Scott Anderson’s Modern Love Revenge column about a woman who wrote in the New York Times about how she Googled him before their first date, raises interesting questions about online etiquette. The piece that Scott reacted to ran less than a year ago, but already the concept feels dated to me. Embarrassment about Googling someone? As a journalist, I’d be embarrassed to go on a date without having Googled the potential suitor first-and looked him up on Lexis-Nexis and Facebook and (if he’s older) Friendster, and tried to find friends who went to his college so they could show me his extended Facebook profile.
I see, though, that at some point we all reach the edge of our Internet comfort zone. For me, the awkward part is how to navigate everything that comes after the first date: Do I owe him a wall post to prove that I care? When do I change my relationship status? How do I explain to my mother or my bosses, who are also my Facebook friends , the cryptic status message I’d rather they not understand?
Double X wants to hear your awkward and wrong Google, Facebook, and Twitter stories-the times when things went awry in a relationship because of these tools (combined with your inexperience or lack of willpower or bad luck or whatever else). Send your tales to us , and we’ll excerpt our favorites on the site.
Photograph of woman on computer from Medioimages/Photodisc/Getty Images
