All that twittering and facebooking your breakfast
Google’s Eric Schmidt paraphrased: The private lives of young people are now so well documented on the internet that many will have to change their names on reaching adulthood, Google’s CEO has claimed.
Young people trying to purge those drunken posts and pictures taken of themselves in the bathroom mirror, I guess.
August 18th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Better not let the wifey see that post 😀
August 18th, 2010 at 9:25 am
LOL. not a post. it’s all those lame ass ads you see.
August 18th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Or editorials you wrote in a college newspaper for the advancement of freedom but a prospective employer googles your name and doesn’t agree with your opinions? Hasn’t happened to me (that I know of) but it’s a distinct possibility for myself and others.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Wait until they try to run for office 😉
August 18th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Forget the drinking, many will be blackballed for posting pictures of themselves eating hydrogenated oils and salt. NY City will be forbidden to them.
August 18th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
I teach at a college. I won’t say which one.
I can tell you that the vast, and I do mean vast majority of Facebook stuff that will get you nailed will not be college newspaper columns written to advance freedom, or written for any other purpose.
I can’t tell you any specifics, but posting detailed accounts along with photos of yourself breaking various local, state and federal laws will have lasting effects.
I can say, since it was in USA Today, that if you are on the LSU swim team, it’s not a good idea to start a Facebook page making fun of your swim coach, because it just might lead to your swim scholarship being revoked.
The problem here is very simple.
People put stupid things on Facebook that should never, ever, ever be made public.
Any damage done to yourself on Facebook is very likely damage you did to yourself.
August 18th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
The problem seems to me is that for some stupid reason stupid people think the attention they get from stupid acts advertised on Facebook has any value whatsoever.
Why anybody thinks their insignificant life has any competitive value in the attention-whoring publicity of Facebook is beyond me.
August 18th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
On the other hand, with it being so widespread, more likely people will start ignoring it.
It’s not like it wasn’t well known that people were idiots when they were in their teens and early 20s before – it’s just that the evidence never hung around.
When it’s ubiquitous it’ll simply be meaningless – unless it’s actually something serious and illegal like hillbilly said.
(And really? Any company that goes over five or ten year old of FB history for a hew hire?
You don’t want to work for them anyway.
Checking the past few months for obvious evidence of stupidity is one thing, and vaguely relevant to work performance…)
August 18th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Every time we get a student worker applying at work, we google, facebook, myspace and see what comes up. Then in the interview, lay it out for them and suggest they edit what is out there before they go looking for a real job.
August 18th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
It’s a double-edged sword. I think that people who are inclined to make public fools of themselves are still going to do that – it’s just now they have a much wider audience. Before if you got hammered in the bar and danced on the table, only the other people in the bar knew. Now, lots of people know. The moral of the story isn’t necessarily that you should be able to change your name, but that you shouldn’t make poor decisions in public places.
Unrelated, did anyone read the rest of the article? Google wants to do some seriously creepy shit with our data.
August 18th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
“Wait until they try to run for office.”
Just ask Dan Quayle’s boy!
August 18th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Q) “And really? Any company that goes over five or ten year old of FB history for a hew hire?… ”
A) How about ANY job that requires a clearance.
TXGunGeek – you’re a kind soul. We let them figure it out for themselves.
August 18th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Boswell’s London Journal, written in the 1700’s, gave him some problems along these same lines – his dad disapproved of sonny boy’s buying whores, for example.
The more things change, and so on.
August 18th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
By gad Mikee, you’ve got a point there. The same goes for Pepys, and he was, like, secretary of the navy or whatever dude. I’m reminded of Locke’s letters to his son, giving [unsolicited, we suppose] advice on bowel strategy and the desirability of avoiding poets. Can’t remember if they’re exactly in that order…
Isn’t this a matter of, “I knew Boswell, LuvMagnet69–Boswell was a friend of mine–and LuvMagnet, you’re no Boswell”? Maybe it’s the shortage of Johnson, I don’t know.
Facebook: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
I’ve got enough trouble typing my semi-brilliant remarks with these bad fingers to go playing around on the Facetube, Youbook, and TweeterSpace. But I was raised by my Mama not to do anything on Saturday that was so bad that I couldn’t show up in church on Sunday w/o being ashamed of it. Sounds like these young fools needed better Mama’s than they got.
August 19th, 2010 at 1:55 am
Well being a recent college grad that wrote for gun rights in college which are on the internet forever isn’t a real positive. I find it similar to open carry practitioners: yes they are standing up for what is right but opening themselves to professional and social repercussions. It’s sooo easy to write with anon names on a blog and forums. How about that same message with coworkers? I side with the privacy of the individual in cases where it doesn’t really matter to one side but it does to the individual. Like CCW permitee names. It’s real easy to say screw those kids who didn’t know better. How could we? Facebook was created when I was a sophomore in college! Google didn’t exist when I was 15. like any of you old farts knew either lol!
August 19th, 2010 at 3:20 am
I am Amazed at what some people will post… Stuff I would not want to hear in a private conversation. I think that the new generation does not have the learned social skills of discretion.
What about when a person dies? Will all that free floating information clog the interwebs?