I recently went to see The Social Network which is a great movie and I recommend it, I wasn't going to see it but I kept hearing how good it was and it is directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. But I don't want to review the movie I want to talk about something else.
One day we will have a president who had a Facebook and a Twitter and a whatever the next thing is. Now I know that Obama has these things but I'm not talking about established politicians using new media to connect to people. I'm talking about people who have grown up with these things. Who posted stuff when they were 14 when they weren't thinking about their future.
Here's Obama's latest Facebook update:
And here is something from Lamebook:I congratulate Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen on winning the Nobel Prize in Economics for their groundbreaking economic research that has applications in areas, like unemployment and housing, where we need our best and brightest minds.
There is a generation of people growing up to whom posting their thoughts as they think them is not a big deal.
A recent article reported that 92% of American 2yr-olds have an online presence. The presidential races of the future are going to include everything. Was your mother wondering if she would keep you or have an abortion? Well if she posted it on Facebook it will be achieved somewhere and a journalist will find it.
Did you send your boyfriend a picture of your tits? Guess what they're probably floating on the Internet somewhere and they might be on the front page of the newspaper the night before the Iowa Caucus.
There has already been a lot written and said about this, about what problems teenagers and young adults of today may have when they are looking for jobs or running for office and every dumb thought they had is able to be found easily by anyone. And I'm sure the first presidential candidate to have pictures of herself swigging from a vodka bottle she posted on her own page with the caption "Totally me lolz" will be a big deal, but what happens at the next election.
"Well Candidate A posted that her friend was a whore when she was 17 but Candidate B talked about his shits constantly throughout college, I just don't know which one is better?"



2 comments:
Crazy thought - when we reach that point (20 - 30 years? Less?) will we actually trust a politician who HASN'T got stuff like that on their Web record? How "real" will they be seen as, if they have kept their internet footprint completely clean of youthful (or older :) ) follies?
I think the reactions to those things will be VERY different to what they are now ...
I was wondering that too. Would it be like if Obama said he had never seen a movie or watched TV it seems a little odd.
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