Download this before you upload that
The old saying “nothing lasts forever” may apply to many things, but apparently it has lost its meaning in the digital age.
If you text it, upload it, photograph it, blog it – whatever it is you do, keep in mind that it will never completely go away. Someday, somehow, someway, it can and probably will be retrieved and viewed by someone it was never intended for.
I lost a job once because of a snarky email I sent to my supervisor three months earlier. It didn’t matter that the issue had long since been resolved and was long forgiven and forgotten, my supervisor’s boss found the email and I was instantly history.
I am a Facebook junkie. I put a lot of pictures and most of my writings on the social networking site. Everything that anyone posts online will stay forever in the ethereal realm of cyberspace. Even if I deleted my account today and removed everything from Facebook’s servers, a copy of it would remain in any number of places where those with the knowhow could call it up any time they desired.
If I take a picture of my kids doing something goofy and send it via text or email to my wife, it will always exist somewhere out there. If I were to lose or donate my old phone, anyone with the right skills could pry into it and find things that I thought were permanently vanquished.
It’s important for people to know and understand the permanence of digital communication. Given that there are trillions of texts, emails, etc. sent out, the likelihood of them being rediscovered by unintended persons is very slight. But if someone were to investigate you – say for a job, security clearance, because you became rich and famous or whatever – they can use technology to find whatever they want, even if you believe it to be long gone.
Those who are into “sexting” – sending sexually explicit messages, pictures and video – must do so with the realization that several years down the road those things could wind up on the computer of a potential employer or even your grandchildren.
If you send nude or risqué pictures of yourself to your boyfriend/girlfriend or even a spouse and that relationship goes sour, you are powerless to stop that person from exploiting those images and wrecking your reputation and your life. Think about it, do you really want to explain to your spouse, or child, or pastor, or employer why there are pictures of you performing a sex act with someone who is no longer in your life?
There might also come a time when you go to your boss seeking a raise or promotion and he first asks you why you questioned his parentage in an email to a colleague.
The digital age is a wonderful thing with tremendous possibilities. Instant communication has great value and importance. It can also be the snake that bites you when you’re not looking. The main thing is to be aware of what you are doing and sending out into cyberspace. If you don’t want it shouted or shown from the rooftops, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
The Internet is a great equalizer in many ways. It’s very transparent. It can make the weak powerful and the powerful weak. In my youth, my youthful indiscretions rarely went beyond the memories of those who experienced them with me. Today, youthful indiscretions can wind up on Facebook or YouTube and be there to haunt you well into your retirement years.
Look before you leap and think before you speak. It’s called integrity and it’s a value that is quickly fading with each succeeding generation. Our fathers and grandfathers believed the Bible in Luke 12:2-3 when Jesus said “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”
That is now our digital reality. Our private and public lives are merging. It has been said that the real character of a person is how they act when they think no one is looking. In this day and age you can no longer assume no one is looking or listening, especially if it crosses into cyberspace.
That’s something to think about the next time you feel that nothing lasts forever.
If you text it, upload it, photograph it, blog it – whatever it is you do, keep in mind that it will never completely go away. Someday, somehow, someway, it can and probably will be retrieved and viewed by someone it was never intended for.
I lost a job once because of a snarky email I sent to my supervisor three months earlier. It didn’t matter that the issue had long since been resolved and was long forgiven and forgotten, my supervisor’s boss found the email and I was instantly history.
I am a Facebook junkie. I put a lot of pictures and most of my writings on the social networking site. Everything that anyone posts online will stay forever in the ethereal realm of cyberspace. Even if I deleted my account today and removed everything from Facebook’s servers, a copy of it would remain in any number of places where those with the knowhow could call it up any time they desired.
If I take a picture of my kids doing something goofy and send it via text or email to my wife, it will always exist somewhere out there. If I were to lose or donate my old phone, anyone with the right skills could pry into it and find things that I thought were permanently vanquished.
It’s important for people to know and understand the permanence of digital communication. Given that there are trillions of texts, emails, etc. sent out, the likelihood of them being rediscovered by unintended persons is very slight. But if someone were to investigate you – say for a job, security clearance, because you became rich and famous or whatever – they can use technology to find whatever they want, even if you believe it to be long gone.
Those who are into “sexting” – sending sexually explicit messages, pictures and video – must do so with the realization that several years down the road those things could wind up on the computer of a potential employer or even your grandchildren.
If you send nude or risqué pictures of yourself to your boyfriend/girlfriend or even a spouse and that relationship goes sour, you are powerless to stop that person from exploiting those images and wrecking your reputation and your life. Think about it, do you really want to explain to your spouse, or child, or pastor, or employer why there are pictures of you performing a sex act with someone who is no longer in your life?
There might also come a time when you go to your boss seeking a raise or promotion and he first asks you why you questioned his parentage in an email to a colleague.
The digital age is a wonderful thing with tremendous possibilities. Instant communication has great value and importance. It can also be the snake that bites you when you’re not looking. The main thing is to be aware of what you are doing and sending out into cyberspace. If you don’t want it shouted or shown from the rooftops, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
The Internet is a great equalizer in many ways. It’s very transparent. It can make the weak powerful and the powerful weak. In my youth, my youthful indiscretions rarely went beyond the memories of those who experienced them with me. Today, youthful indiscretions can wind up on Facebook or YouTube and be there to haunt you well into your retirement years.
Look before you leap and think before you speak. It’s called integrity and it’s a value that is quickly fading with each succeeding generation. Our fathers and grandfathers believed the Bible in Luke 12:2-3 when Jesus said “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.”
That is now our digital reality. Our private and public lives are merging. It has been said that the real character of a person is how they act when they think no one is looking. In this day and age you can no longer assume no one is looking or listening, especially if it crosses into cyberspace.
That’s something to think about the next time you feel that nothing lasts forever.
posted by Joe Southern | 10:02 AM
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