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Off The Grid
June 25th, 2009 | Dean Arrindell
(via Facebook, MySpace, Digg, email and more)
It was fishy from the start.
As the days went by and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford remained out of touch, keeping his family and most everyone else in the dark about where he went, and leading his staff to believe he was hiking alone on the Appalachian Trail where no one could reach him, it was clear something was up.
Forget, for a moment, that he’s a governor and he actually went to Argentina to see the woman with whom he was having an affair. (Ok, those are big things to forget, but bear with me.) This scandal came to light because he didn't tell anyone where he went. My initial reaction was disbelief at hearing that anyone, particularly someone in an important position, could be innocently off the grid for several days. Is that fair? If someone wants to be completely alone without any human contact for a few days, must we automatically assume they're up to no good?
So, it got me wondering if society is too connected. Are we at the point where our friends and colleagues are used to having us check-in, being logged-in and knowing our status? Are we so connected these days that being unplugged and unreachable is automatically considered suspicious behavior? In Sanford’s case, he clearly was, but does that always have to be true?
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
Related Topics: politics, Privacy, Sex Scandals
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Dean Arrindell | 3 Comments »
Off The Grid
(via Facebook, MySpace, Digg, email and more)
June 25th, 2009 at 2:59 am
I really do think that if people are off the grid, it's relatively common to assume that they're either in trouble or up to no good.
Our culture *is* so connected. If I don't tweet for more than a day, I'm asked what I'm up to.
I have google latitude and if my position on the map doesn't move for a few days, my mom checks to see if I'm ok. So yeah, I would say off the grid raises suspicions.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I agree Carla. Someone always knows where we are. That's great if we're in trouble and need help, but I wonder if all of this connectivity is going to make innocent solitude a thing of the past.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:07 pm
As a SC resident, I have to say this incident was easily red-flagged because Sanford has been very erratic during his terms. For ex, he often(more than 20 times) has ditched his Law Enforcment Security Team. I disagree w/him politically, but I think he is bizarre as a person. And, that was before this happened!