We live in a world today and have for about the last decade, where anything you post online is saved forever, somewhere. Even if it is just in a database archive somewhere, 99% of the time you can never get rid of it. In a world where every politician, famous person or just someone with a high up role in a company, has access to a twitter, facebook, ect, social media can be very dangerous. For many of the people who rant about certain things online, the job of a PR manager these days is keeping them from saying something stupid and killing their own careers.
When sometimes tweets ultimately get heated or personal problems get aired out online like a personal therapist, fights break out. It is very easy to find yourself in a fight with random people if you are not careful and to the people who lose their temper and say something stupid in the heat of the moment, there is no going back. Once a tweet or facebook post is out there, its out there FOREVER. People not raised in the generations before the internet and even some who were, continuously fail to realize this. They believe that if they put something up and delete it 20 seconds later, there won’t be a record, but services have already captured the data.
If you say something stupid and then whitewash the evidence and try to hide it, you not only look stupid, but you look weak. If you say something offensive, you can apologize but don’t try to hide that you said it, because people will hit you harder for doing it. People love to get into a good online witch hunt and those who try and tap out will just continue to get pulled back in. The best thing you can do for yourself is stick by what you said and take the heat for saying it. If it was stupid admit it was stupid and move on.
We have seen people in the bitcoin and crypto communities whitewashing their posts the second they get a new job that completely contradicts their statements in the past. People collect the tweets of prominent names in bitcoin to use against them later on. We saw this happen immensely when people pivoted away from the word bitcoin, towards the word blockchain. Thousands of tweets were deleted on accounts from companies and individuals alike. This is how you can tell which people are buzzword surfers and which people actually stick with their ideology.
Don’t make the same mistake that thousands in this space and beyond have made by whitewashing their accounts. If you are the type of person who might think about doing it down the line, don’t make claims or say things that may get you into trouble later on. Even if you don’t think so, someone is watching and sometimes, for whatever reason, looking at you to mess up. Think hard about what you post because it will most likely be with you until you die.
This is such an important point that people overlook. You're right that when people try to erase the damage, it often makes it worse - although for example if "John Doe" makes a hateful tweet, it probably DOES make sense to delete it - not to pretend it never happened, but as a way of acknowledging the error in judgement.
This is why I use my real name as my web alias everywhere, even on places like Reddit - I know that anybody who wants to figure out who I am can easily do so. By using my real name, I never start to feel anonymous.
The internet is always listening...
yes, I agree. I think that's why almost all social media are denied in China
Despite this, look what the POTUS has done with twitter. I think its safe to say we can all get away with a little dirty talk online xD
Love your post
Thanks for sharing
So true. It pays to think twice and re-read before hitting that "post" button.
Thats very true .Thank you for sharing the post
Appreciate the post and always wise to think through one's comments before vocalizing or wording it. I have to be extra careful knowing that once it's out, it's there forever.
people need to be real and speak up for what they believe in -- bugger the HR and Personal managers.
I think you are a mind reader and you can evaluate what is happening in the group around. I have seen even this community also that people's sharing their very personal moment and forget about Facebook. It is like each one posting their own personal dates to public.
Unknowingly they are getting trapped in the system and exposing their life to public. Which could be very vurnable to their life and wealth.
You have reviled a very important point in our daily life.
I agree with your opinion, but there are some things that are also made by people now. They follow the times, they follow the development of technology. But they forget the social relations, mutual relationships mutual help, good communication relationships, it's all they Forget it, whether consciously or not.
As a small example, parents and children communicate only through technology, but they do not meet and face to face for days, when they are at home.
On Steemit this gets even worse, you can´t delete it. It is actually stored forever.
Great point! And I have to agree with @heymattsokol, that even on the internet, where it can seem easy to remain somewhat anonymous or not liable for our own mistakes, by just deleting something. The reality is that it can always come back to bight, and it is permanently recorded. And the best approach I would think is just to own up to the mistake, and yeah okay maybe delete it. But mainly just be a real person, not anonymous, and take responsibility for the things you post.
True...