the dangers of 'wish you were here'

I'm picturing the scenario:

Middle aged, prim woman, in her sophisticated pumps, probably coming straight from tea with her bridge partners, walks into the pawn shop.

--"Oh, dear, I seem to have lost my entire collection of Jane Austen BBC DVDs, and I was wondering if you might by any chance have those?"

NORMAL ANSWER:
--"Wow, lady. I do believe you're from the twilight zone. Why don't you go to Buckingham Palace and ask the Queen to hep you out?"

ANSWER IN A SHOP NEAR ME:
--"Wow, lady, you're in luck. Normal people would never try to sell such a thing to me, but someone did just last week. And I said, 'What the heck? Business is slow, sure I'll take 'em.' Here ya go."

I write this because I am puzzling and puzzling til my puzzler is sore as to why someone would have cleaned out our entire DVD cabinet while we were at the in-laws over Thanksgiving. (And in case you're wondering, our Copy of The Grinch was safely on video still.) Because for the life of me, I cannot fathom what exactly the resale value on the black market would be for, say, Showboat, or Anne of Green Gables. or Gideon, Tuba Warrior. Not to mention the random copies of our community theater performances. I won't even watch myself playing Mother Superior in Sound of Music. Now someone else wants to?

The killer for me, of course, is the entire six hours of Pride and Prejudice. Watched at least three or four times a year. It has become a bonding experience between me and Middle Child. I am an avowed Jane Austen freak. I even took an entire class on her in college. And as anyone who really knows me knows, if I were not very happily married, I would be stalking Colin Firth. So altogether, not a happy loss.

In any case,the point of this post is not to whine. It is to mention an important reality that many know but others may overlook. Teach your children (and yourself) about safety and social media.

You don't have to look far to find a news story about someone who got ripped off because he or she posted easy-to-interpret details on facebook or twitter. Now, we're one of those statistics. Even though we did try to safeguard ourselves from that happening. Things to avoid:

--Mentioning your vacation plans, dates, reservations, etc.
--Posting pictures before you get home and letting people know 'this is where I am'
--Talking about normal times when everyone is away from home
--Talking about what you are doing way from home or how much you miss things at home on your status
--Talking about the things you're seeing. Like, for instance, if we had lost our sense enough to go to Mall of America over Thanksgiving, we should never have mentioned it. Not simply because this is embarrassing to admit, but because anyone who checks our information page knows we do not live in Minneapolis.

And even if you don't do these things, your kids might, in simple normal virtual conversation with their friends. Except, not everyone they are 'friends' with is a friend. And you really have to impress on them how one, small innocent piece of information can give away so much.

Any other good ideas on what not to post for the world to see? I'd love to hear them. For more information on how people use your information, see the link below.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSP49844920090828