I woke up on a raft in a bath tub filled with beer. excellent night.” Nice. Thanks to the website Texts From Last Night and a roommate who insists on reading me all the new posts, I now know what some crazy kid from Illinois was up to last night. Awesome.

Who would’ve thought 10 years ago — or even five years ago — that anyone with a computer and spare time could find out exactly what you’re doing, when you’re doing it and who you’re doing it with (we still don’t know why you’re doing it).

Technology has come a long way and, let’s be honest, has become a little insane. TFLN, FML, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. I can see and talk to my friend in Costa Rica with the click of a button. I don’t, but I could. My roommate from Illinois gave me a tour of her house and introduced me to her family via computer screen. I can creep on new friends’ walls and keep up with old friends’ doings. I can read about strangers’ worst days and feel better about mine. I can IMDB the actor who I know I’ve seen before but can’t for the life of me remember where.

A kid in my terrorism class, when asked the first thing he would do after surviving an attack, answered, “Update my Facebook status.”

I can keep up with game scores during church or look up the weather on my phone. You lucky jerks with iPhones have an app for everything — even popping BubbleWrap — and other snazzy phones aren’t far behind.

And the crazy thing is, I’m not even good with gadgets. Anyone can do this stuff. I don’t even want to think about what a computer whiz can do — what’s left of my mind would be blown.

On the one hand, all this is just so cool. All the information in the world is at my fingertips, just waiting to be Googled. Even the White House has embraced the less traditional modes of communication and information dissemination: Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that Twitter is an “amazing tool” that allows public officials to reach tens of thousands of people who otherwise might not have been aware of news.

On the other hand, all the information in the world is at everyone else’s fingertips, too. Cybercrime didn’t even exist 30 years ago, and identity theft has exploded because technology doesn’t just give you access to the world of information, it lets everyone else in too.

There is a controversy in a wealthy Pennsylvanian suburban school in which students and families have alleged the webcams of school-loaned laptops were used to spy on students in their homes and bedrooms. Hijacked webcams? Reminds me of Big Brother and an especially grisly Criminal Minds. And it’s not just webcams; the potential loss of privacy through technology is boundless.

Technology is making the world ever smaller. The question is, how small are we willing to allow it to get?

But for now, I’m content to sit back and use this powerhouse of technology just to get a laugh from Texts From Last Night: “Yeah I’m buying him lunch right now because I shot him with the fire extinguisher last night.” Way to keep it classy, Ohio.

Bethany Offutt is a sophomore criminology and criminal justice and psychology major. She can be reached at offutt at umdbk dot com.