SheGeeks

I am officially 21. My birthday was this past Friday and I want to take the time to thank you all for the well wishes and gifts. I’ve gotten a ton of both.

For my birthday I partied hard with my friends Friday and Saturday night. However, I encountered a dilemma on Sunday when I decided to upload my birthday pictures and I’d like to hear your thoughts on what you’d do in such a situation.

Some of us have completely separate lives on the web. I for one use an online alias for various reasons. I’m starting to get to the point where it’s become quite a task to keep up these two personas. However, they really aren’t all that different. Corvida talks a lot about technology and my real name (which I will not reveal yet) is a smart mouth who enjoys getting down and dirty with her friends. Shocking, I know. Otherwise there isn’t much of a difference between what I portray online versus online.

Regardless, the smart mouth is who celebrated her birthday. Not Corvida. So my pictures are not necessarily vulgar, but I think some of my online friends would be shocked to see this side of me. It made me think twice about the persona that I have online versus what my friends physically near me get to see.

Only a handful of my online friends knew what I’d planned for my birthday and those friends weren’t all that surprised. This is because they’ve seen the “other” side of me. The side of me that’s not all tech. The side of me that loves rap music, girls, and who is a bit of a…flirt. As you read this things may seems innocent enough. However, I just turned 21 and had no intentions of being innocent for my 21st birthday. I may be 21 for the next year, but you only turn 21 once! So my pictures resemble this not so innocent persona. I’m at odds on whether or not to upload my pictures on Flickr. I don’t want to pick and choose which pics should go and which pictures to keep to myself. Yet, I ave a reputation and image to maintain. Despite the privacy options that Flickr offers, it just isn’t enough for this dilemma.

So what’s a woman to do?

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Last night, Wayne Sutton and I did a livestream Q&A via Yahoo! Live. Originally, we intended to do it via ustream.tv, however Wayne was have a few technical difficulties with the service only minutes before we were to go live. So, we made a switch to Yahoo! Live.

The conversation with Wayne was great, and initially so was the conversation with our supporters and some of our participants. However, as time wore on, anonymous users started to walk in and spew derogatory remarks all over the place. Louis Gray even caught a couple of screenshots of some of the comments. While it made it much harder for us to answer any questions our real audience might have had, Wayne just encouraged me to ignore them and try to stay focused on the conversation.

Why This Wasn’t Hard For Me

I grew up in an impoverished neighborhood and I’ve seen racism and discrimination in many forms. I’m black, a female, and also a lesbian. That’s 3 ways to discriminate against me and I’ve experienced all three forms before I hit high school and 2 of them before I hit middle school. I’ve seen family members and friends harassed and killed by racist cops in my neighborhood. What happened in the chatroom is better than most of what I’ve experienced.
    

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.

A couple of hours after the livestream, Louis Gray and Cyndy Aleo-Carreira posted their thoughts on the situation and profusely apologized to both Wayne and I for having to endure that type of…hatred? Activity? I really don’t know what to call it. However I wish they wouldn’t apologize. I completely understand why they are apologizing and I’m honored and humbled by it. However, they weren’t the ones that caused this situation to happen.

Cyndy seems to feel guilty for not speaking up previously, however it’s not Cyndy’s duty to speak up. It’s nice, yes. However for me, it’s not necessary. You all came to the show, you sat through it with us till the very end and said numerous words of encouragement that I expressed my gratitude for in this video on Seesmic. That’s all I need. You shouldn’t apologize for the behavior of other people because they don’t reflect upon how I view you.

The Power Of Friends

Those people in the chatroom were more annoying than anything because it prevented you all from conversing with Wayne and I. However, they didn’t personally affect me. I really appreciate you all speaking out. I appreciate the support and knowing that you were more disgusted than I was. I guess I’m used to it and I’ve seen much worse in my life. Honestly, I was surprised to see your posts because I had no intentions of making a similar posting. Why? It’s just not a new phenomenon for me.

However, it’s friends and peers like you two that make everything worth it at the end of the day. Your posts have really touched me and I just wanted to say not to worry about how I feel about it personally. I have people like you two standing behind me and that’s more powerful than any word that was stated in that chatroom. The words of my peers and friends will forever ring louder in my mind than any derogatory comment.

Once again, I appreciate the support I truly do. However, I hope you two never apologize to me for someone else’s actions because they don’t reflect upon you for one second.

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The BlogHer network, a well known and highly respected community for women who blog, was recently promoted on Twitter, by Erin Vest, also known as Queenofspain on Twitter. Vest has been promoting the BlogHers Act global giving initiative, which are five projects that BlogHer has started as part of their commitment to make a difference. Here’s what they’ve had to say about it:

Here’s what we’re up to: As part of our BlogHers Act commitment to make a difference on the issue of maternal health, BlogHer has joined forces with Global Giving to help save women’s lives and we need your help.

By harnessing the power of women online, our contributions will improve maternal health and save women’s lives. Your donation to one or more of these projects can save women’s lives by supplying health care, birthing kits, education, trained birthing attendants, meals, and much, much more.

Blog. Act. Donate. BlogHers Act.

The BlogHers Act was launched on April 7th and will end on May 11th, Mother’s Day. Since the launch, they’ve raised $1,748!

Where does Twitter fit into this? Not everyone is a frequent visitor of the BlogHer homepage. In fact, If Vest hadn’t spread the word on Twitter, I may have never known about it.

The night I noticed her "tweets" on Twitter, Vest was spreading the word about a few people that were willing to donate to the BlogHer initiative, $25 per new follower and up to $1000 max, within a specified time frame. 
   

Talk about the power of Twitter! In this case, Twitter has become an effective substitute for "word of mouth". What might’ve been emailed, IM’d, or phoned about has now been easily and efficiently spread to hundreds of thousands of users on Twitter. Just think of how many lives may now have been saved because of this one message sent via Twitter. Though Twitter did not start out as a way for promotion or advocacy, you can’t deny that it’s an extremely effective tool for both.

Using Twitter To Call For Help

On the other hand, ContraCostaTimes has recently published an article about a student of U.C. Berkeley that is now out of jail in Egypt thanks to Twitter. According to the article, 29 year old James Karl Buck, a graduate journalism major, twittered "ARRESTED" via his cellphone when Egyptian police picked him up from a protest.

Once Buck’s message was sent:

The message went out to the cell phones and computers of a wide circle of friends in the United States and to the mostly leftist, anti-government bloggers in Egypt who are the subject of his graduate journalism project.

The next day, he walked out a free man with an Egyptian attorney hired by UC Berkeley at his side and the U.S. Embassy on the phone.

Buck was jailed because:

He went with Egyptian blogger-journalists to Mahalla where factory workers were supposed to strike about lack of wages and skyrocketing food prices. But the police had cracked down and there was no strike, he said. He left with everyone else, but returned two days later after police made many arrests.

He was taking photos at a protest, when the police grabbed him. Before he was released they also grabbed his camera memory chip. But they forgot about Twitter.

While this wouldn’t normally be a problem in America, there is no freedom of press in Egypt.
     
      

Twitter’s power and influence is growing at a rapid pace. The extent of reach that Twitter now harnesses is not one that I ever imagined it would have when I initially  joined the service. Yet, I’m more grateful than ever that I made the decision to join.
   

Chris Brogan has also shared his thoughts on the story, and ended it with the exact same question that I asked myself:

If a messaging platform can free a man from prison, what else can it do for YOU?

    
Twitter is truly becoming both a network and social tool beyond our wildest imaginations!

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