A friend recently texted me “I just sent you something on G-chat that was not for you. Never speak of it. I would appreciate if you deleted it.”
Naturally, I rushed to my computer and logged on to see what I was sure was an accidental murder confession. Unfortunately it was not, nor was it his social security number, nor was it Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
Instead, it was a collection of links to some sort of sexual position tutorial website accompanied by his comments that included gems like “Good tricep workout,” “I’m sure we’ve done this, but I’d like to do more of it” and the intriguing “Possible now thanks to your Christmas gift to me.”
I was shocked – first to find that my friends in college are having sex (a joke) and second to learn of the extensive research my friend had done to read up on new ways to reinvent his romance. Nerd. But this is Northwestern. To each his own: I am not here to judge.
I have heard the wise advice “Be careful what you post online,” and it is surely worth repeating. But this was not a Tweet posted in angst, nor was it a Facebook status drunkenly spat out. This was a simple mis-click and 30 seconds of absentmindedness that led to what could have been a very embarrassing mistake.
Imagine if my friend had instead sent that G-chat message to one of his professors or worse, his mother. I think that even someone as persuasive as my friend, who can confidently suggest the sex position “Monkey Bar” to his girlfriend, would still have a hard time convincing his family members that it was simply a joke intended for one of his fraternity brothers.
It was not a mistake caused by his social media irresponsibility but rather by a platform designed to facilitate fast and easy conversation, and it did just that. Online correspondence certainly makes communicating with others easier, but it also makes it that much more complicated.
Have you ever tried to carry on multiple romantic relationships at once while maintaining Facebook friendships with both lovers? I have not, but I would bet that it is pretty tricky. The race against time to “untag” pictures or delete mutual friends before the wrong person sees them sounds exhausting. Even if you are faithful, a long-distance relationship coupled with Facebook seems like a recipe for disaster: having to constantly answer why “that girl keeps writing on your wall” or “who that guy is with his arm around you” in pictures.
Technology and the internet are very effective when we want to communicate with a lot of people or do so quickly, but when dealing with quasi-sensitive information (or information that others would rather not learn as in my case) it is wise to utilize sturdier mediums, like a telephone or actually speaking in person.
I am not an alarmist, warning about the dangers of technology. Rather, I wonder whether or not making something faster or easier always translates into an improvement, or if better falls somewhere in the grey area between simpler and more complicated. I’ll Google it.
Greg Swiatek is a Medill junior. He can be reached at [email protected]. Illustration by Jenna Fugate.
