The nation is riveted by another sex scandal. Who knew that the secret proclivities of a careless, obviously non-fluent with IT congressman would turn into a national lesson on what it means to type messages into cyberspace? The once fairly widespread assumption that the “delete” button actually deletes things is dying fast, as is the view that Instant Messages are also “temporary” messages. As the latest Washington Post story on Foley’s Follies leads:
People who think their instant messages disappear after being sent should think again. As the recent scandals involving former Republican congressman Mark Foley and Hewlett-Packard Co. have brought to light, text messages sent in real time via computer can be saved and retrieved…Instant messages can be saved in a variety of ways. Most popular IM programs have built-in archiving features that can be turned on by anyone who uses them. Also, many companies and government agencies use special software that scans text-messaging traffic and makes copies of the text for storage on corporate or government computers.
So where does this leave us heading as a nation? Depending on the person, I’d guess we are all more or less disgusted and yet somehow better able to assess the implications of using electronic communications technology.
