Friday, September 10, 2004
Everybody's got one, and most of them stink
I'm thinking about my favorite quotes about free speech -- everything from "the press is free to anybody who owns one" to "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
The Internet has made it cheap and simple for just about anyone to broadcast their ideas, pet theories, opinions, and personal thoughts to the world. On the one hand, it's wonderful to be able to say one's piece without incurring more than the cost of a computer and an internet connection. On the other hand, the simple exercise of free expression can really mess up your life if you're not careful.
Nothing ever truly goes away on the internet. Thanks to Google caches and the Wayback Machine, what you thought was an ephemeral medium turns out to be a massively decentralized archive of everything you, and anyone else, might have said publicly or privately. It's devastatingly easy to go on record with even the most idle thought; it's virtually impossible to dissociate yourself with anything that might embarrass you in a moment of greater clarity.
As entertaining as it is to "Google" someone's name (or your own), consider the paranoia inducing likelihood that the things you (or even someone with the same name as you) say online could come back to haunt you when you're dealing with any kind of stranger who wants to know more about you before making a decision affecting your future. What your friends would recognize as an out-of-character moment or a case of mistaken identity, a curious stranger might "recognize" as proof of your bad character.
Don't imagine that your pre-internet past will remain buried. I was surprised to discover things I'd written for a printed newsletter back in the 1980s are now online. This isn't anything I'd consider personally devastating, but it wasn't my best work and I'd just as soon people not judge my writing or analytical ability based on those short articles. But they will, because they're among the highest ranked items Google returns when I search for my name.
There is no private communication on the internet. There is no context on the internet. Whatever you say that is attributable to you can and will be misconstrued and made controversial at an awkward moment. It is no longer possible to keep your personal life, your politics, religion, hobbies and opinions, however lawfully protected they might be, private from someone who wants to snoop.
Think about that the next time you send an email, post a comment on a blog, enter a chat room, join a mailing list or a newsgroup. There's a certain nobility in standing up for what you believe in. For everything else, there's the Random Name Generator.
The Internet has made it cheap and simple for just about anyone to broadcast their ideas, pet theories, opinions, and personal thoughts to the world. On the one hand, it's wonderful to be able to say one's piece without incurring more than the cost of a computer and an internet connection. On the other hand, the simple exercise of free expression can really mess up your life if you're not careful.
Nothing ever truly goes away on the internet. Thanks to Google caches and the Wayback Machine, what you thought was an ephemeral medium turns out to be a massively decentralized archive of everything you, and anyone else, might have said publicly or privately. It's devastatingly easy to go on record with even the most idle thought; it's virtually impossible to dissociate yourself with anything that might embarrass you in a moment of greater clarity.
As entertaining as it is to "Google" someone's name (or your own), consider the paranoia inducing likelihood that the things you (or even someone with the same name as you) say online could come back to haunt you when you're dealing with any kind of stranger who wants to know more about you before making a decision affecting your future. What your friends would recognize as an out-of-character moment or a case of mistaken identity, a curious stranger might "recognize" as proof of your bad character.
Don't imagine that your pre-internet past will remain buried. I was surprised to discover things I'd written for a printed newsletter back in the 1980s are now online. This isn't anything I'd consider personally devastating, but it wasn't my best work and I'd just as soon people not judge my writing or analytical ability based on those short articles. But they will, because they're among the highest ranked items Google returns when I search for my name.
There is no private communication on the internet. There is no context on the internet. Whatever you say that is attributable to you can and will be misconstrued and made controversial at an awkward moment. It is no longer possible to keep your personal life, your politics, religion, hobbies and opinions, however lawfully protected they might be, private from someone who wants to snoop.
Think about that the next time you send an email, post a comment on a blog, enter a chat room, join a mailing list or a newsgroup. There's a certain nobility in standing up for what you believe in. For everything else, there's the Random Name Generator.
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