The article that struck me most this week was the first NY Times article about social media and “the end of forgetting.” This piece includes a well known anecdote about a teacher in training who was denied a teaching degree towards the end of her studies due to a single Facebook photo of her drinking after hours. Of course it should be expected for public servants, leaders and celebrities to be scrutinized on the internet. Because the content on the internet lives forever, sentiments from these “important” people live forever and should come back to bite them, should they say something offensive or invalid. This year’s presidential election is a never ending reminder of this, as Republican candidate Donald Trump is a walking scandal waiting to be uncovered. Hopefully in election years to come, it won’t take a year (or longer) of campaigning for reporters and interested civilians to peruse databases and expose politicians who have made sexist statements or lied about various topics. It is up to news organizations, social media sites like Twitter and other valuable media resources to compile their data in a more organized fashion and allow people to search with more ease.
The Times article also discusses the implication exposing individuals through social media who are otherwise normal people. A quote from a woman living in New York really struck me. She said, “You have movie-star issues, and you’re just a person.” This couldn’t be more true, as we’re seeing a creepy ubiquitous culture of “Facebook stalking” or “Instagram stalking” and, as mentioned earlier, employers preying on profiles to judge their staffs. The internet and social media is still very much the wild wild west, the best thing to do is be careful and not posting anything you may regret in the future.
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