Saturday, August 8, 2009

Collateral Stalking

The NYTimes this weekend published a story on the way that blogs, twitter and facebook have made it virtually impossible to just have a "night out" without being documented:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/fashion/09blogfree.html?_r=1&ref=fashion
The article quotes a woman who happened to be at the same wedding as Bachelorette star Reid Rosenthal. A photo that was taken of them together at the wedding was uploaded to facebook by another wedding guest, and although Reid and this woman don't know each other, everyone she knows is messaging her and trying to get her to set them up with Reid.

We have all heard of those who stalk celebrities but stalking a reality TV star might actually be an ultimate low. Don't get me wrong - Reid is phenomenally handsome and genuine, and he happens to be one of our close friends. My husband and I had dinner with him the night the finale of the Bachelorette aired. We could not eat dinner in peace without Reid's blackberry buzzing off the hook from emails of strange women all claiming, "I am not a stalker...but I think we might be soul mates." Like the NYTimes article depicts, I have also gotten endless emails and phone calls from long lost friends hoping to re-connect just so I will set them up with Reid.

All this stalking has got me thinking, has the fact that we can see so closely into others lives, through mediums such as facebook and reality TV, changed what our perceptions are of human interactions? Have we developed a false notion of what it is to truly know people, by confusing frequent facebook status updates and unscripted programming, with really connecting with someone?

1 comment:

  1. I was just thinking about this today. We as a society have replaced the traditional methods of friendship, intimacy and communication with twitter, facebook, etc. Don't get me wrong, it has its perks, but I can't help but wish we could go back to the good 'ole days of home phones and snail mail (you know...stamps, envelopes, etc.).
    The other day, my friend was in town visiting and was chatting on FB sitting next to me. I looked over at her and said, "Don't you realize you have real friends right here?" Unbelievable what we've come to as a technology driven society.

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