The New Yorker article caught my eye, as the author really describes my genereation really well. Archiving ones life, can be a really good thing, especially that the tools are available and you do not need to be a great writer to do so. It is really interesting how the teenagers of today and the 20 somethings have no fear. People of my generation fear a lot of things, we were kind of brought up that way. Parents dealt corporal punishment, there was always the fear that the cold war might become hot, but today there does not seem to be that kind of fear. In a way, the teenagers of today are more themselves than my gereneration was at the some age. Naked pictures were something only seen in your fathers playboy or penthouse, now they are exchanged as part of a second date…or so it seems. Maybe one day, finding the picture that someone took of you that finds its way to the web, will not be that big of a deal. I am sure that “Susie” is a nice person. I am sure that she did not realize what the cost of that video would be…maybe she thought no one would care and that the boy really loved her….now…she has reacted as many other people do when confronted by a question of image on the internet, she has reteated from it. I do not blame her, because society says “Oh what you did was wrong”…..There is a commercial about an Internet Reputation Product that says the “Internet is like the Wild West.” It refers to whether something has to be true to be published……it is too big to police it all…..or do we even want to police it. Although I am 47, I do not long for days of old, for I like technology, I like what it represents, where it is going and the possibilities of the future. I choose to participate in what I want to and just take the table in the back when I want to watch.
The questions I had at 16, are not even thoughts in todays teenagers. The introduction of the web has made todays 16 year more knowledgeable that I was. Their friends are just a text message away, the answers that I got from Encyclopedias are todays Google search. They have spent more money than by the time they are 16 than I made until my mid 20’s. They plan things in hours than the days or weeks that people did 30 years ago. They are open, and proud of it. It is what it is……….My generation can learn from that…..well they kind have to …..these are our children……..and like every change that happens, there are 2 sides…..you can control what you want, but how much can you really control.
Twitter……twitter is news, sports and very instant. It can be really useful or endlessly annoying. It can be used for good and bad. It is like everything….it is a choice….so when Miley Cyrus gets criticized for being “heavy”, she has made the choice to open herself up to that type of instant criticism. She can read about that minute, unlike her father, when he was a 1 hit wonder, he had to read about complaints through the US Postal service……now when Miley says something it is instant news……Choices…. Privacy……does it exist? As much as you let it. So when someone famous lets something fly off the cuff on twitter….I just laugh and go to the next story…..
