Present Shock: Power of Social Media

From the book Present Shock

According to research by Microsoft, 75% of human resources departments do online research about their candidates, utilizing search engines, social networking sites, personal blogs, and even photo sharing sites............

Did someone else snap a photo of you while you were drunk at her party?......

This ends up favoring the past over the present.

....every transient thought or act becomes an indelible public recording. Our resumes are no longer distinct from our dating histories. It's not just the line between public and private activity that has vanished, but the distance between now and then.

My Thoughts

Wow! I share this idea with my wife and the first thing we both said was thank goodness we are not growing up in these times! This is very real and very scary. It is scary because how good of a job are schools, parents, and communities doing to teach the kids about social media and the long term consequences. I know many kids don't think that far down the road, but it is our job to help them. Have you ever just done a general search of your kids online via Twitter, Instagram, FB, etc.? Not that you are looking for bad stuff or to get them in trouble, but just to see the world they are living in? I often wonder how the sharing of the things they share will affect their future jobs and careers? Will there be consequences for sharing the adolescent and very real thoughts of middle and high school students online? We all have been through that tough phase of life and thought all the good and bad thoughts that go on during those turbulent years. We were lucky enough to not have a platform to share it with the world. The kids today do and how will that impact them when they are older and wiser?

We live in a day and age where you may learn from your mistakes, but you can never start fresh. Everything is documented. Everything is available for others to find. This will either lead to a new way of thinking and understanding for the future generations where they are all in the same boat together or could have very negative consequences. Only time will tell.

Thoughts?