Modern Technology Can Be Hurtful

I have said that I am a huge fan of modern technology. I love the way that it makes our lives easier. From less painful mammography machines, to ways that make an eye exam less impactful on the rest of your day. One of my favorite rewards of modern technology is the ability to stay in touch with everyone. I've blogged about it before. But, with the ability to stay in touch with people comes the ability to rid yourself of those whom you have decided you don't want to be in touch with anymore as well. Modern Technology has also given us the DELETE button. It is great for getting rid of mistakes you make when typing something. But, it has also been incorporated into the world of social networking sites and it is really hurtful. I have been deleted a few times. Most recently, by a family member who completely misunderstood one of my status updates in Facebook. I saw a t-shirt on a teenager that cracked me up. The t-shirt read, "I am a Waffle House Kid". For those who aren't familiar, Waffle House is a 24 hour restaurant franchise most often found in the Southern states of the U.S. The food is greasy and completely unhealthy. And, because the restaurant is open 24 hours a day, it is often frequented by people who are just leaving the bar in the middle of the night after having had a lot of adult beverages. People often go there to get to know the man or woman they just met on the dance floor. It is often the stop they make before or after hooking up with their new companion. And, when you see someone leaving Waffle House in the early morning hours, they are probably wearing what they wore the night before to the bar. For that reason it is also referred to as "The Walk of Shame". So, upon seeing the t-shirt, I laughed myself to tears and promptly went home and posted the following status update on my Facebook profile: "saw a hilarious t-shirt on a teenager today. "I'm a Waffle House Kid". LMFAO! He might as well have had a t-shirt that said "I'm a Walk of Shame Kid". LOL!" My friends got a kick out of it and we all joked around in the resulting thread. That was until my niece-in-law took offense to it and told me I was being judgmental and that she was disappointed in me. I repeatedly told her that I was just joking about the shirt. I told her that I didn't have anything against the kid in the shirt. It wasn't about him. I saw the humor in the shirt and that was what my status was about. But, she refused to see that I was only clowning around about the t-shirt and insisted on believing that I was judging the kid in the shirt. I, in fact, said absolutely nothing about the kid in the shirt. Upon being pushed to say something about him, I told her what I really thought about the teenager. My impression of him was that he was a cutie. He seemed clean cut and well taken care of. He seemed happy and kind of like "every kid U.S.A." But, I truly gave no more thought about him. My laughter was about his t-shirt. So, after a few more pissed off comments from her and more apologetic comments from me trying desperately to smooth things over with her, she deleted me. That hurt. If I had done something deserving of being deleted, it still would have hurt but, I could and would have done my best to be understanding. Being deleted sucks! I have only ever deleted a few teenagers (perfect strangers) from my Myspace page because I would just prefer not to temp problems in the future with parents wondering why a 37 year old woman would be friends with their teenage son or daughter on Myspace. I am forever mindful of what I do and say online because I really don't want to get myself into trouble. But, you never know when someone will take something the wrong way and when trouble will thrust itself upon you.

So, modern technology is like a double edged sword. So fantastic in the way that it makes our lives easier. So potentially hurtful by re purposing the careless act of the "delete" button into a way to makes us something similar to a typo in someone else's life. And, that is how it has always made me feel. I am nothing more than a typo.