A friend of mine was recently invited to his parents 50th wedding anniversary.
He asked his father what was the secret? The answer amused me and I think it is very relevant to the world we live in today. His dad explained that there were no cell phones and internet back in his day. Men in the 1940s were still men and women were still women but they did not have as many digital surveillance and electronic "reporting" systems as we do in 2009.
Reading between the lines, he basically said we're screwed. lol. 50 years ago, this man could partake of his vices, be it wine, woman or song without the watchful eye of digital cameras, blackberrys and facebook indicting his every move. Not saying he was a bad man (but not denying). Fact remains, no news is good news.
Fast forward to our generation where one ill posted Triniscene photo or a wreckless tag on facebook can spell disaster for a relationship. The digital noose tightening around a guy/gals neck with every tweet, status update and undeleted sms. A picture says a thousand words, making facebook (or FassBook as I like to call it) probably the greatest threat of them all.
Giving your name, a common courtesy, is now akin to giving your digital phone number. "Interested parties" can (and do) hunt you down on facebook. Not to mention pumping mutual friends for info, if not browsing your profile using their accounts. This all makes for a dangerous e-grapevine loaded with intentions and not all of 'em honorable. Turning some otherwise normal folk into stalkers, like moths to the flame, burned by the fire. Situations can get overly complicated when you consider the ex factor. Your girlfriend/boyfriend usually becomes a part of your social circle, meeting a large cross section of your friends before errant behavior forces them out of your life, or are they? Quite often they'll still be popping up in albums of now mutual friends. Posting on their walls, etc....A clean break is a thing of the past as digital bread crumbs from relationships are littered all across the internet.
Luckily, there is recourse, if you're tech savvy enough, facebook can be tamed and a lot of it's invasive features, mitigated. For the casual user however, it remains a very real threat to that 50 year mile stone my friend's father was able to attain.
Worst part about it, you never know where your picture will turn up next. Cameras are going off constantly at popular watering holes and events. Even if you're not up to mischief, you can find yourself having to explain the most innocuous of situations. A nuisance factor if not worse.
Facebook isn't going anywhere soon, if statistics have anything to say about it. Leading the world as the most visited site in too many countries to list (Trinidad included). Man up and here's hoping we don't see too many relationships fall prey to the amateur paparazzi across the nation.
* NoobGoneWild was last seen explaining to the misses why he was sweating game till midnight with friends when he should have been at the office. (damn you twitter, damn you to hell!)
