“As kids, we say stupid things, and because there’s not a record of it, nobody is going to give you a hard time at 30 years old about something you said or did when you were 8 years old. Online, you have all these social networks that are moving to a state of persistent identity and in turn we’re sacrificing the ability to be youthful. In 10 years, everything you say and do will be visible online and I think it’s really unfortunate.”
— Christopher Poole in NYT interview with Nick Bilton.
I noticed and grabbed this quote from Union Square Ventures’s partner Albert Wenger’s blog where he mentions how profound it is thinking about how your web interactions today will impact you in the future and I couldn’t agree more.
My experience with trading makes me realize how quick you can change your opinion on something once new information comes to light, so if you to comment on an issue it only guarantees that that is your thought process at that point in time.
Yet most people including prospective employers won’t realize this and merely judge you on your static opinion.
I don’t have some illuminating point but people should sadly be aware of the liability that their blog, tweets and Facebook photos have on the perception of you in real life, an off the cusp twitter comment could be scrutinized and potentially cost you say a seat on the Supreme Court down the line.
That might be a worse case scenario even hyperbolic in nature I know but still in the realm of possibility and at the very least now and continuing to grow in the future, employers and the public have so much insight and information at their hands to make decisions about you.
So it’s up to you to take control of your internet persona with that in mind.
Consider that text has always had the problem of being interpreted in context and with no recourse for direct rebuttal (first impressions last) you have to be careful with your online footsteps and that’s only considering what you have control of, what about if someone with much better SEO means writes a defamatory blog about you?
Well when someone Google’s your name (which they will) the first or the first few results will be a link to an entry speaking in a negative light about you, what then? Silence or rebuttal? We’re heading down a different avenue but you get the point of your online identity its importance and its implications for the you of tomorrow.
That’s why “profound” perfectly sums up the situation and made me at least want to quickly blog about it.
