Big Featured Discussions | August 24, 2010 | 7 comments

After living so much of their lives online, will young people need to change their identity to escape youthful indiscretions?

Who hasn’t Googled their name to see what turns up in a search? Between social networks, blogs, photo sharing, and geolocation, just to name a few, we’re all living more and more of our lives online. But what are the consequences? In a recent interview, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that every young person will one day be automatically entitled to change his or her name upon reaching adulthood, in order to escape the youthful hijinks documented on social media.


Is Schmidt’s prediction accurate? Will the myriad social media sites around now even be in existence in 20 years, or will those embarrassing Facebook photos be collecting digital dust on a server somewhere?

Assuming for the moment that your college days are documented online for all the world, is changing your name really the solution? With new technologies emerging, including facial recognition, is that even a guarantee? 

Even if you do change your name, who among us doesn’t have a few youthful indiscretions? Rather than changing your name, should we instead recognize that everyone makes mistakes growing up?  Does a photo of you doing a keg stand at a college party mean you can’t also grow up to be a responsible adult? Furthermore, who decides what the cut-off age is—are the things you did before you were 18 that ones that don’t matter? Or 21? Older? What about the gray areas—is drinking necessarily a bad thing? What about nudity—or does it make a difference if that topless photo is from a Pride parade? And what about getting arrested when protesting an unjust law?

What do you think? Should we look forward to a future where changing your identity is a new rite of passage? Or should we accept that youthful antics are a part of life?

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    Tech,   Big Featured Discussions
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7 comments // After living so much of their lives online, will young people need to change their identity to escape youthful indiscretions?

  • Lomie
    • 0
      Lomie  

    • Whether or not you do use social nteworks, nobody is perfect, especially when you're young and following the latest trend of taking drunken photos or posing half naked for a default picture. Point is, even if its events that happened last weekend or 5 years ago, these "profiles" represent you and how you're allowing yourself to be preceived by all people. Either buck up and own up or don't post.

    • 2 years ago
  • imogazzi
    • 0
      imogazzi  

    • Most of my friends use fake names online - thwart the problem before it starts. But nothing is a guarantee with technology moving forward so rapidly.

    • 2 years ago
  • versasrev
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  

    • Everyone makes mistakes... and often in front of other people. One day we will be old people and some of the things that worry us now will seem so insignificant. I look back at the things I worried about when I was 9, 11, or 15 and they seem so trivial.

      On that note, people should not forget that living life responsibly (while still having some fun) is never an outdated maxim - even in our modern age.

    • 2 years ago
  • manny0409
    • 0
      manny0409  

    • you don't need to use a fake identity or even change it, just don't be a douchebag online and you won't have to worry about it.

    • 2 years ago
  • ShaneSamson
sgwhites
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