I had developed an amazing online relationship with a wonderful girl on JDate.  We lived far from each other, though, so I knew that the relationship’s growth was futile.  Still, we had a great time talking to each other.  We shared relatively intimate things with each other online and soon decided to swap phone numbers.  Now, things got real.  I was texting and talking to a real person as opposed to another username on JDate.  It was pretty exciting.  I often told her tidbits of information that I would have never shared with her in an online conversation.  She now not only knew basic information about me but she knew my social security number, the pin number to my debit card, my email password, and my greatest fear.  Okay, she knew none of that, but she did know other information that couldn’t lead to identity fraud.

One day, I decided to take it a step further.  I asked what she was doing via text message.  She said she was studying for a test.  I thought that was odd because I knew she wasn’t in school.  I went with it, though.  “Oh, okay,” I said. “Anything I can do to help?”  “Who is this?” she asked.  “It’s me, Jeremy.”  “Jeremy, you know this is Meaghan, right?”  “Of course I know that.”  “This is Meaghan, your cousin.”  Whoa, we were cousins?  Why didn’t she tell me this pertinent information earlier in our phone relationship?  Also, interestingly enough, I remembered that I actually had a cousin named Meaghan.  Oh no.

Though I changed her name in this post to save myself from further humiliation, I believe that cell phones, especially ones that look and feel very technologically advanced, should include an important feature.  This feature should allow users to be unable to save two different phone numbers under the same name.  Though my story is sort of a worst-case scenario, this feature would be exceptionally helpful in preventing confusion about a person you are interested in dating and a person whose mother is your mother’s sister.