Social constraints

For some reason—and I really don’t know why—two wineries have started following my professional account on Twitter. You know—the account I use to follow software companies and people involved in technology in one way or another, and to tweet tech-related things so I look, well, professional.

Meaning: the really boring account.

So I really don’t see the connection between cyber security breaches or social media tips and wine making and marketing. But once Kendall-Jackson followed me, for some reason Murphy-Goode did also.

I’ve certainly supported their product lines over the years, but I doubt they know it. At least, I really hope they’re not keeping direct tabs on what I buy when Safeway has those 30%-off sales.

Anyhow, when I looked at their profiles, I found something I thought quite interesting:

I’m not quite getting this you-must-be-21-years-old-to-come-to-our-exclusive-yet-completely-public-Twitter-feed thing. Yes—seems like every liquor website that uses English as its language makes you swear that you’re 21 (or, in some cases, 18). If it were strictly an e-commerce relationship, I could see that—but since when does going to a company website (or Twitter feed) require proof of age? If you’re not old enough to purchase or consume the stuff legally, you shouldn’t be able to know anything about it?

That’s like saying that you shouldn’t provide sex education for adolescents because they’re not really old enough to make intelligent decisions about those activities. And that has been shown over the centuries to be entirely wrongheaded as an approach.

Well, I clicked on Murphy-Goode and so we’re now following buddies, woo-hoo. But, interestingly, when I hit the Follow button on Kendall-Jackson, here’s what appeared:

People—it’s a public freaking feed, not the Illuminati! What could you possibly be tweeting that’s not for the eyes of the under-21 set? Okay—perhaps a little food porn in your timeline. But, really—I have to show government-issued ID to see it?

Plus—is there anyone who, when confronted with your little faux-authentication step, isn’t going to lie about his or her age?

Tell you what—I’ve just looked up one of my favorite-most wineries ever, King Estate. They don’t even have that twaddle about being 21 to view their precious tweets. And so I just followed them instead of Kendall-Jackson.

They have the best Pinot Gris on the market, anyhow.

Social media gotta be free, dudes.