If it isn’t obvious, the pen certainly seems mightier than the sword. And in today’s culture, there are many who are creating self-inflicted wounds.

With the dawn of social media such as Facebook and Twitter as well as email and text messaging, privacy seems to be a thing of the past, and what was once thought to be a conversation between two now can be an announcement to the masses.

Before the Christmas holidays, the top leadership of the Miss America Organization was implicated in an email scandal where leaders targeted past pageant winners with abuse based on their appearance, intellect and sex lives.

On Thursday, Dec. 21, the Huffington Post got its hands on leaked emails that showed these pageant officials ridiculing past Miss Americas. The comments were less than glowing, and one even used a word that was “R” rated.

These emails, which were exchanged, were written more than four years ago, but in today’s very current culture, resignations from members of the leadership were announced.

The fallout of this scandal also included the Miss America Organization’s television production partner, Dick Clark Productions, which cut ties with them. And there has even been talk that one of the main recipients of fundraising from the Miss America Organization, the Children’s Miracle Network, is reviewing whether it wants to remain associated with the long standing organization that is the leading advocate for women’s education and the largest provider of scholarship assistance to young women in the United States.

I would not dare say what these leaders did was nice or good or Christian, but if I were to be honest, I have not always followed the counsel Thumper’s dad gave him, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

We all say and do things that are wrong, and now with social media, there is the chance we can be publically embarrassed and held accountable for our lack of discretion.

I guess on some level this could be considered a worthy way to teach us that we need to be respectful to others at all times, but lets face it, we are not perfect.

And since social media has made us become a body of fools, where we post and email and text and tweet without always thinking of the ramifications.

We are living in a world where advances in technology are mounting. There are positives gained from the progress, but the downside is we cannot let these new developments cause us to be lazy.

Everything on social media is not true and certainly not necessarily meant to harm anyone. It could just be a bad judgment call made VERY public.

Obviously, we all need to use our best judgment when posting and emailing because if caught mouthing off, remember, the pen can become a sword.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.