I got the iPhone 3G about a month after it was released. I was a 3 year long user of the Blackberry and was still using my Blackberry 7100G. I never thought I’d do away with my Crackberry. It was my lifeline. I found though, after purchasing the iPhone that the only thing I really missed about the Blackberry was BB Messenger. I’ve since gotten over this. My iPhone is with me at all times and has even been the cause of drama in my relationship and work! I’ve gotten so much better about it, though. My Gmail goes straight to my iPhone. I use the MySpace and Facebook apps religiously. My home page includes a direct link to CNN, my YouTube, LiveJournal, Twitterific, and WeatherBug apps. I swear by Crash Kart when I’m trying to get my fiance’s children to settle down. For football season (Go Bucs!) I love using Pro Football. I’ve recently developed an addiction to Storm8 strategy games. I use MMS Rescue which I love (the 30% of the time it actually works). When I’m really bored, other games like Wurdle, Word Warp, and Flood-It! are favorites of mine. I have not called a movie theater ever since I downloaded Now Playing. Then there are the really cool music apps Pandora, the internet radio and Shazam, the app that let’s you put the microphone up to a song playing and it tells you what song it is and by what artist! Most recently, I’ve downloaded Loopt – a stalkerish Facebook linked app but I haven’t been able to use it yet.

The ease of use of the iPhone is so simplistic, my 3 year old, soon-to-be-stepson, Stevie, and 5 year old soon-to-be-stepdaughter, Skyler love playing with it, and taking pictures. Granted, they’re not the best photographers in the world, but they try. I honestly don’t know what I would do without my iPhone. I’d go through some serious withdrawal, perhaps foaming at the mouth and having seizures. It is so much worse than my Blackberry addiction by far. I still love RIM, but until they can compete with the web browsing of the iPhone, I won’t be coming back! Besides, it’s the 1st Apple product I’ve been able to afford since my parents got me an Apple IIC at a yard sale when I was a little kid. Unfortunately, all I could really play on that thing was Strip Poker and I’m not sure my parents even knew that those pixelated boobies were on there. I’m sure I had some other games, but for some reason unbeknownst to me, that’s the one that stands out in my mind.

I know with the new software, there are so many new apps that I’m just dying to try out. Does anyone have any apps they can recommend to me and the rest of the world? Please comment and let me know!

Back in the days of AOL profiles when no one really knew who we were, there wasn’t much issue with Internet Privacy.  I’m not referring to unsecure sites asking for your credit card number, but sites like MySpace, Facebook and the like.  It seems everyone under 30, and even some senior citizens have at least one profile of the two major Social Networking Sites.  These sites show your personal lives laid out in a neat little page for all, or few to see.  They tell where you work, where you live, phone numbers, etc.  Facebook, a stalker’s dream even tells you when someone is going through relationship problems.  My favorite is “it’s complicated.” 

Part of me really enjoys the attention I receive from friends commenting on what I’m doing that day, my vacation, and new photos.  These are people I would otherwise probably not talk to ever again if I hadn’t found them searching for old friends and classmates.  I was never much of a social butterfly, and these sites allow me to socialize without being in a crowded room of people where I would likely have a panic attack and try desperately to fade into the background. 

Then there are those I don’t know all that well.  Friends I met via internet forums, through other friends, and maybe a few that fell in the cracks whom I don’t even know from Adam – all able to see where I’m going this weekend, and how dirty my floors are from the photos of my pit bull puppy, Lily.  How much do I really want them to know?

I pick and choose who gets to see what.  I’ll never let most of you into my private LiveJournal, and even if you try to send me a friend request on my Facebook, I can promise you I will undoubtedly not accept.  These are places reserved for my closest friends, family.  Perhaps I will create a separate MySpace and Facebook profile if any of you request me to do so.  Until then, I’d like some of who I am to remain private.

The problem with letting strangers in is that you will inevitably get “haters.”  Most people don’t tell you their skeletons but in the past, I’ve let it all out, freely.  It bit me in the rear very quickly.  I was young and I suppose I was seeking attention; however, I didn’t estimate how much negative attention I would actually get.  I let people get to me and wore my emotions on my sleeve for all to see.  Clearly, a rookie mistake.  I withdrew to avoid the attention and after all was said and done, years went by and the negative attention almost ceases to exist.  This time around, I’ve got other plans.

Some people are afraid of internet predators and psycho stalkers.  Yeah, I’ve had my share of stalkers.  I even dated one.  Those psycho stalkers are somebody’s next-door neighbor.  Just because you met them on the internet doesn’t make them any more psycho. 

So, my question to the readers (however few I may have at this point) is: How secure do you feel having your personal business strewn all over the internet?  Would you be afraid if your boss or your mother Googled you?  What do you do to separate the internet from everyday reality, or has the internet become your reality?