With technology invading the parts of our lives that we have become accustomed to as private, we may find it increasingly difficult to trust our partner. Today’s social technology has made it much easier for people with ulterior motives in society to create false identities. One of the most popular reasons for false identities is infidelity. Since most find it easier to get involved in an affair by creating the illusion that one is available and single, the tools to support this illusion are of great value to such people.

Before social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook, only the wealthy could successfully create such an illusion. For example, a wealthy person could rent an apartment that their spouse would not know about, or fly out of town for a date under the false pretense of a business meeting (while the subject of the affair believes they are in town). for business). also). Arguably, these are stereotypical methods from the pre-web days of social networking where these kinds of people would satiate their desire to do such a thing. Most people today would agree that Internet technology has made the creation of such illusions accessible to almost everyone, not just the wealthy.

Today, social media is just a tool available to use in the devious intentions of getting involved in extramarital affairs. VoIP technology also has its place in creating such illusions. The first element that cannot be overlooked is the price. An engineer from Baltimore, Maryland (who asked to remain anonymous so we’ll call him Freddy) explained, “I convinced my wife to go from our traditional analog phone to a VoIP system, with the new system I secretly got an extra line for a little while.” less than $10 and with that came a softphone. The softphone (short for software phone) is software that does everything a regular phone can do. “I just installed the softphone on my laptop so that wherever I take my laptop and can access a broadband internet connection, I have an instant phone line at home, when I’m actually calling from a library or Starbucks” Freddy explained. Freddy further boasted that his softphone account leaves no paper trail in the form of an invoice and therefore he does not have to hide anything from his wife. Freddy went on to share that he had been caught in the past when he engaged in such activity, the only difference being that at the time he was using a prepaid cell phone. “One day my fiancé and I were at home watching TV and my prepaid cell phone rang, needless to say there was no good reason I could find to justify having that in my possession, so I was arrested.” Freddy admitted that he and his then-fiancé broke up shortly after that.

Another player (no pun intended) in the VoIP veiled extracurricular romance arena is a young woman we’ll call Sarah (she also asked to remain anonymous). Sarah has successfully handled 3 affairs in the last 2 years and has not raised the slightest suspicion of her husband. “I’ve noticed that most of my girlfriends have been caught by their husbands because they are always whispering on the phone and/or hanging up when their husband walks into the room. My solution to this situation is to have my VoIP service send me a text message via email versions of my voice messages. This reduces the time it would take me to first listen to the message and then try to call my lover back.” Sarah is talking about the voice-to-text features that many VoIP services offer. VoIP technology is a robust technology in the context of converting data into multiple formats for consumption (voicemail, text messages, email); such messages can be interpolated into text since VoIP uses data packets just like a web browser does to communicate over the Internet. Such data is already digital, so the software converts the digital information into text in a very short but logical interval. Sarah also explained that she found pleasure in being able to break off relationships easily. Sarah’s VoIP account allows her to set rules and enter her ex-lover’s phone number so that if a call comes in from the estranged lover’s number, she will not allow the call to go to voicemail or the phone device.

As society reaps huge benefits from each new technological discovery, it must not be overstated that there is a distinct probability of latent dysfunctions. Although we find better ways to communicate with each other, we also amplify our inability to trust others. Obviously, with the collapse of these aspects of our society, it is mere proof that these technologies work and are as effective as they promise. But this effectiveness comes at a price. One concept that many may choose to agree on and may put most of our minds at ease is that, in any case, technology itself is not the enemy; they are the intentions of the individual using it.