Don't Blame Big Media For Spoilers; Blame Your Friends

Oh jeez. Apparently some people with needlessly weak constitutions are outraged -- outraged -- that a Twitter feed from CNN gave away some Olympic spoilers. You know. They were doing so good at avoiding the results of the 100m dash, but then, alas, they saw that Usain Bolt had won it, ruining their evening. Sorry, but this complaint just doesn't resonate.

So far, every event I've had spoiled has come from my friends. I was sitting in the San Jose airport, waiting to board the redeye back to NYC, and at that point, I still hadn't seen the results of the classic 4x100m freestyle men's relay.  But when all of my friends started messaging "PHELPS PHELPS PHELPS, LEZAK, PHELPS" It became pretty clear that the US men probably one in thrilling fashion. Should all of my friends self-censor themselves because it's possible that they have friends who haven't seen the results  yet? Obv. not.

It's not just the internet and it's not just sports news. Let's say you still haven't watched the final of Top Chef. You save it on your DVR, but the next day at work, you're probably going to hear who won around the water cooler.

A few years ago, Davis Freeberg wrote that Yahoo News had ruined the surprise ending of The Apprentice for him -- an episode which he put on DVR. His conclusion: No more going to news sites while waiting to view a reality TV episode. These days, he'd really have to avoid all contact with anyone.

At the time, Davis' complaint was reasonable, but it just doesn't make sense to blame big media anymore for spoilers. These days every single contact you have  is a potential spoiler. And in a social media/one-to-many age, there are only two ways to avoid spoilers: watch it live or climb under your bedcovers until you can watch a recorded version.