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> The C.I.A. did not buy into the adage that the student leader of today is the student leader of tomorrow. It calculated that the heads of national student org

> The C.I.A. did not buy into the adage that the student leader of today is the student leader of tomorrow. It calculated that the heads of national student organizations were likely some day to become important figures in their countries’ governments. When that happened (and it often did), the American government had a file on them. And yet today students are perfectly willing to detail the minutiae of their lives on their online permanent record.

snlacks 12y ago
Two factors play into this publicity of private individual lives. If everyone's skeletons are out in the open for everyone else to see, they're no longer skeletons. What one social group considers a skeleton in their closet, another considers a badge of honor. I benefitted from this, I'm into and have been into all sorts of things that would have socially stigmatized me 50 years ago. Meanwhile, someone else who is racist or beats their spouse or kids is likely to face social condemnation. Times change, in this case, for the better.
- throwawayaway 12y ago
  I agree times have changed for the better, I'm not sure that can be counted on continuing forever. We have a morality of the here and now and whether the morality of tomorrow is the same or better is up for debate. I don't think that STD's, alcoholism, drug abuse or mental health issues are ever going to be considered badges of honour over the course of people's careers. If you don't believe that the "delete" and "mark private" features of these online publishing things work, well there's a lot of juicy info there for the taking on tomorrow's public figures.
  - snlacks 12y ago
    Definitely, there's going to be a lot of (fun?) surprises for people who don't quite get the nature of a digital image or video. I've know digital pack rats that save other people's photos. I don't think STDs and youthful alcoholism will be badges of honor, but I think there's an undercurrent of people feeling as if we all have baggage of one type or another. They're much more likely to be ruled out of public office for pictures of themselves wearing "race face" or date rape bragging or something. I switched from skeletons to baggage for my clichés...

snlacks 12y ago

Two factors play into this publicity of private individual lives. If everyone's skeletons are out in the open for everyone else to see, they're no longer skeletons. What one social group considers a skeleton in their closet, another considers a badge of honor. I benefitted from this, I'm into and have been into all sorts of things that would have socially stigmatized me 50 years ago. Meanwhile, someone else who is racist or beats their spouse or kids is likely to face social condemnation. Times change, in this case, for the better.

throwawayaway 12y ago
I agree times have changed for the better, I'm not sure that can be counted on continuing forever. We have a morality of the here and now and whether the morality of tomorrow is the same or better is up for debate. I don't think that STD's, alcoholism, drug abuse or mental health issues are ever going to be considered badges of honour over the course of people's careers. If you don't believe that the "delete" and "mark private" features of these online publishing things work, well there's a lot of juicy info there for the taking on tomorrow's public figures.
- snlacks 12y ago
  Definitely, there's going to be a lot of (fun?) surprises for people who don't quite get the nature of a digital image or video. I've know digital pack rats that save other people's photos. I don't think STDs and youthful alcoholism will be badges of honor, but I think there's an undercurrent of people feeling as if we all have baggage of one type or another. They're much more likely to be ruled out of public office for pictures of themselves wearing "race face" or date rape bragging or something. I switched from skeletons to baggage for my clichés...