ESPOSITO: Remember that embarrassing thing you posted in high school?
Column: Unapologetically
In my first year of high school, I forgot my Facebook password. This Facebook page had been created in 2010 when I was 10 years old, and I had posted on it daily for five years. And now, due to me being locked out of it, for as long as Facebook lives, or probably as long as I live, I have to endure the embarrassment of myself in the public domain.
I have to endure being sent the photoshoots I had with my purple unicorn Pillow Pet at age 11 every time a friend of mine discovers this page. I have to hear myself singing, or screeching, to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me" when someone feels like humiliating me.
Worst of all, forever will my “Like this Status for a Rate, Date and Truth” be in the control of Mark Zuckerberg. I have to be reminded that in seventh grade, I rated a boy an 8.5 and said I would maybe date him, and his response was referring to me as “eyebrows.” The ultimate betrayal.
I draw comfort in knowing that I am far from the only one in this particular sort of online predicament. Roughly 98 percent of my generation, Generation Z, has a smartphone and has had it for quite some time, according to Review42. And it is a rarity to have been extremely conscious of your social media status updates at such a young age.
I know the issues of importance for me as a preteen are very different from the ones I have now, and I cannot be the only one. We all have Facebooks we have been locked out of, or old Instagram fan pages or emo Tumblr pages with weird “inspirational” quotes and silly song lyrics plastered all over it.
Adults, who were much more cautious about social media, used to warn us in elementary school with the phrase, “Once you post something on the internet, it is there forever.” We knew this, but we did not always listen. Does it turn my stomach over that a potential employer may one day stumble across my video of the cinnamon challenge? Absolutely.
But still, I draw comfort in the knowledge that that is it. I have embarrassing posts on social media, just like everyone else, but nothing stronger than that. But, can everyone say the same?
Generation Z is the first generation to have had a mobile phone and the internet, which follows us through every step of our lives. Therefore, it is almost impossible to not have a video of you floating around cyberspace doing something you wish was not on camera.
We are also the generation of cancel culture. The minute there is evidence of someone doing something worthy to be frowned upon, no matter the degree, they are met with a wave of fury from millions of metaphorically ironclad keyboard warriors. This conviction is smooth and quick. There is no “innocent before proven guilty.”
This person is exiled, bullied and forced out of the public eye. The internet never promised anyone a fair trial. The question is, now that we, the generation that has caught almost everything on camera, are entering the workforce, will we be met with the same problems surrounding cancel culture? Or will it lose its meaning once everyone has dirty laundry to be aired out?
The future chief executive officers of our country probably have videos of them on their Snapchat stories acting drunk and disorderly. The past three presidents — former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — have admitted to smoking weed, but this generation’s President might even have a video floating around of him or her holding a joint. This means 1 of 2 things: Everybody is screwed, or everybody is safe.
The things that are truly unforgivable will stay unforgivable. But maybe, there is a possibility on the horizon that ruining someone's career with an old Twitter post they made 10 plus years ago, may not be the case someday.
Because the people who will be in charge, know what it is like to look at their Timehop and see a weird subtweet they made about their ex-boyfriend in high school. And they know how they acted then is not who they are now. Maybe, we will once again give people a second chance.
Laura Esposito is a School of Arts and Sciences junior majoring in journalism and political science. Her column, "Unapologetically," runs on alternate Tuesdays.
*Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
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