Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My new mystery relationship


Some time ago I observed notification from Yahoo that I am in a new relationship. This came as news to me. At the time, I simply brushed it off as (on one level) a Yahoo glitch and (on another level) a sign of things to come.

A few times after, I saw the notification again. Each time I thought it was the same old message and forgot about it ... until last night when I was driving with my friend Patti. She said: "Sun ... (i.e. her nickname for me) ... when I was in New York I got a status update from your Yahoo account saying that you're in a new relationship."

At the time she had thought: "What?! How could Sun not write to tell me something so important?!"

She said it had happened about a month ago and she keeps getting status updates about Elspeth Duncan's new relationship. I told her I got the same thing ... even though I've never made a Yahoo update in my life. If Patti is getting updates that I'm in a new relationship, I guess everyone else on my mailing list who has a Yahoo account is.

I went into Yahoo this morning and, after a while, found the the update section (Share my updates). It was ticked—even though I never ticked it. I wrote to Yahoo to ask what's going on.

These 'relationship update' options seem to be technologically volatile. People press the simplest button and something newsworthy happens. Sometimes on Facebook there's a dramatic announcement for the world to see:

So-and-so is no longer in a relationship
.

or

So-and-so is now single.

Then, below that, a flurry of concerned (or more like maco) comments from 'friends' (especially if the person is married or engaged or in a serious longterm relationship): OMG! What happened?!!!! Are you okay????!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!! I'm here if you need me!!!

Meanwhile, the person is still happily coupled but had inadvertently pressed some button on their profile ...

4 comments:

Lynn Cohen said...

What a way to make or break one's self image for the world to see. My DH is always worried about what i put on facebook/my blog for the world to see. It's bad enough when I do it myself, but for the misplacement of a finger to do so is really scary! LOL

Elspeth said...

That old saying "All the world's a stage" can be updated to "All the world's a microscope".

meadysmusings said...

Beautiful pic for this post!

I don't know what is going on with Yahoo all of a sudden I noticed a trail of info. about people too...like from even a yr. ago just appear! Crazy! No come to think of it who knows what it says about me! Gotta go check now...thing is I only noticed it a day or two ago as I actually logged on to my yahoo acct on a computer so saw it...as nowadays I just get all my email on my bberry so don't actually log in! The other disadvantage of it too is I cannot click when a thing is spam...so I keep getting bad spam from my first ever hotmail email acct I have since in the mid 90s!

I think things keep getting worse and worse as companies are competing for the social networking market- oh gosh!

Btw E I might have some news...not sure sure yet but will let you know should unfold in a few wks...LOL! Now I just wrote that for all to see except there are spaces so you see...it's like a game and only who really knows will know...

Elspeth said...

Hmm, is it what I think it is?