Our mobile phone penetration rate is over 100% of the population, including babies, hermits, and prisoners. Some have multiple phones and SIM cards. Messages are sent at the speed of light and cannot be reeled back once the button is pushed. You can’t have second thoughts — Wait, that wasn’t for you.
What if a message is sent to the wrong party?
Even a seemingly harmless message encrypted for the possibility of a phone lying around being charged, then not so innocently picked up by a nosey third party who may be a person with grounds to be nosey can be risky. A cryptic message for an assignation may sound puzzling, if taken literally — the bow-tie you left last time has been dry cleaned and is ready for pick up at the usual place. You can wear it for our dessert. And don’t forget your vitamins. (Okay, this is not Alan Turing and Enigma stuff we’re talking about.)
It’s more difficult to wiggle out of a blatantly suggestive message sent to another individual in the directory due to a slip of the thumb. It is hard to explain a message requesting particularly skimpy underwear (like dental floss) to be worn by the addressee when entering a specifically numbered room. This missive will be found merely entertaining if sent to an office colleague by mistake, unless this is an extremely young person of either sex.
Some missent messages are easily shrugged off as obvious misfires. This category includes e-mail blasts working off some directories like homeowners’ associations or credit cardholders. These can include invitations to a product launch for dog shampoo (you can’t be using soap) or the opening of a property project (we can bring you to the site) or a promo sale for blazers — we have your size, Sir…under small tents.
What about sending a slanderous and insulting message about a third party mistakenly sent to the subject himself? This form of front-biting is pretty jarring especially when sent back to the odious sender with a note — I don’t think you meant me to see this scurrilous bit of calumny. A hit man is on his way to your mistress’s apartment to disembowel you. By the time you read this message, you will be staring at your intestines.
The emotional rant is another variant of the missent message. While a letter (snail mail) can be snatched back from the mailing room in time, an electronic mail or text message can no longer be recalled once “sent.”
Wars have started from intercepted messages, as in the case of the infamous Zimmerman telegram that snared America to join the allies in WWI. The telegram to the German ambassador in Washington from his foreign minister instructed the addressee to forge an alliance with Mexico against the United States should the latter join the war against Germany. This was a major “oops” moment.
While paper trails are often avoided to eliminate any evidence of wrongdoing, seemingly untraceable electronic mails and text messages are now capable of being resurrected after being deleted and dumped into electronic waste bins. Missent messages are eventually delete-proof.
The impact of the “wrong send” can be long-lasting.
Saying that the message is not intended for the one who received it only fans the flames. The endearments intended for an object of lust are hard to explain to the wrong recipient. (I didn’t realize you wanted to nibble my ear lobes. When did this craving start?)
Are digital communications more prone to cause more damage if missent? Because of their speed and directness, without resort to an intermediary who might have exercised discretion and kept the communication quarantined until sobriety and second thoughts intervened, the missent digital message does its damage too quickly.
The lawyer’s admonition not to put down anything unpleasant in writing should apply to the digital equivalent. A text message too can fall into the wrong hands or be forwarded to an unintended recipient. Terms of endearment anyway are best expressed in person where reactions are immediately observable: disgust, discomfort, diarrhea, or delight? At least, it’s the right party involved — talk to you later.
If you are to send a message that can fall to the wrong party, it’s best to be laconic, just say — Hi!
A. R. Samson is Chairman and CEO, TOUCH xda
