MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

Gotye singing "Someone That I Used to Know " I had a call this morning from a client which deeply disturbed me.  Because it touched a raw nerve. The client asked me about the manners of personal breakups.  In 2012 should the conversation be between the two people involved, face to face, or is it appropriate to initiate the breakup by SMS, or email? What about a voice message or a telephone call? Her husband of 25 years, a well known doctor, had sent her an SMS while she was attending a conference overseas saying that he had fallen in love with someone else and wouldn’t be home when she returned the following day. I took a few seconds to compose myself before answering her. I very rarely wander into the realms of personal experience when offering advice but I decided to share with her my experience;  and when I had told her my tale she encouraged me to talk about the manners of personal breakups on this blog because the impact of internet communication is...

I read an article in The Weekend Australian this morning by Media Editor Geoff Elliott in which he commented "It’s official – social media networks and twenty-somethings don’t mix. Not if you want to risk your professional career”. He was relating to the furore this week caused when Olympic swimmer Stephanie Rice, 22 used a derogatory term to describe the South African rugby team in a public message on Twitter. She lost her contract with Jaguar as a consequence of her actions. He then went on to relate that Matt Nicholls, 23 editor of a Fairfax Media-owned paper had been stood down for sending out “highly sensitive public messages on Facebook” over the death of a policeman in Sydney. I have a Facebook account which is very tightly – I hope – controlled by me and is seen only by my friends. But recently a photo of me dancing at a wedding in the UK was posted on someone else’s site and I was alerted to it by a friend. I was happy to leave it there – it was very flattering!! –...