Check Me Out

Unless you know how and where to check the correct boxes and only if you stay away from social media your life is available for perusal. That is, whatever you choose to place in the carnivorous maw of the internet is available. A frightening phenomenon if you value privacy.

Even without ever placing any information on the internet anyone can find out your age and address. We are all tethered together on this highway whether we signed up for the trip or shook our heads in the universal no.

Facebook allows you to make your musings private or available for anyone with a Facebook account. Some degree of privacy requires a meticulous attention to detail.

Tonight I wondered if someone I hadn't seen in thirty-two years had a Facebook account so I listed her name in a search box. Ten names appeared. I whittled the list down to two people and then selected the correct name by realizing that one person was about twenty so they weren't even alive thirty-two years ago.

Perhaps, I thought, I could make contact. Perhaps, I thought we could talk about the intervening years. I had my list of questions: Do you still draw? Do you still like ratatouille? Do you believe in miracles?

Instead I left the Facebook page.