The other day I got an email that began like this:
“Jay, What the fuck? You and I both know I am not guilty of what you are accusing me of.”
Wait, what? I know I’m a terrible person who makes fun of social networks, but I haven’t accused anyone of being anything but slimy recently.
I doubled checked to make sure this wasn’t coming coming from one of my mortal enemies, and finished reading the email. Without getting into too many of the details, I was the recipient of an email that wasn’t meant for me. A woman was having issues with her new boyfriend, and things had pretty much broken down. Angry texts and phone calls were exchanged, and I was seeing the very end of it; a last ditch email to try and defend what few actions she had done.
Still, after reading it, I wondered why? Why did she feel the need to explain herself? Why did she send such a long email and not even make sure she had the right email address?
Relationships weren’t meant to be built in the online realm. Too much can go wrong. Words can be misinterpreted. Statuses can be misconstrued. Friends can leave misleading information. A heartfelt message comes across as obsessive. And a message can end up in the hands of a crazy blogger.
The biggest danger of social networks is information without context. There are all things you may have some control over, but you may never have full control of online. Without full control, you have to rely on trust, which you can’t build that the online realm alone. You can plant some of the seeds,but the real thing needs to be built in the real world.
And something does go wrong, don’t send an email, tweet, or Facebook message. Your written words can eventually come back to bite you in the ass.