The Celebrity

Like almost everyone else in the free world, I enjoy (i.e., am addicted to) perusing facebook in my free (and occasionally less-than-free) time.

Recently, while I was reading my newsfeed, I happened to click on a work friend's post about Unintended Celebrity in the age of social media by Dave Pell. I'd say read the article, but as I myself am often too lazy to do such intense things as reading (reading's for nerds), I'll sum it up. The op-ed piece explores the loss of privacy in the age of social media. It highlights its point with the story of this total asshole who tweeted about a married couple who was arguing and possibly breaking up near his table in Burger King. He tweeted the details of the fight, including quotes, pictures, and even videos of the unknowing couple. The story eventually got picked up by the national media, and Dave Pell and many other people who read or heard about the tweets were appalled by them. My favorite quote from the article is:

"In that Burger King, Andy Boyle thought he was listening to the disintegration of a couple's marriage. He was really hearing the crumbling of his own ethics and self-restraint."

I was pretty upset by the artcile as well, but as I read it, I couldn't help but to think "Andy Boyle... I definitely know that name..." A quick Google search enlightened me:

I HAD GONE ON A DATE WITH THIS DUDE!

Yep... Another OKCupid suitor that went no where fast. He seemed nice enough, but after a few post-11 pm texts from him after days of silence, I figured we were looking for different things. I never got back to him about a second date.

Which is really just too bad... I could have dated a celebrity.