Whatever happened to proofreading?

Google released it's new Chrome web browser and freaked a lot of people out with the terms of service (TOS) that went along with it. Basically, the wording made it sound as if everything that was transmitted or viewed via Chrome belonged to Google, including irrevocable copyrights. From the way it was worded, it was reasonable to assume that Google would be claiming a copyright to any content the user posted to the web using Chrome.

Google has said this is absolutely not the case and that the wording in the TOS was basically copied and pasted from another Google product in error. They have said they will be correcting the language for future downloads and that the new TOS will retroactively apply to anyone who has already downloaded Chrome.

Mistakes happen, but I can't imagine that a company as large as Google didn't have a team of marketing people, then a team of lawyers, then a team of something else read over the TOS before making such a major product launch. Whatever happened to proofreading?

This points out a major problem with Internet communication. The focus these days is on immediacy, getting the information out as quickly as possible. Just because we can, however, doesn't always mean we should. Taking an extra day to have the TOS proofread would have saved Google a lot of headaches and embarrassment.

We definitely need to take a step back and embrace some of the enduring principals of print communication. In the old days, once something was put out in print, it was out there forever for all the world to scrutinize. Sure, you can easily go back and change a mistake you've made on the Internet, but odds are someone somewhere has already saved your erroneous version and about 50,000 others have probably passed it around on social networking and other sharing sites.

What some may consider outdated practices such as proofreading and following proven writing standards actually existed for a reason. The basic principals of journalism, writing and editing have fallen by the wayside in today's technologically advanced society, but they are definitely worth revisiting.

Is it healthy to find old school friends on social networks?

Social networks like MySpace and Facebook have allowed many people to reconnect with others with whom they'd lost touch, not only school friends. These online meeting places have simply made it much easier to find people we might otherwise lose contact with over the years. There's nothing unhealthy about getting reacquainted with old friends and reminiscing about good times shared 15, 20 or more years ago.

I am personally thankful to both MySpace and Facebook for allowing me to get back in touch with some friends from my college days that I would have had no other way of tracking down. We have talked about memories of good times we shared in the past and we have gotten caught up on each other's lives. Most importantly, we have formed renewed friendships based on getting to know each other all over again as adults.

It's interesting to remind ourselves of the hopes and dreams we held for ourselves in our school days. Some of those things we even forget until and old friend reminds us. Revisiting the past can help put your today into perspective, and there's no one better to help do that than someone who knew you well in your past. One of the people I go to most often for advice is my best friend from college who lives hundreds of miles away. We communicate almost daily and social networks like MySpace and Facebook make it much easier for us to keep in touch. We have lots of things to talk about that are going on in our lives now, but some of our most entertaining conversations have centered around silly things one or the other of us had nearly forgotten from our time together in school.

As important as these trips down memory lane can be, the only thing unhealthy I can think of about getting together with an old friend after a significant time apart would be to expect things to be the same way they were when you last knew each other. Before contacting an old friend, if you keep in mind that time has passed, you've both grown and changed and your lives have taken you on different paths, you should be fine. If you expect to just pick the relationship back up as if it were yesterday, you could find yourself in for a severe disappointment. Also be prepared for those people who don't care to reminisce about yesterday. For whatever reason, there are those who may not want to be bothered with anyone from their past. If request to join someone's MySpace or Facebook as a friend is declined, respect that person's wishes and move on.

Even if you don't plan on sending out a lot of messages requesting friends, it's still a lot of fun to go through the member directories of social networks and see how many people you know. In most of them, you search for members as specifically as a certain year's graduating class from a certain school. I recently did this with my alma mater, University of Evansville, and was surprised to see lots of people I had forgotten and many I remembered very clearly. It was the digital age equivalent to flipping through a yearbook that had been automatically updated to today.

Keep a healthy perspective on getting reacquainted with old friends, don't go into it with any preconceived expectations, be ready to get to know a person who may be significantly different than you remember them, and be willing to respect those changes and differences. As long as you keep these things in mind, there's nothing at all unhealthy about searching for some old pals on social networks. Someone may just be dying to hear from you.

So, what do you think about it? Leave your comments...