28-yr old nocturnal over@nal geekette Malaysian.
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Web presence not separate from RL
"The mistakes you make on the internet can live forever -- unless you hire somebody to clean up after you." ~Delete Your Bad Web Rep, Wired News
When I read this article, I thought about how a lot of us bloggers seemed quite oblivious that things we say in cyberspace aren't separate from our real lives. With a startup like ReputationDefender taking these issues seriously, that should be a sign to all that the evolving world wide web, be it blogs or not, is going to carry whatever credibility or lack of that you've built for yourself throughout your life. Whether you like it or not, archives like the Wayback Machine will retain information you won't even be able to delete.
My Reputation "I want to defend myself from inaccurate, unfair, revealing, and hurtful pictures, videos, stories, gossip and rumours on the Internet." ~ReputationDefender
I think this has just made the so-called intangible bits of data, seemingly immortally tangible, doesn't it?
"My Reputation," which is aimed at adults hoping to track down and eliminate those momentary lapses of reason ~Delete Your Bad Web Rep, Wired News
"Momentary lapses of reason"... Now that's a quote to remember. It's fine when it's only your circle of friends know of those embarassing or stupid moments. But how do you eliminate it when its left in cyberspace?
Yet, what about the so-called "freedom of speech" on the Internet? And no enforcement of censorship laws online? I believe we all can be lawless online, as much as we want to fight for that. But can we really escape another person's judgement and perceptions over our own actions. We can escape the law, but we can't run away from someone making his own deductions about our character.
It's scary if you ask me. I can only think of the possible things I *might* have posted up to incriminate myself that would bite be in the arse years to come. It's the things that our parents taught us to think before we speak, or to never say things we know we'll regret, that should be valid here in cyberspace as in real life. If this is a start to any form of web presence awareness, it should be a reminder that we should be responsible for our words and our actions in here too.
Comments
The first time this hit me, was when I was doing this meme. You type your blogging pseudonym into a search engine and list the words that get associated. It was suppose to be fun, but there I saw the paper trail. Comments made in other blogs, especially blogs that have higher search engine rankings. Scary wei. After that, I look left and right before crossing.
BawangMerah | November 8, 2006 11:11 PM
do you remember what site was that?
midnite lily | November 8, 2006 11:32 PM
A lot of bloggers will just simply say things freely knowing tat ppl not going to know them personally but somewhere dwn the road it still comes bck to the person. Some will be their suppose alter ego and the rest of us is ourselves, which I hope that my current bloggers friends are. I think you can sense if they are the alter ego or just being themselves. I much prefered the later. Cheers!
JoeC | November 9, 2006 9:22 AM
karma ^_~
yes, i prefer the latter too.
midnite lily | November 10, 2006 1:19 AM
True, true. In my early days on the Internet I never thought twice about posting personal information using my real name, even my phone number. At the time, it didn't seem or feel any different than just making sure a group of friends knew how to reach you.
However, recently I googled my name (which is very unusual) and up popped a post I'd made to a mailing list back in 1998. And yep, there was my name and telephone number for all the world to see. At least the content wasn't humiliating, but it was amazing to see how a casual comment, made nearly a decade ago and long forgotten, can be retrieved in seconds.
Makes me wonder what words I've posted that I'd be sorry to have resurface ... I'm sure some are out there.
annulla | November 12, 2006 10:48 PM