But this, perhaps, is a real miracle — to keep a couple in the conditions of new technologies! I observe around breakups associated with inappropriate frankness. A message that was accidentally seen, fatal access to someone else’s Facebook account (an extremist organization banned in Russia). Seven years of marriage, seven years of great memories vanished like smoke in a few-character message: «Thank you for this evening…»
One word is very costly. You can categorically deny everything, but it’s so sexy when you are thanked for the evening. My friend was to blame for being abandoned; I can still see her mad at herself for those few hours away that turned into a life sentence for not being able to use her phone’s silent mode. She was out of luck. She first cheated on her husband, and he did not forgive her.
They say that we are getting divorced more and more often, because the slightest disagreement alienates us from each other. In my opinion, it would be more accurate to say that we are breaking up because of the slightest evidence of an error. If not for text messages, Tony Parker and Eva Longoria might already have had two children.
Modern life ultimately turns out to be nothing more than a sequence of traces of our intimate life that we leave behind. It used to be incomparably easier to lie, hide, even run away. I’m not only talking about infidelity, but simply about those moments in life when we need to be where no one will find us.
Is this even possible today? There is a feeling that everything becomes known sooner or later. Someone will talk, post a comment, tweet. We are constantly, and often without knowing it ourselves, surrounded by witnesses of our wanderings. All life today takes place in the light, and we have nowhere to hide.
Everything becomes known, but that is because no one is hiding anything anymore. Can society survive in such circumstances? Relationships between two people can’t do that. Can you tell a writer friend that his book is bad? Is it right to tell a neighbor that his wife is a fool? Can you tell colleagues what you really think of them? No, the longevity of any relationship is based on avoiding the truth. And it is precisely this evasion that has always been the happiness of each of us. Our era has challenged this truth. And this is undoubtedly one of the main challenges that new technologies bring with them.
We come up with different special options. Messages that self-destruct immediately after being read. More and more sophisticated privacy settings on Facebook (an extremist organization banned in Russia). All these monsters that we have created and that are destroying us are like the robot from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir. Stanley Kubrick). Ah, how wonderful it was! We were all connected to each other! Now that’s over with. Now it’s more like, «What kind of blonde is posting a picture on your wall?» Or: «Who is Martha, who constantly sends you text messages?» Under the name of Marta, Marat is hiding, but this is a very mediocre alibi. It’s scary to say it, but it’s true: truth breeds lies. And soon any couple will start life together by closing their Facebook accounts (an extremist organization banned in Russia). And in the registry office they will be told: “Be together in sorrow and in joy, but the main thing is that there is no Wi-Fi there.”