No full disclosure
Barack Obama is taking a fair amount of flak recently for revelations that he used cocaine when he was younger. Note that this was made public eleven years ago when Barack Obama first published his memoir, and it is only now becoming a “big deal” because of the limelight as a presidential hopeful (and all of the political points Republicans hope to score by sliming Obama over it).
In the modern world, and especially with the ascendancy of the world wide web, information just doesn’t die. As soon as it’s out there, it’s out there in perpetuity. I cannot even remember how many dozens of stories I’ve seen about people getting caught for things they’ve posted online that ended up coming back to bite them in the ass. There’s all the stories of people posting wild partying and/or drug usage photos on Facebook, and then getting turned down for employment when potential employers do background checks. Ditto for various MySpace or LiveJournal entries that describe behavior that employers deem unsuitable. And there’s always the perennial favorite, women who have become famous who previously posted raunchy or nude photos online, which then proceed to get out there. This happened very recently in the case of Katie Rees, the now-dethroned Miss Nevada. And even Lonelygirl15 was brought down by an amateur sleuth’s discovery of candid photos of her doing decidedly un-Lonelygirl15 things.
So where does all of this lead? Basically, it means I have to be careful about what I disclose. Once anything gets out there, it’s out there for good. If you came to this blog looking for intimate personal details, you will find yourself disappointed. I have to censor myself here. This is not an anonymous weblog. Anyone can find my real name and a lot more information just by doing a simple Google search on my pseudonym. I know potential employers are tracking this kind of stuff, and I’m very careful about what I put out there.
It’s kind of sad how many young people are currently putting their entire lives, good, bad, and the ugly, on the Internet, without so much as a single consideration as to how badly it might reflect on them later in life. I already made some mistakes of this nature back before I really thought through this issue, and if you’re a really good Googler, you’ll be able to find them. But I won’t be making any anymore. And I suggest that everyone else do the same. Basically, don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your boss, your parents, or random strangers reading.
