The Interweb is no place to hide

Working in tech-related fields really draws attention to those in our society who, despite living in the same towns as all the rest of us, look at a new remote control or laptop like you dropped a dead possum on their board room table.

People who are unclear on how to operate a VCR or don't understand simple analogies like, " Oh, this works just like iTunes." (Uh, iWhat?) It never ceases to shock me when this happens, but more than that are the times where someone has something up on their computer screen or wallpaper that might be a little too personal for public consumption.

This of course leads to the evil cousin of stupid - a phenomenon known as "Wait, the Internet is public?"

The difference is simple - stupid is a picture of a middle-aged man in his Speedo on a private laptop that accidentally gets put up on the big screen or a curse-laden rant sent to co-workers on accident. The other is posting pictures of yourself onto a very public, well-travelled site like Facebook and then running for office.

One of the customers I've done a few projects with has had this conversation with me - her son has dreams of running for Congress some day and is very careful with regards to what he puts out there for the world to see. It's every other week where some high school sports team is suspended for drinking and posting pictures of it and it seems that every farmhand in the major leagues has his own MySpace page where he's doing something stupid when the call comes to head to the Show - see Deadspin for some of those, there's even one today.

So, it's no surprise to see this story about Googling a new boyfriend or girlfriend - and thank God this wasn't an option when I was in college or things would have gotten ugly in a hurry - on the same day that the University of Minnesota - Duluth knocks down the whole Facebook/MySpace thing for its athletes.

It's a different world and while some are willing to throw themselves on the mercy of the court of public opinion, there are others who simply forget that potential sweethearts - or worse yet, employers - have the same access to your online accounts as your shithead buddies.

Also, if you're not entirely comfortable with technology, don't push your luck right off the bat. There's no guarantee that your computer won't crash tomorrow, so take care choosing which picture of yourself in a thong you post as your wallpaper, you self-involved jackass.

If you can't recover your term paper or quarterly report yourself, you might want to just put up a picture of the race car/palm tree/puppy dog like everyone else.

Yes, we all know you're a delicate little snowflake... No, we still don't give a shit.

(Image from: TheoCentric.com)