Tweet As You Would Be Tweeted
The Wall Street Journal has a nicely balanced online piece on tweens’s use of the Internet. Instead of the usual scare-your-pants-off fear mongering, the essay takes a really solid look at the more popular sites and social media that todays tweeners are using.
This is a good idea; the Czar thinks most parents would be interested to know where their kids are going far more so that what other kids might be doing. Overall, the Czar thinks that the risk of child predators and identity thieves is wildly overblown—yeah, when the internet was new and unpoliced, maybe. But today, millions of kids are online and plenty of tools exist to find and block out the bastards preying on them. (Senior citizens should be much more concerned, but that is a different topic.)
Of greatest interest in this story was the statement that parents must help kids understand that they are already creating an online existence: when they use social media, upload videos, download photos…whatever…they are leaving a large amount of personal information up there that could haunt them for years. Kids love the ephemeral nature of Twitter, for example, but bad-mouthing one particular teacher can be found years later.
This is an excellent point: while it may not be fair for a job applicant to be humiliated in an interview by something she posted about Mindy when she was 12, the applicant still winds up being responsible for it. The lines between reality and online are blurring, and there are no do-overs in life. Tweet as you would be tweeted.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.