Your parents, grandparents or Aunts and Uncles have just ventured online and their first order of business is to create an email account. You know that more than 75 percent of email messages sent over the Internet are spam so what sort of Safety Tips are you going to share with them before they start emailing?
8 Safety Tips I would tell my Parents or Grandparents when first using email:
1. Install an Antivirus Software on your computer and keep it up to date. The folks over at PCMag.com do an outstanding job comparing the different software and in this article they recommended the following top Antivirus Software:
(Sidenote: This post contains affiliate links, which allows me to continue to bring you all the free, informative videos that I can. 🙂
2. Don’t click on ANY links within an email unless you are 100 percent sure that it’s coming from a trusted source like a loved one or a brand you’ve subscribed to receive coupons from. But even then, call that person up and ask where that link will take you because sometime those spammers can make it look like it’s coming from your loved ones or a brand and it’s really not. They are tricky that way.
3. Along the lines of #1 - Don’t open any attachments unless you know they were sent from a trusted source. Attachments are computer files like a photo or a document that are sent through emails. Once again those spammers can make it look like it’s coming from someone you know and trust but it’s not. The attachment could contain malware which can basically damage your computer and put email viruses on it.
4.Never share any of your personal information through email. If you get an email that looks like it was sent from a reputable company like your Bank, Paypal or a Credit Card company and it’s asking you to update your account information or telling you that you must do so and so before a certain date DON’T do it. This is a phishing scam where these scammers are looking to gather all your information and make your life a living hell. If you get an email like this CALL that business to find out what is going on.
5. If you get an email requesting you send money DON’T DO IT!!! There are some pretty elaborate emails that I’ve seen since 97’ that pull on your heart strings and some that have appeared to come from loved ones asking for money. Before sending money call up that person and ask them if they really do need the money and for God’s sake don’t send money to someone you don’t know and have never met face to face.
6.Use extreme caution when purchasing products from an email. I’ve subscribed to brands like Michaels, Bed Bath and Beyond, Rue 21 and other brands to receive emails for coupons or specials they may be having but there are spammers out there that can make it look like the email is coming from these brands when in fact they are not. I usually mouse over the link that is within the email to see if it’s going to take me to that brands website. If it is then I’ll click on it and get me some savings. If not…I delete the email and smile because I know I just out smarted a spammer.
7.Use a strong password and right it down! My passwords are always lower and upper case, I’ll switch out letters for characters like my S’s I’ll use the dollar sign or for an I I’ll use the Exclamation Mark. I’ll also use numbers as well.
8. One last thing I would tell them is don’t forward me those chain emails that tell me I’m going to receive something if I pass this on to X amount of people. It doesn’t work and sometimes those emails are just another means for spammers to attack.
There you have it! Is there something else you would like to add to this list that may help those that are just starting out with Email? Let me know in the comments section below and I'll add it to the list.
Dad absolutely LOVES YouTube. He is frequently sharing links to music videos on Facebook that bring back fond memories of his time with Mom, memories of songs he use to move his hips to and a lot more memories that I'm not privy to. He also uses YouTube for video tutorials on things he wants to learn about, much like you are doing when you watch our Napoleon's Idiot Episodes.
If you're not familiar with YouTube, users can upload videos they take, save videos they want to watch for later, watch classic television shows, listen to music of all genres, and manage videos all for FREE!
It's wonderful to be able to watch these videos but what happens if you need to pause the video and then play it again. Or if you can't see the video that well how can you make it bigger? Is there a way to slow a video down to see where their cursor is moving?
In this episode of Napoleon's Idiot, Dad schools me in a thing or two that he has learned while viewing these videos on YouTube.
Watch it here:
Written Tutorial
How to Play/Pause a Video - This icon located at the bottom left of the video is where you will play and pause the video. Whenever you see a little triangle like that on the Internet it means you can play a video. When you see what I like to call the double hockey sticks that is how you pause the video and to unpause you would simply click on that button again.
Next Video button - When you click on this button it is going to play the next video that YouTube has chosen for you. For example, in the image below you'll see that the next video is another one of our Napoleon's Idiot Episodes. BEWARE: If you continue to click on the next video you have no idea what videos YouTube is going to bring back so keep an eye on that sidebar to the right so you can know what video you're about to watch.
Mute and Volume Control buttons - When you mouse over the little megaphone you'll notice that a volume control slider pops out as well as the word mute above it. If you want to mute the sound of this particular video you would just click on the icon (if for some reason you are not hearing volume from a video always check this first to make sure you don't have it muted). If you want to just turn the volume up or down you would click and hold down the horizontal bar moving it left to turn it down or right to turn it up.
Time stamp - Whenever you see these numbers on the bottom of a video it tells you the length of the video and where you are in relation to that. For example, in the image below you see 0:35/6:43, I am 35 seconds into this video that is 6 minutes and 43 seconds long. If I want to jump to 5 minutes into the video I can simply click and hold down the white round button with red inside it and move it to the right till I see 5:00/6:43.
Does that make sense?
Watch Later - If you come across a video that you are enjoying but have to run out for something or get interrupted and know you won't be able to watch it till later then you can click on this button and it will be placed in a folder for you to be able to watch later. To get back to these videos you would simply click on the three horizontal lines located at the top left of your screen then select Watch Later. (NOTE: This feature only works if you have an account on YouTube and are signed into it)
Subtitles and Closed Caption - This is a great tool for those that might have trouble hearing or those that can not understand the person speaking. To turn Closed Caption on/off simply click on the CC icon and you'll notice that the icon now has a white background. To turn it off click on it again and it will go back to the grayish background.
Something to note is that not all videos have the greatest Closed Caption and some of the closed caption can be quite comical. As a video creator myself, in order to have the best Closed Caption you must read from a script that you have already written OR you have to transcribe your video yourself. YouTube doesn't do the best job at transcribing because each of us pronounce words differently.
Settings - These settings only pertain to the video you are watching at this moment. When you change these settings and move onto to watch another video it reverts back to the original settings. Let me explain each of these settings to you.
Autoplay: When you want the video to automatically play you would click the On switch and if you want to control when it plays then click the Off switch
Annotations: These are clickable text that the video create uses to engage you, their audience to take an action on their video
Speed: this is great for when you're watching a video tutorial and the instructor is moving their mouse around so fast that you can't see where they are clicking. This also slows down or speeds up the voice or music that you are listening to.
Subtitles/CC: You can turn on your subtitles and closed caption here as well as the CC icon discussed above.
Quality: You can choose the quality of the video you are watching so if it looks to me fuzzy and not very crisp then you can choose a better format. Keep in mind that it depends on what format and size the video creator used to record the video.
Theater Mode - This is a really cool feature if you want to watch the videos as if you were in the theater. Simply click on the mode icon and you'll notice in the image below that it take up the width of your screen and now all the other videos have moved below your video. To exit Theater Mode, simply click on the icon again and you'll go back to the regular view.
Full Screen - This has to be one of the most used icons. When you click on Full screen the video takes up your entire screen and everything else disappears giving you a great viewer experience. To exit Full screen you would simply click the icon again and you'll be returned to your regular viewing experience. You can also click on the Esc button located at the top left of your keyboard. 😉
There you have it! All the wonderful ways that you can make your viewing experience on YouTube that much better! If you have any questions or if you've found something on YouTube that has enchanced your experience let us know in the comments below. Dad and I always love hearing from you all.
In this Napoleon's Idiot Episode my Dad has waited a loooong time to watch me overcome one of the biggest mental blocks I have put on myself. That mental block of not thinking I can do something that I don't have be able to fill me up with his wisdom when it comes to putting mental blocks on myself.
Dad was not able to get on video to record this weeks episode of Napoleon's Idiot because he had a pretty bad fall that dislocated his shoulder, broke his nose and gave him two black eyes. Can't say that I blame him for not wanting to get on camera. Praise God he is alright and they did not have to do surgery on his shoulder and were able to put that sucker back in the socket.
We had recorded this a while back when I finished putting together a marketing piece (graphic design work) that took me hours to do. After putting it together I sent it to Dad and he called me up right away and asked if I would record his feedback to me.
You see when putting together the Facebook Course and Skype Course here at Social Media 4 Beginners I looked at so many other video tutorials and got so discouraged because you can tell they have a team of people that help them. From graphic designers to web development folks and Internet Marketing to E-mail Marketing gurus and here I sit having to do every thing myself. (Not quite there yet to be able to hire that team but God willing it's coming soon).
When I wanted a graphic design piece done that explains what the Napoleon's Idiot Series is about, I knew what I wanted in my mind but I did not have the confidence in myself to be able to create it on the computer. I was in a rut and my beautiful, wonderfully talented, graphic design extraordinaire and sister of mine was not around to help me, so I had no other choice then to just jump in and use the tools I had in order to create what my mind saw.
I don't have any of the fancy photo editing software like Photoshop (had it on my Macbook Pro but that took a crash and now have a PC) so for this piece I actually used the FREE online photo editing site PicMonkey to create this graphic. The only bad thing about using the site is that once you save the image and close the browser you can't go back and change anything. 🙁
Just so happened that I was pretty pleased with the graphic and thank God I did not make any spelling mistakes so I didn't have to change anything.
But here is the final graphic I came up with:
I think the biggest take away is that we all do put mental blocks on ourselves and it's time we tore those blocks down and quit saying "I can't" and use the tools we have to say, "I did it!"
Figure out which mental blocks you've been placing on yourself and why not start chipping away at them by doing one thing you haven't had the confidence to do and then share it with me in the comments below. I'd love to celebrate with you as you crush those mental block and overcome them.
When I first joined Facebook back in 2006 I remember the elation when I started receiving Friend Request from friends I hadn't seen since the day we Graduated High School. When those Friend Request came in I quickly accepted their friendship and took a peek around their profile to see how life had treated them. As time went on, I went back to college which opened up more friendships, starting working for a company and became friends with even more people but I started getting Friend Request from people I didn't know.
I'm one of those people that don't like confrontation, don't want to hurt other people's feelings and want to be friends with everyone so I accepted the majority of the Friend Request I received. (The older I get the more I realize you can't please everyone and definitely can't trust everyone) 🙂
Today you just can't do that!!
With so many fake profiles, crazy people doing crazy things, spammers, people trying to steal your identity, and just people whose sole purpose is to make other people's lives a living nightmare you have to be so careful with who you become friends with.
Especially those of you that are 55+ and Senior Citizens. These people prey on those that are in your age bracket because you are new and and just learning all about this Facebook thing. But what they don't know is that you have an advocate that is looking out for your best interest and that advocate is me. 🙂
The thing is, when you accept/confirm someones friend request on Facebook they are able to view all the information that you have set to allow your friends to see. Things like, where you work, who your friends are, your pictures, videos, your post and your contact information. Now keep in mind that YOU have control over these settings and can determine if you want your "friends" on Facebook to be able to view these. You can find these settings on Facebook under your Privacy Settings & Tools.
There are a lot of different things I look for before I confirm that friend request but I wanted to hear from my own friends what steps they take and the feedback I received was wonderful and what I have used for the following steps.
Very first thing we all do when we receive a friend request is head straight to their Personal Profile and start checking things out.
Watch me as I confirm a friend request
Follow these 5 Steps before confirming a Friend Request
1.When did they create this account - A brand new account is one of the first warning signs that it might be a hacker or spammer. Now granted, I understand that we were all new at one time but these people make fake accounts all day long and just start a friend request frenzy so I just want you to be aware that any new account might just be a fake account. In order to see if the account was just made you can go to that person's profile and look to the right of their cover photo. You'll see Years, click on the oldest year and then look for maybe their first post, when they uploaded their profile picture or anything that will indicate when they joined Facebook.
2.Check your Mutual Friends - When the Friend Request comes in, Facebook will let you know how many Mutual Friends you have and you can actually click on that link to see who your mutual friends are. But while your on their Personal Profile you'll head to their Friends List then choose Mutual Friends. There, you'll be able to see any mutual friends you may have in common. Lots of times, if I receive a friend request from a classmate from High School, I notice a lot of mutual friends we have in common are all from my High School years. This lets me know that they might actually be the person they say they are. If you do not recognize the person and you have any doubts, it never hurts to reach out to those mutual friends and ask them if they know the person.
3.Photos/Video - You know the saying 'A Picture is worth a thousand words' this holds so true when looking at someones photos. First of all, I'm looking at the people who are in the photos, do I recognize again? I'm looking at where it was taken. I'm looking at how many photos do they have uploaded? The reason for counting the photos is because a lot of times fake profiles will grab a couple photos from a real profile and throw those up to make it look like it's that person. A lot of times it will be photos of just that one person without anyone else in the picture. If they have videos uploaded of themselves I'll watch them and see if I recognize them or anyone else in the videos.
4.What sort of stuff is on their Timeline - Some people lock down their Timeline and do not allow people who are not their friends to view it. But some people leave their Timeline wide open for anyone and everyone on Facebook to see it. If they do have it set for everyone to see then I'm looking at photos, videos and post they have been tagged in. I'm looking at any life events they may have posted, what sort of movies they watch and books they read and sometimes I'll go as far as to see what sort of Business Pages they have "Liked" on Facebook.
5.Take a peak at their About Section - My friend Rick over at Baby Boomers Learn to Blog, likes to look at the About Section of a person's profile before he confirms the friend request. Of course the about section can only be viewed if that person has it set for non friends to view it. If you are able to view it and presuming that they filled it out, you can find out where they work, where they were educated (High School and/or College), places they have lived, their contact and basic information and even their family and relationships on Facebook.
What about you? Are there other steps you take before you confirm a friend request? Let me know in the comments below and as always if you have any questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them for you.
In this episode of Napoleon's Idiot, Dad wanted to share a link on Facebook so one of his friends could see the Napoleon's Idiot Series. So I walk him through copying the link, pasting it into his status update and sharing it with his friends on Facebook.
My name is Audrey and I help the 55+ community overcome their fears and frustrations when it comes to learning all this new Technology and the different Social Media Sites.
Your parents, grandparents or Aunts and Uncles have just ventured online and their first order of business is to create an email account. You know that more than 75 percent of email messages sent over the Internet are spam so what sort of Safety Tips are you going to share with them before they start emailing?
When I first joined Facebook back in 2006 I remember the elation when I started receiving Friend Request from friends I hadn't seen since the day we Graduated High School. When those Friend Request came in I quickly accepted their friendship and took a peek around their profile to see how life had treated them. As time went on, I went back to college which opened up more friendships, starting working for a company and became friends with even more people but I started getting Friend Request from people I didn't know.
