RE-TWEET IT!
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Facebook claims to be at the fore-front of a revolution. A movement embraced by the “younger generation” who WANT to do and share things publicly. A generation unconcerned about ‘privacy’, in a way that’s totally incomprehensible to their elders.
- So, is it really a wave, a paradigm shift, a break with tradition?
- Are we watching as a global populace suddenly embraces the concept of living their lives in the glare of publicity?
- Are we entering a changed world where transparency rules, and nothing is secret… but no one quite cares?
I think not.
There’s a reason today’s teens and twenty-somethings aren’t concerned about privacy.
They don’t have much to hide!
Oh, sure, we all had our private secrets as kids and youth. But while some of them might make us squirm in embarrassment if others knew them, few would cause any serious harm or damage. (Some of mine show up in answers to probing questions my 10 year old asks in the course of regular conversations – and, so far, they haven’t led to any calamity!)
But anyone who has weathered the first two decades of their life surely has some skeletons in the closet that they would prefer to keep firmly locked away. Forever.
Deep, dark secrets. Deadly serious mistakes (even crimes). And (worst of all?) evidence of their evolving stance on various issues, values and concepts.
Moral issues. Religious ones. Ethical dilemmas. Rights, and perspectives. Value systems.
All of these evolve as we grow, learn and experience more of life. And often the stance we end up adapting and following as adults is arrived at after starting out somewhere else – sometimes even in a diametrically opposite position.
For instance, a vivisectionist could end up a strong advocate for animal rights. A pro-life protester may become a gynecologist. A marcher in an “equality for all” parade may steer the wheel of a profit maximizing capitalist juggernaut. A raving liberal may head an ultra-conservative political movement.
Anything may happen. It often does. Think back to your youth, and you’ll come up with more examples than I can possibly list.
The difference was that our evolution happened in private. With no (or not many) records to prove the earlier bandwagons we once rode on, the points of view we once revered, the passionate beliefs we once harbored.
Because, back then, there was no Facebook. Heck, there was no Internet!
Do you think my niece, who proudly displays (as her FB profile) a photograph of herself grinning widely, in the trunk of a car, holding a can of beer, will feel differently when that same photo is dug out, dusted off, and publicized a few decades later?
Maybe at the time she’s running for election to the governing council of her medical association? Or fighting a lawsuit for malpractice? Or held up as ‘evidence’ when she’s lecturing her little daughter against the evils of drinking alcohol?
There are things I’ve done in high school and college that are (thankfully) relegated to the catacombs of the collective memories of classmates and buddies… and NOTHING ELSE! I mean, stuff like that night when we went… (oops, I almost forgot myself for a minute, there!)
Anyway, the only (and uncertain) way you can dig these things out is by seeking out my mates, and spending long hours exploring their (now age-dimmed) memories. And even then, you’ll only find out stuff that’s purely uncorroborated, and can’t ever be proved – one way or another.
Not any longer. The ‘Way Back Machine’ has records of a ton of stuff you publish online. And digging them out to confront you with later is merely a question of knowing which search strings to program into a piece of software, or which chunk of code to use with explosive impact!
Your past WILL come back to haunt you.
And you’ll have Facebook (or your other preferred social network) to thank for it.
The time to pass judgement on the “We don’t care about privacy” standpoint that today’s youth has (supposedly) adopted isn’t now.
It’s ten, or twenty, or thirty years from now.
By then, of course, Pandora’s box will have been long open. And the genie will be out of the bottle.
Hope YOU won’t be the one to try and put it back in!
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