Digital Histories
English Author Arnold Bennett once said, “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts”. Change is hardly ever easy. Some people change for the better but are constantly being held back by their past decisions while others change for the worst. What would today’s society be like if change hadn’t ever occurred? The human race would most likely be extinct. So why hold back people who wish to change their lives? People should not expect that others are going to stay the way they are for their whole entire lives: most people change as they grow. It’s not like in before times where, “if a teenager went through ‘a phase,’ generally only his or her family, friends and teachers would know or remember. Those days are gone”(Gerwitz). It’s not necessarily the individual’s fault that his or her life is on display to the world, it’s a new digital age. This digital age is seeming to create an unforgettable history. It is not right to critique individuals on the basis of their digital histories, especially in today’s social media era where nothing can be permanently forgotten once it has been published on the internet.
As time goes on, the social media gets broader. Everyone can know your waking movement and thoughts; just by the pictures posted online. People no matter who they are, are being exploited for the videos and pictures they have posted. Everyone goes through a rough phase and before social media no one else would have known about it except for their friends, family and maybe one or two outsiders but now websites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr & etc. can see your phase and make judgment and talk about the incriminating photo for days, hours and minutes until it finally everyone who has looked for the picture or searched for the hashtag under the picture. Now the whole world has seen it, judged it and won’t forget about it until someone else post something incriminating. The picture has been forgotten but will always resurface again.
Employers uses social media to determine if an applicant is credible enough to be hired. But once these pictures are forgotten, employers dig and dig until they find all the information they think they can determine if you’re hired. No matter how something is, and depending on what it is, they still use it against you because they believe the person in the picture is who you will remain but that’s not the case. It’s completely wrong for employers to do that, to make judgments on someone without seeing who the person is standing in front of them and recognizing their qualities and experience. In today’s society social media plays a major role in helping an employee to determine whether an employee is suitable for a job or not which should not be the main factor employers rely on. No one is the same overtime and people change as the years go by, the way they look, dress, talk and act. We take pictures to look back on experiences as well as we share them to world by posting it on social networks like Facebook. At some point in one’s life they are unhappy with themselves but they still choose to share their experiences with the world. As they grow and become older and wiser; they better themselves and perhaps look for a new career and forget about their past and the things they did. Often in the corporate world, employers use a social media background check to see if the candidate is good for the company. They observe pictures and posts and attempt to see if they could find out who the person really is and sometimes they can find something not incriminating and believe it and look behind who the person really is “… checks Facebook, sees her history — and then glances over to his five other equally qualified applicants” (Gerwitz, Kern). Employers view applicant’s resumes and as well look into their social life and if they find anything up to their standards no matter when it was posted, the employer instantly looks to another applicant instead of considering the first applicants and who they are today and his or her experience in the field.
More so than often, girls are beginning to exploit themselves with the pictures and videos they share with the world or a guy they believe won’t hurt or mistreat them. The exploitation of themselves is beginning at a younger and younger age because girls have a mind set of “maybe if I send him a picture of boobs he will become more attracted to me”. These girls are looking for something, longing for attention but parents need to realize that we cannot always blame the child for every mistake they made especially when it comes to situations like this. Whether a parent has sons or daughters both should be taught that sending proactive pictures to one another and is not acceptable. Young girls going through puberty also need to understand that just because they send a picture to one person doesn’t always mean only that one person is going to see it.
All in all, the prominent emergence of the internet in the twenty-first century connects people in ways that weren’t ever possible in previous times. Social media has helped this tremendously because people all across the world now have the ability to “like” something on Facebook, “tweet” people on Twitter, and reblog others on Tumblr. This is leaving a permanent footprint: one that has never been seen before. Before, when history was told, it was a current event and then given time, people would soon start to forget. Now, with the creation of digital histories, one can just Google search a person and be presented with an agglomeration of an individual’s past activities. So much for forgetting. This also means that employers, journalists, and other online investigators should take this into consideration and have a heart before they think about who they want to hire and/or fire. Everyone has skeletons in their closet. People should not throw stones when they live in a glass house because how would they feel if they are placed in a similar situation where their life depends on a person’s critique of their digital history.