When sharing goes too far: Family email and Facebook accounts

When sharing goes too far: Family email and Facebook accounts

While trying to clean up my inbox, I came across one of my pet peeves: Couples who share email addresses. Obviously if I’m only friends with the wife, I know that the message is actually from Mary Smith, and not John Smith or even John and Mary Smith, as the “from” field indicates. But if I’m friends with both members of the couple, it’s up to me whether I want to scroll down to the signature to figure out who sent the message or, perhaps, piece it together from the subject matter and content itself.

I am a firm believer a husband and wife becoming “one flesh” as characterized in Genesis 2:24, but that doesn’t mean we have to share an email account or – even more ridiculous – a Facebook account. In my experience, it’s the wife in this situation who posts most often, which is obvious either from the content or some sort of initial in parentheses the couple has developed to solve the problem that could more easily be solved if each of you just got your own account. After all, email and Facebook are free services. Both are ridiculously easy to set up and maintain. Why share an account? Readers, if you have any insight, please share it.