of his mother’s death, IN A TACTFUL MANNER.
Sargeant Grant immediately ordered all of the troops to line up in the court yard and in his clearest and most definitive holler, he shouted: ‘All those with mothers, take one step forward…’
Suddenly, he was heard to shout out even louder: ‘Not you Private Jones……!’
Well I newa!
So, back to the social media thingy. We have to be careful what we post; what we read; what we LIKE, as it will reflect the type of persons that we truly are.
So too, we must be aware that God knows everything that is truly on our ‘Facebook pages’. I make reference here to the hidden secrets of our hearts.
The things that we think nobody else knows.
God knows and will judge us accordingly.
So, it augers well, that we reflect his true personality and character in PUBLIC and in PRIVATE, because he knows us better than we know ourselves.
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?