He Said What on Facebook?

Have you ever been told something so personal that you wish you could remove the resulting awkwardness from your brain forever?

A few months ago, someone on my Facebook friends list announced to a gazillion people that he was about to have a medical “adventure” that most would want to keep utterly private. (I’ll keep the particulars under wraps, but even television doctors frequently snicker about it.)

The announcement itself would have been bad enough, but then he chronicled the procedure in all of its gory clinical glory. He probably thought this was funny … but I thought it was just way too much information. I can name a couple of people who are having trouble looking him in the eye—myself included.

Wow.

It seems Facebook has become such an integral part of many people’s lives that they automatically gravitate to it whenever they want to share anything. And I mean anything—even beyond silly personal stuff and into highly confidential information that could put lives and entire countries at risk.

Last month, an Israeli soldier revealed on Facebook the time and place of a scheduled raid on the West Bank. He even announced the name of his unit. He was “unfriended” by the Israeli army shortly after (read: kicked out and court-martialed) and sentenced to 10 days in prison.

His confidential update occurred even after Israel had launched a full-scale campaign highlighting the dangers of sharing military information online.

It all makes me wonder if social networking has made us lose our secrets and our minds.