I Know What You Did Last Summer...

Don't let the Internet get you in trouble. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, in most cases it's easier said than done.

Take the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, for instance. His private e-mailed love notes to his Argentinian mistress became public banter for us all. One quotation from his letter lovingly states: "I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificently gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curves of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night’s light — but hey, that would be going into the sexual details we spoke of at the steakhouse at dinner — and unlike you I would never do that!"

Well, Governor, you gave us all enough details for a lifetime.

What Governor Sanford failed to realize is that the Internet is not as private and secure as we may think it to be. Gone are the days of storing clandestine love notes in tightly sealed glass bottles and sending them off into open waters. While an online message may be deleted or "hidden," one takes the chance of it being shared in a variety of online arenas. This has happened often in the past, especially in the case of inappropriate celebrity photographs and video that was "accidentally leaked," and then spread into an area too vast to clean-up.

The truth is, information that is put on the Internet is virtually fair game for anyone to see; and celebrities aren't the only victims of this solemn truth. Last week, when explaining her reasoning for not being on Facebook, a friend's mother told me that Facebook is not for married couples. "Facebook can get you caught-up!" she told me.

After some thought, I understood her reasoning. I have seen much tension derived from social media sites such as Facebook. Whether someone tags you in that picture of your wild weekend in Vegas or writes something a little too friendly on your wall- it's likely that your significant other will eventually find out; but is this really a legitimate reason for not participating in such a social phenomenon?

Social media and all interactions on the Internet should be approached responsibly. You don't want the Supreme Court or the "Court of Public Opinion" coming after you saying, "I know what you did last summer." So, in the words of my friend's mother, "Don't get caught-up!"