Hey, What is This Stuck To My Shoe?

Hey, this is not about Library Thing, my beloved Library Thing! It's some sort of sticky Glue, Get Glue in fact, via today's Tuesday Thinger question from Wendi's Book Corner

Questions: Have you gotten Glue yet? If so, how do you like it? Do you follow Glue Genie on Twitter? Won anything in their quizzes?

This week we are exploring something totally different and un-Library Thing - we're looking at Glue!
What is Get Glue? From their Website:

Developed by AdaptiveBlue, Glue enables you to connect with your friends on the web around the things you visit online. Glue is powered by semantic recognition technology that automatically identifies books, music, movies, wines, stocks, movie stars, recording artists, and more. Glue works hard to make it easy for you to find out what your friends think about things you're visiting online.

My dear readers, if you have read any of my posts, I might let you guess the answer to this one. Well? Any idea?

The answer is no. Yes folks, once again my rather anti-social head rears itself.

I can remember when I first read about Get Glue on someones blog or Twitter, I thought it sounded awful, one of the worse ideas I had ever heard. Shades of Big Brother and Peeping Tom all rolled together. The idea of all this information being collected and available out there just seems so unnecessary, so overboard. I really have no desire for everyone I know to see what I am buying or what I think of everything I see or purchase online. And to tell you the truth, I really don't have any interest in your opinion on everything either. Does that sound a bit harsh? ...well maybe...lol

Once, years ago, I used to read People magazine. Then, one day, I realized that knowing what Brad Pitt had for breakfast or what plastic surgery some actress was having was contributing absolutely nothing positive to my life. It is just more noise, more stuff, filling up every moment of the day. Again, is it just me, or don't you just want to be quiet, unplugged from the world sometimes? I certainly feel no need for more input into my brain.

But, you might say, you have a blog, you post reviews of books. Isn't that the same thing. Well, no, it is not in my opinion. Maybe it is the "semantic recognition technology that automatically identifies books, music, movies, wines, stocks, movie stars, recording artists, and more..." Does that not sound just a little creepy? I must say that it does to me...it's just all too much.
"The Network That Sticks With You", looking over my cyber shoulder as it were? No thanks.

Being online, on a blog or a social site like Facebook or Twitter, is revealing. We can't forget that what is on the internet is public, for anyone to see, and will remain out there, in some form, forever. We sit in the privacy of our homes, writing it, read it, so maybe it seems rather private. But it is not. But on a sight where we post or comment, we can control what is said and reveal what we want and say, or not say, what we want. It is bad enough that people, for whatever reason they want, be it to sell us something or something more sinister, already scan and search these sites. At least we retain a degree of control over it. But "semantic recognition technology...automatically identifies"...like I said, too Big Brother for me.

Also, and maybe it is just me again, but all this stuff, all this interaction is just too much. Too much information, too much input, too much data coming at us from every side. 24 hour news, every aspect of the lives of today's 'celebrity' drilled into our brains, the need to be always online, in touch, part of the network, plugged in.

No, no Glue for me thank you. Ok, hey Bandit, help me put my soap box away, will ya?

...now Bandit...I always have time for a bit more Bandit! And here he is, finishing that ice cream from last week. I have two words for you Bandit...Grecian Formula!

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