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Readers write: Steps to take after Equifax breach, technology and social interaction

Letters to the editor for the Nov. 6, 2017 weekly magazine.

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Tami Chappell/Reuters
Credit reporting company Equifax Inc. corporate offices are pictured in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sept. 8, 2017.
  • By Sue Carol Helten Monitor reader
  • Stanley Funkhouser Monitor reader
  • Jill Hood Monitor reader

Steps to take after Equifax breach

Regarding the Oct. 2 Briefing “Equifax breach: what consumers can do”: This article gave me a better understanding of what happened. I have taken steps including freezing my account and my spouse’s with credit reporting agencies as well as freezing my Social Security number. I especially liked the non-fearful approach to what people are able to do to protect their credit rating and stay safe from identity theft. Thank you.

Sue Carol Helten

Douglass, Kan.

Your article gave better solutions and information to deal with this crisis than my credit union did. This information breech is unacceptable and cumbersome to deal with.

Stanley Funkhouser

Springfield, Ore.

Technology and social interaction

The Oct. 2 Monitor’s View “Apple thinks different – and the same – about the ‘town square’ ” caught my attention because resistance to the Digital Age is sometimes justified by the lack of social interaction. 

My experience of having to convince myself to use more digital technology was prompted by the desire to stay in touch with younger family members, meet others where they are, and be at the forefront of thought. Certainly the desire to use JSH-Online and CSMonitor.com has encouraged me. It’s good to think about how technology impacts people’s lives so that we can see how it is being used for good and where further opportunities can be pursued and refined. 

As a reader of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly, I am finding the Daily in its new format approachable, informative, thought-provoking, and shareable. The combination of the product and the technology is working for me! I have also tuned into the Monitor’s online events, which have made me feel more connected with the Monitor’s purpose and direction and even more grateful for the work you are all doing. Thank you.

Jill Hood

Bath, England

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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