Every Few years I Google myself for shit and giggles. Personally I'm not famous so I don't get a 877,548 hits. When I first started this the only thing I could find was a digital article with a mention of my name. Now I have way to many hits. I found pictures of me I didn't know existed and ones that I didn't allow anyone to post.
Are you a member of Facebook, Tweet, Google everything, like to pin things. Well, these along with other companies are continually watched by the NSA and other government agencies. Facebook being notorious for changing their privacy laws and resetting your privacy setting so everyone including your mother can see. The CIA has stated something to the face that Facebook is the greatest intelligence gathering tool in the history of the world. Where everyone tells you exactly where you are and what you are doing. Facebook and these other "free" internet toys are worth millions if not billions of dollars, you know why. Because they sell your personal information. Google has blatantly come out and said we do this to sell your habits to advertisers. Well personal the only site that should hold my shopping habits is Amazon because that's where I shop. This to me, if your raising kids is a very scary thing. Because kids as Bill Cosby (who based an entire show on) "Say the Darnedest Things" and the dumbest things too.
Growing up we have things that stay in the family and things that everyone knows about. Not because they where wrong or bad, but it's just not polite to talk about. As an adult I understand everything I put on-line is going to be looked at by the government and anyone who looks. The problem is that you can't control what other people do and because of this their might be some very damaging pictures of your kids in the future. We don't live in the world of beepers anymore, we live in a virtual age where everything we do is documented and tracked. We live in a world where having some drunken fun can be the end of your career. Even if the picture was taken a decade ago. People have a funny way of processing what it means to have fun these days. Back when I was growing up, "Hold my beer!" and "Watch this!" was a great way to have fun. My friends and I still talk about how lucky we are when we did X, Y, & Z. In this hyped "Everyone has to be safe" world we are actually stopping evolution in humanity, especially in America.
America and the world is no longer a place of privacy, nor is it a safe place. (Did you know more people are killed by other American's than by terrorists or non-Americans.) Many people who say "So, who cares, I don't have any secrets," either A) Never had true fun in their life or B) Lived their misbegotten youth before the age of Facebook. Shucks, some of the things I've done are only in negatives because the store refused to print them or the developer thought it would be awesome to take it. The fact is our kids shouldn't or can't have a misbegotten youth if they are going to have careers in some fields. And without a misbegotten youth how the yell are you going to understand reality without making some dumb mistakes to learn not to make them. Because some lessons in live have to be learned the hard way. Sorry, if I'm going to be arrested I want to be arrested by someone sympathetic to my dumb stunt.
Experience is the best teacher. Just because you read about Mardi Gras is not the same as experiencing Mardi Gras. Knowing the Amazon is a jungle is not the same as spending a week in it. Without experience we as a culture will loose are way. Kids need experiences, but not everything has to be documented by pictures, tweets and status updates, unless they paint us in a positive way. Teaching your kids this and having them avoid posting everything: every dumb thought; picture; their location, etc will allow them to possibly have some fun without the Gestapo, bible thumping right wing activist puritans from stopping them from having a career where they could be a benefit. Everything we do is an update on some sight and your phone. Google yourself and find out what I'm talking about.
Here are some Handy tips you should do to stop everyone knowing everything about you:
1. On your phone don't allow push notifications or allow the phone to use your current location unless you specifically allow it, say for mapquest. This will allow your phone to conserve more battery life as it is not constantly uploading where you are every couple of seconds.
2. On all of your social websites go to the settings section and making everything private or friends only or the equivalent on the site.
3. Use a handle. A "handle" is a nickname or persona you use on-line. The NSA will know who you are as they will track your ISP address, but your employer won't. If you like doing and saying dumb shit, are an activitist against the man (and you work for them) this is a good idea. Plus you have the added bonus unless someone knows you personally their not going to be your friend.
4. Last but not least you can go nuclear and disappear completely. Here's a webpage: http://www.wikihow.com/Delete-Yourself-from-the-Internet . This gives you a good account of what you need to do, but will take some work because everything you do is collected, cataloged, analyzed and stored to use against you later in life.
5. You could pay someone to shield your persona. Personally I don't need private security but their has sprouted a whole new industry who do just this via the web.
6. Just be smart about what you post. Don't post you mooning the mailman or having a fight with the bouncer at the club. Or just make better decisions by being more sneaky so their aren't any of these things out there.
The biggest thing is to keep your kids informed about what the consequences can be and more than likely will be when they grow up. No average kid sees their actions as having a repercussion in the distant future (they can only see weeks at a time), but if you do it right they might not make this their new catch phrase, "Yeah Video This!" right before they do something stupid and wind up on Tosh.0
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