Jacob Cox-Brown is having a terrible start to 2013. At about 1AM on New Year's Day, the 18-year-old from Oregon updated his Facebook status with the following post: "Drivin drunk.... classic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P". At least two of the teen's nearly 700 Facebook friends contacted Oregon police to report the post. As it turns out, Cox-Brown had in fact struck at least two parked cars and the evidence from the hit-and-run scene matched the damage to his vehicle when police arrived at his home.
At this point, Cox-Brown has been arrested but has only been charged with two counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver. It is unclear exactly when the officers arrived at his home. Apparently, outside the ridiculous Facebook post, there was not enough evidence to charge Cox-Brown with drunk driving under Oregon law.
This story seems to follow a rather disturbing trend among younger users of social media. Jacob-Cox is only 18 years old, so his adolescence included the existence of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other forms of social media. He is unlikely to recall a world without them as he would have been too young to use them. As a result, young people like Cox-Brown don't have an appreciation for exactly what social media is and how exposed users truly are.
In this particular instance, Cox-Brown's use of social media to "confess" to his crimes could actually be viewed as a good thing. A perpetrator was identified and apprehended as a result of social media. But it is the proliferation of social media that has desensitized so many young people to his type of behavior in the first place. Driving drunk, striking a vehicle and sharing that information with nearly 700 virtual "friends" is simply ludicrous. But this type of behavior is becoming more common in the age of social media, with young people being most at risk.
At this point, Cox-Brown has been arrested but has only been charged with two counts of failure to perform the duties of a driver. It is unclear exactly when the officers arrived at his home. Apparently, outside the ridiculous Facebook post, there was not enough evidence to charge Cox-Brown with drunk driving under Oregon law.
This story seems to follow a rather disturbing trend among younger users of social media. Jacob-Cox is only 18 years old, so his adolescence included the existence of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other forms of social media. He is unlikely to recall a world without them as he would have been too young to use them. As a result, young people like Cox-Brown don't have an appreciation for exactly what social media is and how exposed users truly are.
In this particular instance, Cox-Brown's use of social media to "confess" to his crimes could actually be viewed as a good thing. A perpetrator was identified and apprehended as a result of social media. But it is the proliferation of social media that has desensitized so many young people to his type of behavior in the first place. Driving drunk, striking a vehicle and sharing that information with nearly 700 virtual "friends" is simply ludicrous. But this type of behavior is becoming more common in the age of social media, with young people being most at risk.
