I remember going to see the movie The Social Network last year and critics hailing its relevance and cutting edge themes. I guess because the world of movies is so slow to react to changing times (this Summer brings us a Conan the Barbarian remake among other franchises better left for dead) that any movie that even says the word “social networking” or “website” looks cutting edge. However, I did really like that movie, and it’s the events depicted in it–the reengineering of the way we communicate that face to face is no longer necessary or even wanted–that lead us here. I’m referring to “Weinergate,” a truly modern “scandal” that would have read like something out of a sci-fi novel only 15 years ago.
Anthony Weiner is a razor sharp member of the House of Representatives who most of us first got acquainted with on YouTube when he would delight us with rants against big money interests always pushing over the little guy. Unlike those of us with a keyboard, he said it in congress with a Republican audience forced to listen. Then the rants got picked up off C-SPAN (not used to anything that lively or even with a pulse), put on YouTube, forwarded to email lists all over the country by MoveOn.org, and plastered on your more liberal friend’s facebook pages.
He was a ready made political star for the internet age, Mr. Smith Goes Viral. So it’s ironic that the thing that would be his “downfall” (I actually don’t think it will be) is also the internet. Anthony Weiner admitted on Monday that he sent a picture of his underwear clad penis to a twitter friend and had sent other pictures of a less scandalous nature to other women on twitter, facebook, and email. And here’s the really interesting part: He never met any of these women, never had sex with them, and never even had a desire to meet them.
As someone born after 1980, I can relate. I’ve had long telephone conversations with women I’ve never met in person, women I’ve never made any plans to meet. Three quarters of my facebook friend’s list are people I’ve never met face to face. What’s more, I’ve given up the illusion that it’s strange. And my list is paltry compared to all those with 5000 friends…when Dunbar’s Law says we can only keep 150 meaningful connections at any one time.
Then we have the news media having a field day with this when the national media has never paid much attention to Weiner and his anti-corporate rants before (gee, wonder why?). They seem to be reveling in this “scandal” because there’s proof. Unlike the Governator, there’s pictures they can show to come along with this. So the news media is no different than you or I, swapping facebook pictures with our friends and clicking the “like” button on it.
Anthony Weiner sending a picture of himself isn’t so scandalous. [The calls for him to resign are more pathetic than what he’s done]. In fact, compared to all the prostitutes and bastard kids floating around out there (ironically, the Conan the Barbarian star’s sex scandal seems almost prehistorically dated), it’s downright lame. But because we have all accepted the internet age as the world we live in, it’s become a trumped up case of internet adultery…and yet that ignores the actual culture of the internet. Where you don’t have to know someone to send a picture to them, you don’t even have to actually want to fuck them. In this age of prehistoric politicians still engaged in lecherous backroom affairs with less than worldly women, Weiner looks like a member of the Jetsons. The most scandalous thing about this is how modern it is.