Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for July 23, 2012

New version of including gratuity-charge in the bill!

They just have to like them on Facebook. It’s the vote that counts.

Johnson draws some really odd characters. What is with that Frankenstein head-top of hers???

That is just his standard tied back hairdo with earings. Nothing weird there.

Like us for a chance to win a prize??

I’d go with the latter.

It’s not stupid… it’s one of the great marketing scams of all time.

It’s evil genius: plays on people’s vanity, curiosity, and other foibles, all in the name of ‘staying in touch’. I guess it’s like so many other forms of media: a good tool, but a lousy lifestyle.

I am on Facebook but every few weeks I deactivate my account and go “off the grid” for a few weeks so to speak. I don’t delete it, just deactivate. Mine is just to keep in touch with family and friends as I live in a very rural area.

david-42 / GypsyWomenHow do I make sure my account is stripped and deactivated?I have erased all personal info but want to be sure I am not active on fb.Will check here later or let me know on this comic tomorrow. Thanks, (Help from other GOCOMICS friend would be appreciated.)

I totally deleted FB. It got pretty ridiculous after awhile reading about the minute details of someone’s life. The people I really care about I get emails and phone calls from and vise versa. And what about people who refuse to get on the internet, let alone get a computer? My mother had a hard time with a clerk who said she could just get on the computer and go to their website to do whatever it was my mother wanted done. My mother finally glared at her and said she didn’t have a computer, didn’t intend to get one, and she should just do the job she was hired to do. It got done and I’m sure after my mother left, the clerk had a few choice words about her but didn’t say anything if she wanted to keep her job. Some young people just don’t get it. Not everyone wants a computer.

Anyone who thinks they can drop “off the grid” just by not having a computer or deleting (or not having) a Facebook account, is dangerously out of touch with the reality of the world they’re living in.

You are “on line” whether you like it or not. Even if you don’t have, and never had a computer. Everything there is to know about you is on line. Don’t believe me? Check “maps” on your cell phone (or borrow a friends, even basic phones have this now). Type in your street, then zoom in. You can see your house!Heh, and that’s not all! Anything and I mean ANYTHING anyone could ever want or need to know about you is on-line. The steps necessary to drop “off the grid” are practically impossible! Ever been to a bank, mall, store, parking garage…. Congratulations! you’re on camara! Know what that means? Yup, what you look like is in several databases.Shall I go on?So, lie to yourself all you like. Truth is, even if you never use a computer, you’re on-line! The day is coming where you won’t be able to do certain things if you don’t have a computer. Hell, even a cell phone can do most of what computers can do. Even regular phones are becoming “smart phones”. Oh, and your phone has a GPS chip in it. Know all those cool apps that make it easy for you to find things?Yeah, they also make it easy to find you. Go ahead and shut off the GPS feature, you can be tracked by the cell towers your phone connects to.Sleep tight.

I think it’s funny all the people commenting on here how they don’t use Facebook. But, you all use message boards. That is what’s called a distinction without a difference. Don’t think this site collects your information? It does! So sad. Banks, Stores, Resturants… any place you have transactions with have information about you stored on line. Even your employer (and the Social Security Agency too).

In this case ignorance is not bliss, and what you don’t know (or refuse to learn) can, and likely at some point will hurt you. I know enough to know I don’t know enough about what people know about or have access to about me. But at least I’m not lying to myself about it.

I do what I can to control my personal information. I don’t give it to anyone that doens’t absolutely “NEED” it, and I don’t post anything on-line that I don’t have to.

Yeah, and unless you have a common name, anyone can find how old you are. Suppose you’re named Marybell Coblitski. Go to intelius.com , type in your name, and Vwa-LAH! (There’s no Marybell Coblitski.)If you have a fair-to-middling common name, putting in your city and state will help, or maybe you can type in someone you live with who has a more uncommon first name, and you’ll likely find yourself.

I lost track of an “Aunt” (elderly friend of my late mother’s) who had never been near a computer in her life. She had been lost in the world of assisted living for a couple of years. Typed her name into Google and presto name, address and phone number all there and all current!

“friend” and “like” don’t have the meaning they did. I still get the creeps calling a stranger a “friend.”