Posted by
Andrews on Sunday, April 27, 2008 9:37:03 PM
I was reading a
post about spouses using YouTube and blogs to air marital dirty linen when I was struck with a thought. Thanks to our newfound obsession with pursuing fame by publicizing every trivial aspect of our lives, I wonder if the legal concept of privilege will begin to change.
For example, if a husband knows that his wife is an obsessive blogger who had previously published marital confidences, will the law allow him to continue claiming marital privilege? I know it is a statutory privilege in many states, and so overcoming it will take quite an effort, but I wonder what will happen over time. If we continue to become a culture which compulsively memorializes every last event in our lives, will the law change to reflect that?
It will be some time before the law changes, I am sure, long enough that today's trends may vanish before they have time to alter the legal environment, but it is still an interesting question.
POSTSCRIPT
Before anyone takes me to task for mocking compulsive bloggers, I will confess that I am rather compulsive in recording my thoughts on politics, society, even religion. However, I draw a distinction between the bloggers I see on Townhall, who write essays on politics and other topics, and those bloggers who simply use their blogs to chronicle the trivialities of their lives. While I can see the value in my fellow amateur pundits, as from time to time a truly important thought emerges from our collective efforts, I have never seen the attraction of publishing what amounts to nothing but a twelve year old girl's diary.
Then again, I am probably not the target audience for facebook, myspace, and all the "day in the life" blogs, so perhaps there is a reason I do not get them.