by techgump » Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:46 pm
Does everything said on this forum need to become a point of argument? Some things should just be left as is, especially when the point is true.
Buttermilk, I know 13 seems old at 13. You're at that age where you're breaking into your own, and I respect that. But regardless, you're still young in comparison.
I don't care that BM's parents may be in part the source of his acceptable language patterns. What is true is what's socially learned as acceptable for treating others by how your peers treat you online. Regardless of parental action, your online peers and mentors are a source of social engagement, social learning, and social acceptability... more so today than ever. These patterns we are exposed to online undoubtedly have an affect on us, and it's probably best if we set a respectable example for the next generations.
Never mind that what you say now, digitally recorded, is going to be with you for life. Your generation and the following is going to find yourself inevitably haunted by the things you do now online in such a careless manner. How you are looked at in history, as you grow to be that man you will become, will be recorded in such great detail like no others in history. To the point that very little will be lost in what you ate, said, feel, thought, bought, wrote, did. Not only will this affect your employment opportunities, but what your kids and grandkids will think about you and who you were, what your friends can learn about you and who you were, and ultimately what history will end up storing about you, digitally archived for all future generations to see everything you were.
Now, you may think that abstract usernames are going to save you. You can just use a profile name that is unrelated to you. It won't save you either. Technology is moving faster than you can imagine. Even Bill Gates got it wrong when he said, "640kb is all anyone will ever need." And if you think that you are hiding behind a username, and that it won't be traced to the person you are behind that username, you are wrong. The lies, the language, the views you express now, are with you, and ultimately will be for anyone's viewing... if not now... very soon... plan on it.