The sad saga of the very public divorce of former NFL star and current sports analyst Deion Sanders has, of course, recently been all over the news.
Not good.
Last week, the mug shots of his estranged wife, Pilar Sanders, were plastered all over the internet and other media as she was booked on simple assault charges. Not long after, Sanders himself was cited, but not arrested, on similar charges, each of them claiming they were assaulted by the other.
Yes, unfortunately relationships can really go bad sometimes. And for media personalities, it’s even worse because most of us don’t have to worry about our broken relationships being captured on the 6 o’clock news or posted on Youtube.
That said, although I don’t want to rehash the sordid details of their break up, I will say that Deion himself is, at least, partly to blame for the current media coverage because of his strategic use of the social networking tool, Twitter.
To recap, as most of you know, Sanders tweeted about the alleged confrontation between him and his wife just after it occurred, saying, among other things, “She’s going to jail. I’m pressing charges!”
The NFL Hall of Famer later tweeted he was upset that his two sons were involved in the incident and attached a photo of the three of them filling out the paperwork for a police report. He added: “Thank God for this Twitter platform to issue the Truth.”
Given his public image, his employment as a well-paid NFL Network analyst, and the ongoing legal proceedings of the ugly divorce in which the two still shared the same house, Sanders was obviously using the social networking platform for damage control.
Has Twitter actually become a legal tool?
However, Sanders’ legal tweetment could potentially backfire on him since it could’ve violated a previous gag order imposed in the couple’s divorce proceedings.
In fact, “PrimeTime” has since deleted the tweets from his account and his lawyer recently and defensively suggested that the tweets were not a violation since Sanders “did not go to the press” to talk about his case.
Whether or not you buy this argument, the point is that we keep coming back to this growing influence of technology on our human interactions and we’re still figuring out how to navigate it socially, personally and legally.
We have already heard the stories of folks putting things on Facebook they probably shouldn’t have and losing job opportunities over it, or ‘stupid criminals’ talking about aspects of their crimes on the Internet.
But just how far will it go? Are we getting to the point where court cases will be decided by a jury of our Facebook peers? Will jury verdicts be tweeted as opposed to being read in person in court?
The implications are kind of stunning. Shoot us a text here at 64-64-64 to let us know if you feel Deion Sanders was justified in using Twitter to capture and publicize his confrontation with his estranged wife.
I’ll leave you with this R. Buckminster Fuller quote that points to the pitfalls of the fast-paced tech-driven world we’re living in:
“Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.”
Until next time, this is Stephanie in love and hope.
