The Facebook vortex of hell~

This isn't really about dating, but it is about cyberculture and the pitfalls of electronic communication~

I am a fairly tech savvy kind of girl - though I have been know to deny that when asked to help set up people's computers (its not my idea of a fun time)~

This weekend, I was caught in a vortex of Facebook hell that doesn't seem to have ended.

Let me preface this by saying that I started dabbling with Facebook because I'm a grad student and most of my grad colleagues were using it. Over time, I've connected with other friends and more recently, extended family members (its not just for the younguns anymore). So, currently, my former mother-in-law, sister-in-law and my daughter's cousins have been added as friends. It's one of those niceties, like waving at the neighbors as you walk or drive by. I don't really communicate with them by Facebook, but it would be rude not to accept a friend invite.

On the other end of the spectrum, my long standing friend and I are regularly in contact sending obnoxious videos back and forth, tasering eachother via superpoke, etc. (If you haven't been on Facebook, just know that it's an electronic way of smacking someone on the ass and saying "what up"!).

Last week, said friend, forwarded a European public service video about the importance of checking for testicular cancer. This video featured a sports team (I think soccer/football). All of the team members gather in the locker room and a doctor shows them, in great detail, with a team volunteer, how to check for testicular cancer, and then they all join in. It's not even funny except that it's bizarre to see a room full of guys with their towels open touching themselves.

So, of course, I felt the need to forward this to one or two select friends.

Somehow, Facebook has added a new feature which automatically selects everyone on your profile with a "Send to All" button as the default. If you only want to send to one or two people, you have to deselect everyone else. I didn't pay attention. Hence, this lovely video was swiftly sent forth to EVERYONE on my Facebook page - including the extended relatives listed above.

Being the guilt ridden Irish catholic girl that I am, I immediately sent out an apology to those that I knew might be offended.

Today, my former sister-in-law replied that she never received the video, but accepted my apology anyway. Why I didn't stop there, I'll never know and I will be questioning for some time to come!

I proceeded to send her an email describing the video in great detail and then facetiously commenting that I couldn't WAIT until her mother saw it and saw that I had sent it to the cousins! Click Send - and off that goes - TO EVERYONE that I had sent the previous apology to!!!!

Now, not only have I sent out an obnoxious video to some young men who are just barely in their teens, I have now insulted my former mother-in-law by email to those same cousins and a number of other people! Contrary to what you might expect, I really LIKE my former mother-in-law and she's been a great support to me over the years. I am not looking forward to the phone call that I have to make to explain all of this!

For your enjoyment, here is said video that caused these problems~