"Cameron County Will Use Facebook To Help Select Jurors"
When I saw this title on the Capitol Annex blog, I was astonished. Really? Selecting the best jurors from looking over profiles on Facebook? Please tell me this isn't really going to happen! I thought by now that most people knew that not everything on the internet is true and correct, right? The first thing I thought of is how everyone is either way too honest and open or they're so secretive you are unable to establish any facts about them. Not to mention privacy settings that some individuals like myself prefer to keep set up on a Facebook profile. The way-too-honest group could also be the type that desires sparking that "shock factor" chord or displaying the non-stop partying bad girl persona. We also have that annoying group that tries to display a "Ward and June Cleaver family" picture to make everyone believe their lives are perfect, when they're a disaster in the real world. Either way, Facebook is definitely not a suitable place to find appropriate and accurate information on individuals to determine whether or not they're juror material. Hopefully, when a group of jury summons are mailed out and folks show up, there are ones that attend and show up behaving professionally or at least trying to look professional with proper behavior. The second thing that crossed my mind is -- when in the world did we get so lazy that we can't continue as we have for many years? When did we decide going through a social networking website flooded with endless Farmville update posts was the exceptional route to go for the ultimate decision-making on juror selection? When did it become outdated to ask questions and receive answers verbally between two or more people face to face? It's a conversation that takes place without smiley faces or any typing! To me this is so absurd and nonsensical that I am only capable of coming up with two general feelings, which are simply genuine silliness and then illogical thinking on the part of Cameron County or whomever created this idea. By reading the article, I wonder if they were just trying to put to use all of the Wi-Fi availability from excitement about technology. I do know that in some professions or lines of work it is becoming more of an acceptable practice for companies or potential supervisors to check out a person's Facebook profile possibly before hiring, in which case, it can be very informative as to their lifestyle or overall personality to a vague extent of course. There have been employees terminated immediately over status posting content or comments on Facebook on several occasions that I'm personally aware of. In the end, Facebook is not the resource to be utilized to gather truthful character information to come to an educated decision of whether a person is fit to serve on a jury in a court of law. To even believe this will end on a fruitful, thorough note for Cameron County, is just plain preposterous!
Blog: http://capitolannex.com/
"Cameron County Will Use Facebook to Help Select Jurors"
By: Vince Leibowitz
Published: 1/23/2011
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