Here's a little quiz, just for fun to see if there really is such thing as society anymore and to see how the advent of Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and the iPhone have changed our attitudes to privacy.
1. You are in an out of town pub and you see your best friends wife with another man on a romantic date, clearly seeking to avoid attention. Do you.
a) Video them and post it up on Facebook
b) Take a crafty snap for a rainy day and tell your other mates up the pub later
c) Immediately leave and keep schtum.
2. You check into a City Centre hotel on
business. As you are drawing the curtains, you notice a couple in a
house across the street having sex with the curtains open. Do you?
a) Get the iPhone and video the whole scene, posting it up on Youtube in the hope of getting a viral hit?
b) Take a crafty picture of the scene to show your mates at the pub?
c) Draw your own curtains and look away?
3. You are playing with the video feature on your new iPhone. As you are videoing the front of your house,a little old lady slips on a dog turd and breaks her ankle and is caught on film. Do you?
a) Carry on videoing and post to Youtube in hope of getting a viral hit because it is hilarious?
b) Stop videoing, call an ambulance and then show your mates the video in the pub a couple of weeks later?
c) call an ambulance and go out to help her.
4. On your twitter account, you see a tweet with a picture of a well known politician having sex with a goat. Do you?
a) Immediately retweet the picture to your followers?
b) Save the picture as it is hilarious, but refrain from retweeting it?
c) Not even bother looking?
5) Your bosses secretary accidently copies you into an email describing how much she enjoyed performing fallatio on him last night and asking if he is meeting her later tonight. Do you?
a) Forward it to everyone you know?
b) Save a copy to show to a few chosen mates?
c) Delete it, tell her immediately and tell everyone else who received it to be respectful of her feelings.
6) You hear a commotion outside your house. You see two policemen being set upon by an armed gang and receiving a vicious beating. Do you?
a) Get the iPhone and video the whole scene, posting it up on Youtube in the hope of getting a viral hit?
b) Take a crafty picture of the scene to show your mates at the pub?
c) Immediately call 999?
7) You live next door to an old lady suffering from senile dementia. You hear a commotion and you see her wandering around, completely naked. Do you?
a) Get the iPhone and video the whole scene, posting it up on Youtube in the hope of getting a viral hit?
b) Take a crafty picture of the scene to show your mates at the pub?
c) Grab a dressing gown and go outside to help her?
8) You are in a restaurant. A well known celebrity who you admire is rather the worse for wear and is behaving in a drunk and embarrassing fashion, although not disturbing you. Do you?
a) Get the iPhone and take a sly video the whole scene, posting it up on Youtube in the hope of getting a viral hit?
b) Take a crafty picture of the scene to show your mates at the pub?
c) Carry on with your meal as if nothing had happened?
9) You receive an email from an acquantance that is not meant for you, telling his wife that he is leaving her. You realise she hasn't received it as it's come to you by mistake. Do you?
a) Post it up on facebook with a note saying "What a plonker"?
b) Save a sly copy of it to show your mates up at the pub?
c) Email him back and say that you will say nothing to anyone?
10) A friend of your wife, who doesn't undertstand technology accidentally posts a picture which shows her naked reflection in a mirror. From the comment, she clearly hasn't realised. Do you?
a) Share it and draw attention to her embarrassiong pose?
b) Save a crafty copy to show your friends later?
c) Contact her immediately to try and save her embarrassment?
To get your score. For every Answer a) you get ten points. b) five points. c) Null points.
Your score
80-100. Society is doomed with people like you around who have no empathy for your fellow human being, but at least you'll have lots of Facebook friends and twitter followers.
40-80. Society will be shaken to it's foundations with people like you, but at least you have one or two boundaries. You will probably pick up a few extra twitter followers on the way.
5-40. You are on the slippery slope to destroying society.Your Twitter account and Facebook are probably pretty dull, but you are good value up the pub
0. Society is safe whilst you are around, although most of your friends are in the natural history museum.
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Feel free to post your score up as a comment. You may think the scenarios are ridiculous, but apart from no 4 (where in actual fact the picture was of something far worse and it was via email and not twitter), I know people who have been in all of the scenarios above and have chosen an option which isn't c. My score is 25 (shocking though that is or isn't).
The question which really intrigues me isn't about the people who answer the questions but about society itself. We live in a society where every single one of these scenarios (possibly bar no 4) happens on a daily basis and the people doing the videoing or reading the emails are the government. We have more cameras in London than any City on the planet and the government has the right to read all our emails whenever the so choose. Old ladies slip on dog muck, celebs get pissed, grannies run up the road in the nude and people have sex on video. It is all on film somehwhere with teams of CCTV operators watching it. As to our emails, how many of them actually get read? I've no idea, but probably far more than we realise.
The thing about social media isn't that it is destroying society. It is that it is making us destroy society. Whether you chose a,b or c to the answer of any question above, your action will have a markedly different outcome should it actually occur. If you post something embarrassing about someone you know on Facebook or Twitter, it isn't Facebook or Twitter which is to blame if it all goes horribly wrong. We have a choice.
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