The Only Thing Worse Than Being Talked About Is Having It Permanently Archived

Probably two ideas barely connected, but flowing out of my fingertips as one post, so....

Perhaps its the longevity of it, I don't actually know, but I feel myself pulling away from social networks more and more...at least when it comes to personal information. At one point I had thought that the sheer volume of highly personal commentary via Twitter and Facebook would neutralize the occasional poor choice or embarrassing revelations and render all the chatter more or less blandish noise in the end, but as the social networks age a bit I'm sensing a more skeptical awareness growing.

Perhaps it's an awareness that we've become susceptible to the plight of the politician. Anything you do can be dug up and used against you at some later point in life. For most of us, this is probably limited to having to admit we've matured and changed our minds about this or that. For others it might include an awkward explanation someday of why just because Mommy and/or Daddy wrote or were caught in a photograph doing something when they were young doesn't make it OK for YOU to do it.

There was a time when the foibles of one's youth were the tightly kept secrets of a small group of friends or acquaintances whose memory could be questioned if they later used such information against you. Now, even if you think you're being careful, full accounts of others' impressions of your actions can end up online. I do think the benefits of online communities outweigh the potential problems for the most part. The ability to learn, share, organize and become a part of a like-minded group has huge advantages...I just think a bit of mystery, if not good-old fashioned deniability, serves the human socialization process well.

I'd like to say there is no personal reason I'm musing about this this morning. It's simply an observation of what I've heard more and more recently as I talk with people: a growing sense that what had originally seemed harmless fun might not be quite so benign with time. (There actually are no scandals or breaking stories about me that I know of.) But I did notice a few comments about people I know and admire on another blog about the art world that made me cringe and wish the now only semi-anonymous author of it would grow a pair, reveal he's the one sponsoring so much venom spewing, and face the consequences of his creation.

Indeed, in my opinion, passionate freedom of speech is actually most useful when fear of being punched in the face (or being ostracized) encourages a more diplomatic expression of objections or ideas. There may be times when you don't care about the risks and bray your thoughts boldly anyway, but being able to spew whatever you like and not have to own it can't be what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they crafted the First Amendment. This is why anonymous caustic comments on blogs get under my skin...the person is cheating the system.

I think if you're gonna insist something has to be shared, that at least you have the guts to sign your name to it. This notion that "So-and-so is wrong, but I don't want to be subjected to their wrath..." reminds me of the scene in The Informant where Matt Daimon's character is asked "How can you stay there when you've just taken down the company?" He doesn't see why anyone would be upset with him, even though a government agent gently lets him know "Well, I think the corporate culture is going to change a little bit for you."

What Daimon's character didn't realize is that there's a big difference in effecting change from within (meaning in person, with your name attached) versus a sneaky push from the outside. Both have their advantages if the goal is change, but while it's noble to bring down a corrupt system and perhaps you'll be its new hero if it's clear you kept the baby and only tossed the bathwater, it's idiotic to expect a system to welcome you with open arms if you tear it down from the outside. Who could trust you again?