Internet Age Drama: Gadgets, Gizmos, and Gimmicks

Here's a funny and semi-educational story that I'd like to share with you. The moral of the story? Beware the linking that you do on the internet. Keep track of what accounts, phone numbers, log-ins, email addresses, etc., are linked to one another.

I am a bit of a techie nut. While no expert, I'm crazy for gadgets, gizmos, and gimmicks. I own a fancy Droid phone with more apps than I could ever possibly use. I have both a laptop and a PC, and I love investing my hard-earned money on tons of interesting-looking software I see advertised.

Needless to say, I use the Google calendar that comes free with my Google email account. You might be thinking that as an educator working on an educational website, my calendar is full of important meetings, conferences, etc. And these things are definitely in my calendar. But as a tech nut who carries her cell phone with her 24/7, I've also come to rely on my Google calendar for tons of everyday things. I get easily distracted, so if I need to do something in a few hours, darn tootin' that I put it on my calendar.

Putting a batch of jerky in the dehydrator? Mark in my Google calendar the time when it should be ready. Need to pick up toilet tissue after work? There's a Google calendar alert set for 3:00 P.M. to remind me.

The Google calendar has an option that allows you to send SMS (text message alerts) to your phone. And even though I have the Google calendar app installed on my phone, I've always used the text alerts as back-up. To do this, I had to validate the phone number by responding to a text that Google sent me.

The problem? About a year ago, I changed my service provider and got a new cell phone number. The Google calendar text messages never entered my mind. I loaded my new phone with all of my old apps and services, and went about my life. I never thought about the reality that eventually, my old provider would get around to assigning my old phone number to another customer.

Oops!

One day, I saw a new event in my calendar: "Quit sending this **** to my ******* phone!!!" I was dumbfounded. What on earth was this? After a lot of pondering, and further harsh exchanges, I realized that my mundane, incessant calendar events were still being sent to my old phone number. The poor man who was using my old phone number was every day getting reminders to buy feminine hygiene products, take the pot roast out of the oven, etc.

Quickly, I went into my Google calendar settings and erased the old phone number (but not before sending out a sincere apology via the calendar).

Your take-away:

Be very careful about what accounts and log-ins you link to your cell phone number, because if you ever change your number, those old accounts may be accessible to whomever receives your old phone number. When you validate your phone number for texting directly to and from your calendar, blog, twitter, etc., you are giving anyone who "inherits" your phone number access to those accounts.

So think twice before you link anything to your cell phone number!