Quantum of Social Networking

I’m about to start working on a new spy script. It’s not much of a stretch for me (I’ve already written two Bond knockoffs), but I have come up with a different approach, something I’m cagey about discussing in too much detail.

Still, if I weren’t so excited about this current project, I could find some inspiration for another script after having read this AFP article. MI6 is recruiting spies on the Intertubes — on Facebook of all sites!

I’m not into the whole social networking thing. I find it to be a really bass-ackwards way of invading one’s privacy, your own in point of fact. But people nevertheless create their own databases full of blackmail material. People love to take pictures of themselves engaged in all manner of debauchery then put them in their MySpace albums. A friend of mine was turned down for a job after her potential employers found her MySpace page. She’s since set her profile to “Private.”

I wonder how MI6 vets applicants who apply via Facebook. James Bond, though a fictional character, is rumored to have been based on an actual spy that author Ian Fleming knew during his days in the British Royal Navy. Perhaps some degree of debauchery is acceptable for a field agent. Of course not everyone who applies to MI6 is hoping for a slot in the double-o section. That said, I imagine that the turnover rate for 00 agents is pretty high, what with their being captured and/or killed rather frequently. Still, folks putting in for a job at MI6 on Facebook are probably better cut out for other positions at the intelligence agency, ones that don’t involve carrying a firearm or wearing a jetpack or working with a CIA agent named Holly Goodhead.

I must say I’m almost tempted to create a Facebook profile and see what opportunities MI6 has for us blokes across the pond. The producers of the James Bond films have considered Americanizing the hero several times. Fellows like Cary Grant and Adam West and James Brolin were all candidates for the gig at one point or another. I have plenty of experience being an American. I’m also familiar with Microsoft Office and can type 60 wpm. I think I’m more than qualified to have a license to kill. Do I have to apply for that online as well?

-Brad Lohan

If you like this post, share it!