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VETERANS AND THE INTERNET: PROCEED WITH CAUTION
--
Great advice from Veterans' Advocate Jim
Strickland.
Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland
provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.
If you would like to contact Jim about
his columns, you can email him here...
The archive of Jim's articles
is here...
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Veterans and the Internet, Proceed With Caution
It was 1984 when I heard of a new computer called Macintosh. I was
fascinated by the evolution of computers that were being used in
diagnosing and treating disease in the hospital where I worked. The
thought of a computer that didn't require complex commands but rather
simply pointing and clicking icons to make the computer perform was
almost unbelievable. Captain Kirk and the crew had nothing on this
amazing Apple product. I went right out and happily handed over about
$3000.00 for a 128k machine. In today's terms, 128k isn't enough memory
to support a single tune in your IPod.
A short time later my employer transferred me from San Antonio to Boston
where our corporate headquarters were located. One of the brightest
moments of my relocation to that perpetual traffic snarl came when I saw
my first Internet connection. I was increasingly responsible for some
research and development projects as well as keeping up with FDA issues
and my company spent a lot of money to equip me with a service that I
could use to seek relevant information. At that time my Internet
connection wasn't much more than an upgraded version of the predecessor
to today's information highway, ARPANET. I was able to retrieve text
documents although they came to me at excruciatingly slow speeds via a
modem that only worked occasionally.
Fast forward to our world today. Internet connectivity is beamed
wirelessly across cities and checking your email is as routine and
necessary a ritual as breathing. Veterans who vowed that they would
never own a computer are seen browsing the aisles at Best Buy and
Circuit City or discount houses like Wal Mart and Sams. Most have that
dazed look that comes from the array of technology spread out before
them and they soon discover that there is little hope of any customer
service from the distracted teen who rings up their purchase. It's
assumed we were all born knowing about computers and the Internet and
new users are left to themselves to figure out any practical
applications for their machines.
If you're a Veteran over the age of 55 or so, the chances that you know
how to proficiently use a computer are maybe 50/50. The most significant
variable seems to be whether or not you have children who are
enthusiastic computer users. If so, you're much more likely to have a
computer that's up to date and connected to a high speed service such as
a cable or DSL provider.
Kids or no kids, the demand for you to have a computer in your home and
know how to use it increases each day. Businesses such as banking,
utility companies and other providers of your daily necessities are
forcing the change to an on-line based service by making it increasingly
difficult to speak with a live person. People cost them money and people
make mistakes. A web based customer service center is a significantly
smaller long term investment and if set up correctly, it never makes the
sort of mistakes a human would.
I sometimes help set up computers for friends and neighbors. I seem to
have a "geek gene" and although I'm no engineer, I spend a lot of time
learning and playing in the vastness that is the Internet. Setting a
friend loose on the Internet sometimes frightens me as if I had just
given a non-driver the keys to a new motorcycle and after teaching them
how to start it and find first gear, I push them into traffic on
Interstate 10 as it enters Los Angeles.
I won't try to tell you how to use your computer here today, you're on
your own there. I will address a few issues that I think are important
to Veterans who may be unsure of what this Internet thing may have in
store for them. Veterans are a unique group of people. Marketers, people
who have things to sell, see us as a gold mine. If you're a Veteran or
active duty or retired, your credit rating is likely to be better than
average and you're able to purchase the things that appeal to you.
Marketers know this and they single us out for sales pitches. From the
moment you get off post that first time with your new E-2 rating and
long after you are no longer active duty, there's a used car, discount
jewelry or tattoo salesman trying to get your attention and your money.
I'll assume if you're reading this you're a Veteran, you've purchased
your computer and a friend or a relative has taught you the basics of
going on-line with your high speed Internet Service Provider (ISP) and
you're sending and receiving a few emails successfully and starting to
feel comfortable with your new skills. Now what? You've heard about the
shopping and bargains and fun things you can do on-line and you're ready
to get started. Where do you go from here?
Here are a few of my hints for Veterans using the Internet.
Nothing is free. Print that out (or write it on a piece of scratch paper
if you haven't figured out the printer yet) and scotch tape it to the
top of your monitor.
There are no bargains for Veterans on the Internet. There aren't any
free laptop computers if you just click here. You haven't won anything
if the pop up banner is flashing to tell you you're the one millionth
person to visit this site and you're the winner. There are no nice
people out there who appreciate your sacrifices for our country so
they're willing to give you something for nothing. You will not receive
a gift for taking this quiz or participating in that study or replying
to their personalized email.
You won't get your new car cheaper by using an Internet service than you
will by shopping around in your town or neighboring cities. Your
mortgage rate won't cost less by contacting these people via the
Internet. You won't get a low interest loan even though your credit is
damaged. There are no companies available that can repair your damaged
credit for you. Life insurance for Veterans doesn't cost less over the
Internet than it does at the local offices of a reputable broker.
The dedicated travel services on-line don't offer hotel or airline rates
any cheaper than the hotel or airline does on their own web sites. There
are a few exceptions if you're willing to fly on Uncle Bob's Midnight
Special Airline and stay at Aunt Ethel's Motel and Dude Ranch. Have a
look at the travel site offering the bargain and then go to the site of
the hotel or air carrier you've chosen. You'll find an equal or even
better rate there.
Sites that require you to register (many newspapers and magazines)
aren't good neighbors. They want your personal demographic profile and
email address to compile into lists to sell to others. It's all about
marketing to you and marketing is all about taking money from your
wallet and putting it in theirs.
You're already aware of SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited email that is
generated by unscrupulous profiteers and sent out to computer generated
lists in an attempt to sell you something. A lot of SPAM appears
legitimate and it may have your name and email address spelled correctly
and have what seems a sincere message. Most email services today have
some sort of SPAM filter and most are pretty reliable. If your service
indicates a message is SPAM, don't question it, delete that message
without opening it. In the history of the Internet there has never been
a single SPAM message that delivered a bargain. Never, ever reply to
SPAM.
Email chain letters in support of Veterans or Vet's causes are a waste
of everyone's time. Many of the chain letters that are forwarded from
mailing list to mailing list are years old and provide nothing new.
Those chains designed with flashing graphics, "smileys", sentimental
music, pictures and huge colored typefaces may have hidden code that
will infect everyone's computer who opens it. Do everyone a favor when
you get one of these and trash it, don't just routinely forward it to
everyone in your address book.
There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of web sites that claim to
be there for the good of Veterans and Veterans causes. Some are "vanity"
sites put up by the Veteran himself to display medals or heroics whether
real or imagined. Many focus on a single issue that affects a small
group of Veterans and they hope to drum up support with their Internet
exposure. There are a great many sites with conversational "threads"
where a user may post a question and other (anonymous) users will post
(usually wrong) answers. Some sites are only Internet rants where groups
of angry and disgruntled Veteran users shout their frustrations at an
unfair world and the various legal, political or governmental agencies
that don't treat them fairly. The majority of these sites provide only
misinformation and can lead an unsuspecting Vet into a morass of
confused interpretations of VA benefits law.
So why does a Veteran even want a computer if nothing is free and there
are thousands of dishonest people who want to deceive you and steal your
money? That's easy...you want a computer because there's so much free
stuff and so many great resources for reliable information!
I know that seems a contradiction but it isn't really. There are no free
products or services offered to you in an unsolicited email or a gimmick
to grab your personal information. No free cars, no free computers, no
free lunch. But there are hundreds of reliable and trustworthy sites
available where you can go to get live feeds of world news, comparisons
of prices for your shopping needs, entertaining and fun sites with games
and puzzles, sites with self-help tutorials to teach yourself about
anything from gardening to advanced photography or even how to navigate
that new computer around the Internet.
Of most value to Veterans are the government's own sites. Your state and
federal government are doing a great job with building the
infrastructure of their Internet services. From a Veteran's perspective,
all you ever wanted to know about Veterans rights, VA rules, federal
regulations and contacting your elected representatives is easily
available. You can write a note to VA questioning the status of your
pending claim and receive an answer from a VA official in a week. Every
form required by VA, no matter how obscure it may be, is handily
available for you to print out or in many cases, fill out and submit on
line. These sites are often busy and sometimes slow to load on your
computer. As more of us convert our lives to the digital world, sites
like these struggle to keep up with increased demand. Be patient, it's
worth the wait.
Some of you may argue that as these are government sites they're biased
and don't tell the whole story and that to get the best information you
must steer away from the propaganda and seek out the truth. I agree.
However, the bulk of information available on a federal site isn't
opinion, it's fact. Laws are laws, documents necessary to complete to
achieve a goal are just that and the best resource is the government
agency's own page to find them.
If you're a "newbie" or not very experienced getting around the web,
your first task is to be a critical thinker. Don't accept anything you
see as valid until you've given it a lot of thought. Use a lot of
caution when you see something bright and flashy trying to get your
attention and then wanting you to register. Using your credit card on
the Internet is as safe or safer than using it in a retail store only if
you are sure of the vendor you're dealing with and you asked to order
their product.
Finally, explore the good sites, the safe and informative sites by using
links from a site you trust. Larry Scott has done a lot of the work for
you on his VAWatchdog site. He has dozens of relevant links for Veterans
and as a very Internet savvy guy, none of those sites will lead you to a
potential problem. You'll be amazed at the amount of information you'll
find by clicking through the links on VAWatchdog. If you would care for
a list of my favorites, those I keep for fun and those I use for
research, drop me an email and I'll send it back to you.
Happy surfing!
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Larry Scott
