Reasons Why Online Anonymity Is Important: Whistle Blowing And ID Theft

Can't Wait For The MySpace Generation To Run For Office

from the now-that-ought-to-be-fun dept

Mon, Feb 20th 2006 9:47am — Mike Masnick

Our discussion on the fear mongering article about MySpace could probably be summed up as saying that it's about time we started teaching people common sense. Taking a slightly different view on all of this is David Canton, who points out that all of the non-common sense by folks today, posting all kinds of personal information to the web is going to come back to bite the MySpace generation in a few years when they start running for office. Of course, on the bright side, maybe it will completely weed out a series of potentially common senseless politicians by automatically disqualifying them. At least we can hope.

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LWD, 20 Feb 2006 @ 10:20am

When the Myspace generation runs for office...
By the time the Myspace kids run for office, standards will be much lowered. "Vote for Brittany, she only got suspended once in high school for smoking crack in the girls' locker room!"
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- Matt, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:59am
  
  Re: When the Myspace generation runs for office...
  "By the time the Myspace kids run for office, standards will be much lowered. "Vote for Brittany, she only got suspended once in high school for smoking crack in the girls' locker room!"" Or vote for this guy because the "...standards will be much lowered." I use Myspace a lot. Ive met a lot of good friends from there and some VERY intelligent people. Some of which I would have no problem voting for if they were to run.
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- Core2Extremist, 27 Apr 2007 @ 4:36pm
  
  Re: When the Myspace generation runs for office...
  Yea... no. You and just about everyone else over 30 completely overestimates the amount of drug use that goes on in high schools. Yes, it's there, but the media has over-hyped the whole thing. I personally have never used drugs and this generation has a lot more in store for it than sucking. Take if from the #1 male in his junior class of 660 and someone who's getting paid to research semiconductor lasers with a college professor for 7 weeks over the summer. Watch who you generalize.
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Widepart, 20 Feb 2006 @ 10:21am

common sense ...uncommon
Of course, on the bright side, maybe it will completely weed out a series of potentially common senseless politicians by automatically disqualifying them. At least we can hope.

Look around at todays leaders.
We're at least one generation too late.
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- Jared Anderson, 20 Feb 2006 @ 10:40am
  
  kids will be kids
  Oh come on you guys,
  
  "kids will be kids"
  
  Like people havnt been doing drugs in school for decades,this generation actually has a computer imagine if they had it back in the 60s they would have done the same thing.
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  - Mike (profile), 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:13am
    
    Re: kids will be kids
    
    Like people havnt been doing drugs in school for decades,this generation actually has a computer imagine if they had it back in the 60s they would have done the same thing.
    
    Er, of course kids always do that kind of stuff. The point is that they didn't let the entire world know about it by posting their diaries of those escapades online....
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    - Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:39am
      
      Re: kids will be kids
      Er, of course kids always do that kind of stuff. The point is that they didn't let the entire world know about it by posting their diaries of those escapades online....
      
      DUH !!!!! Of course they didn't. They didn't have the means. If they DID have the Internet and computers DECADES ago, along with cheap or free Internet access, they damn sure WOULD have been posting it.
      
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      - Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:49am
        
        Re: kids will be kids
        "DUH !!!!! Of course they didn't. They didn't have the means. If they DID have the Internet and computers DECADES ago, along with cheap or free Internet access, they damn sure WOULD have been posting it."
        
        And just imagine how much fun the elections would have been had the last two presidents had a myspace page while in HS and college.
        
        "Mr. Clinton, it says here that you had a threesome with two english girls while high on marijauna, and then attended an anti-US rally, and later met your girlfriend Hillary for dinner. Do you have any comment?"
        
        or
        
        "Mr. Bush, your Blog say that after drinking and snorting cocain for a couple of days with your frat buddies, you slept for three days and missed your required National Guard drill weekend, but that you thought it wasn't a big deal because "Dad would take care of it." Any comment?"
        
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    - Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 2:44pm
      
      Re: kids will be kids
      yeah but it's better to be able to talk and be honest about something than be a hypocrite and feed people the line that... you could never imagine letting anything so harmful into your body...I respect the person who does the first much more than the one that does the latter.
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- Madtown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:58am
  
  Re: common sense ...uncommon
  Most leaders have dirt we can dig up - it ain't just today's. Getting head was never so popular until Slick Willie got a lil' in the oval office.
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Yonatron, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:07am

kids will be kids, indeed.
I would think the bright side might be that folks finally come to realize that someone's prior sexual or chemical escapades don't actually reflect on their suitability for a given elective office. Maybe once supposedly "sordid" details seem commonplace, we'll start paying attention to a politician's qualifications or lack thereof.
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- Rikko, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:12am
  
  Re: kids will be kids, indeed.
  You give people too much credit.
  
  Remember that line in MIB?
  "A person is smart. People are stupid, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it."
  
  I love it.
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  - Tassadar, 6 Mar 2006 @ 6:53am
    
    Re: kids will be kids, indeed.
    You got the line from MIB wrong.
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- JustDave, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:13am
  
  Re: kids will be kids, indeed.
  "Maybe once supposedly "sordid" details seem commonplace, we'll start paying attention to a politician's qualifications or lack thereof."
  
  I would like to be the guy taking that action. I don't see it happening. If anything it has gotten worse over past years, with a large broca-like divide
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slick, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:18am

Just wait till they start campaigning on myspace!
When the politicians get myspace pages for their campaigns, then you know we're screwed. Politics will have devolved to 7th grade level popularity contests.
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- Gabriel Tane (profile), 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:35am
  
  Re: Just wait till they start campaigning on myspa
  devolve? I think we're already at the kindergarten "you're a poo-poo head" level of campaigning here.
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- John, 28 Apr 2007 @ 11:05am
  
  Re: Just wait till they start campaigning on myspa
  They already have myspace pages; has the descent already begun?
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Ben McNelly, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:19am

kids will be kids, indeed... but,
although sorid and commonplace atrocities may be relivent in the future, I doubt myspace will be thier sole proprieter. I mean, kids now days are exposed to the same things (basicaly) that we were, but now they just have a global forum to express thier teen, ah "expressions", otherwise known as life.
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Surfer Dave, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:29am

finally
Im glad someone finally notices the stupidity of MySpace.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 11:32am

No Subject Given
I don't think myspace will do anything to politics but put in perspective how many clueless band-wagon politicians there really are. I am part of the MySpace generation, though I, unlike most of everyone, am not a crack head, let alone a crack head who braggs about it. The majority is alredy a bunch of lost idiots.
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miketrin, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:00pm

myspace.
Let's just hope these myspace kiddies never become web developers. Can you imagine an internet that looks like myspace except everywhere. Background images mwith text on them, wacked out color combinations, default icon and pointers out of wack.

god help us!
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- Goatie, 20 Feb 2006 @ 1:12pm
  
  Re: myspace.
  Couldn't agree with you more. It's shameful.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2007 @ 6:46pm
  
  Re: myspace.
  Unfortunately it's not just on myspace that people just copy and paste (imitate) with their own take on what's right and wrong. A lot of Americans i know only think of new ways to get laid, cheat (again with the copying/imitating), and gossip. We're generally devoid of intelligence — so i would say that i am not just afraid of these people becoming web designers i would say i'm afraid of my generation still being alive.
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Eric, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:06pm

No Subject Given
Personally, I'm more afraid of the politicians with a squeaky clean past. Anyone that claims that there's nothing they did as a kid they'd rather forget is either lying, or some sort of sociopath.

As we move towards a transparent society, one in which Google cache remembers everything that we do at every stage in our life... it'll become virtually impossible to find candidates for public office that can hide their, um, indiscretions for very long.

My belief is that this will ultimately be a good thing. These sorts of scandals will become so ubiquitous that the public will grow desensitized to it and they'll cease to have the impact they do. If I was really ideallistic, I would suggest that it would force elections to be about the issues rather than mudslinging.
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- Madtown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:31pm
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  Lets just hope that Google keeps up their fight and doesn't decide to disclose their search records. It is ridiculous to think that nobody can do a search on the Internet any longer with any sense of privacy or confidentiallity. Unless they are searching for kiddie porn or how to build a bomb, I really don't think their personal interests are any of my business. Nor is mine any of theirs.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 6:51pm
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  "Personally, I'm more afraid of the politicians with a squeaky clean past. Anyone that claims that there's nothing they did as a kid they'd rather forget is either lying, or some sort of sociopath."
  
  There's quite a lot I did as I teenager that I'd love to be able to remember :)
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- Louis, 7 Apr 2006 @ 5:38am
  
  Re: No Subject Given by Eric
  Personally, I'm more afraid of the politicians with a squeaky clean past. Anyone that claims that there's nothing they did as a kid they'd rather forget is either lying, or some sort of sociopath.
  
  As we move towards a transparent society, one in which Google cache remembers everything that we do at every stage in our life... it'll become virtually impossible to find candidates for public office that can hide their, um, indiscretions for very long.
  
  My belief is that this will ultimately be a good thing. These sorts of scandals will become so ubiquitous that the public will grow desensitized to it and they'll cease to have the impact they do. If I was really ideallistic, I would suggest that it would force elections to be about the issues rather than mudslinging.
  
  Hear, hear! I don`t believe anyone can claim that they haven`t done at least one thing in their lives that they´re not ashamed of.
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  - Paul, 9 Apr 2006 @ 7:10pm
    
    Re: Re: No Subject Given by Eric
    I can't think of anything I've done that would be negative to my image if it "came out" in a newspaper. Of course, this is from the guy who's almost a senior in college but has yet to be to a college party.
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RL, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:10pm

Yes I wish we could go back...
To the days where we could settle simple political arguments over tea and a deadly duel of gentlemen instead than horrid blogs and hate email.

Lets face it, society's behavior is actually similar or has actually gotten pretty tame over the centuries. When was the last time you heard of your landlord invoking their right to sleep with your daughter on her wedding day, etc.

Whats different today is openness and information. Things are not worse, people are not worse. Its just that we actually know what the hell is going on in the world. Imagine if we had Geraldo during or US weekly a hundred years ago. Back then people didnt have a clue.

Its all the same, nothing changes except perception.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:17pm

No Subject Given
Can you imagine what GW's MySpace would look like if he was in college today?
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- Madtown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:27pm
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  Probably no worse than if I had one from my college days. Actually, had I documented my college days, I would never have gotten a job in my life!
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Kasey, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:19pm

No Subject Given
I think people with myspaces might also beifit from having a myspace in the future because of the simple fact that as long as they do not have anything bad on there page it can be argued how some one is better then another.
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MyspaceKiddie, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:37pm

No Subject Given
First of all, if you're going to write something to bash something you have to learn to write it perfectly and check it before you send it through. This was the most rediculous article I've ever read on TechDirt in the sense that you're complaining about your government officials that aren't even out of high school yet.
Taking a slightly different view on all of this is David Canton, who points out that all of the non-common sense by folks today
......... What the hell did you just say?
Taking a slightly different view on all of this, David Canton points out all of the non-common sense decisions made by folks these days.
That it?
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- Madtown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 12:48pm
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  The point is to get you thinking what sort of electronic trail people are leaving behind these days. Things that kids do in high school can certainly impact them down the road. Putting it into a political light is more for entertainment than anything. It's just trying to highlight the enourmous amount of trash people spew about themselves online these days - nearly naked photos (if not fully naked), phone numbers, setting up dates, cyber-this and cyber-that, etc.
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- Katie, 9 Mar 2006 @ 8:51pm
  
  check your own
  you spelled ridiculous wrong; just thought you might like to take your own advise.~ Myspace member
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 1:19pm

No Subject Given
i go to a newengland prep school. we are going to be the leaders unless something goes truely wrong. we are all smart, socially skilled and dont do stupid shit and get caught. none of us use myspace legitly and we are all patriotic. we have honest debates between the liberals and conservatives here and we need to be smart to hold our ground in these arguments. i think there is hope for us yet as long as some of my friends see the error in supporting bush.
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- MyspaceKiddie, 20 Feb 2006 @ 1:29pm
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  Anonymous Coward... very patriotic.
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- The Cynic, 20 Feb 2006 @ 2:16pm
  
  Think before you speak......
  Before you post any further replies and/or opinions, please learn to think before you speak. You claim to be smart, yet you display one of the oldest forms of stupidity; that of assumption. You assume to be the next leaders of the free world, and you base this assumption on your intelligence and the school you attend. One's IQ does not prepare him for the life ahead of him; neither does a single institution. Preparation does not come by a multitude of experiences or even by an elevated education. Rather, it comes from having wisdom. Also, you claim to be smart, yet you are unable to to write correctly. There is a SHIFT key for a reason, and I promise that you will not feel pain by pressing your "comma" key. Please learn to think before expressing any other opinions; the failure to do so will truly inhibit your ability to learn from this mistake you have made.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 20 Feb 2006 @ 4:53pm
    
    Re: Think before you speak......
    im sorry if i offended anyone just because i go to a New England prep school. yeah, im ued to autocorrect, its a bad habit. We are all inteligent and we are trained to be leaders at my school. Im not saying we will all be leaders but we think for ourselves and use logic and not the bible. I understand people might be angry with me for that post. I dont consider myself better than anyone, I just consider myself more prepared than most kids my age. I concern myself with what is going on around me and dont waste my time making a fool of myself TyPiNg LiKe ThIs. to be honest I wish I was born about 10-20 years earlier. My generation pisses me off. I am sorry if people took my previous message in the wrong way, I do love my country, that is why i am concerned about the future leadership. (I am currently 16)
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- Samantha, 21 Feb 2006 @ 3:14am
  
  Re: No Subject Given
  Thank the Lord that you are going to be one of our leaders one day. I have always wanted to admire someone who was patriotic and intelligent that did not know how to capitalize anything. Amen
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CS, 20 Feb 2006 @ 1:57pm

No Subject Given
How condescending.
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Charlie, 20 Feb 2006 @ 2:12pm

what's in Washington DC Why
Why do the same sorry jerks keep getting elected to DC Because people don't care. Why vote they never listen to us anyway. It's always business a usual and tha't's the way it is. I'm just glad I'm an old fart and you can have this world I'm going to better places ! what could be worst.
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- Madtown, 20 Feb 2006 @ 2:25pm
  
  Re: what's in Washington DC Why
  Better them than me. Let them have their intellectual and personal purses turned upside down and shaken out for the whole world to see. I sure would not welcome that sort of job. Look at what the recent justice nominees had to go through - they even turn the lives of your spouses and kids inside out.
  
  The whole idea is to be careful what you put on the Internet - it may come back to haunt you or someone you know in the future. When my children are old enough, just like with anything else, I will sit down with them and let them know what I feel is appropriate 'net-iquette' and what isn't. It certainly doesn't hurt them I'm a computer programmer and security administrator - as a parent I will assist in making sure they aren't doing inapproproate things online. Things will change dramatically by then I'm sure, but at least I can speak for how I currently feel.
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Derick, 20 Feb 2006 @ 3:01pm

..
I like how the majority of you all are mature enough to be so naive towards myspace.

Personally - I mainly use it to promote, and it does a damn good job at that. I typically like to assaume that I have more common sense than even the average of all Joes, and I have even considered getting into politics on a nation wide scale, and have even researched a few things for my local town on this matter.

I am the MySpace generation. Come on now, how many idiots out there grew up during the same generation as Bush? Probably tons, and perhaps even with equal proportions as to todays.
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- Anonymous Coward, 17 May 2007 @ 2:16am
  
  Re: ..
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Sarah, 20 Feb 2006 @ 3:38pm

myspace
I see nothing wrong with myspace.com.In fact I have an account with it.Myspace is a good place to chat,hook up,or make friends.It's more personal than any of my other email accounts.The people you email acualy write back on personal things.

Sarah
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SpookPirate, 21 Feb 2006 @ 8:50am

Let us not forget...
Before there was MySpace there was Usenet. Many an indiscretion has been documented therein. Face it, everyone leaves a data trail. They only way around it is to live in a shack in Montana.

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Dex7, 30 Mar 2006 @ 1:50am

Don't underestimate
I think that many of you underestimate the power of social networking theory - just like people underestimated the internet when it was conceived in the days of ARPAnet. You might be surprised in a few years. That's all - have fun.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2006 @ 12:51pm

Katie - Check _your_ own
It's advice, not advise.
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A. Kohler, 6 Apr 2006 @ 4:08pm

Both Sides Are Correct
As usual, both sides of the "debate" are correct. I agree that most of MySpace is horrid; however, some of it is not - and to each his ow, anyway. Although I'm a bit too old to be a member of the MySpace Generation, I am a member of the Internet Gerenation (27 years old), born and bred. I recently got a MySpace account due to peer pressure from my RL friends. I initially thought I would never use it, but I have since decided that it will be an excellent promotional tool for my business, as we offer some services (such as writing, editing, and Web design) that can be geared toward high school and college kids.
I have a whole box of photos from my days as a New England prep school student, and you could not pay me to publish them. I would be a lot more likely to vote for someone who admitted to smoking pot in school than for someone who lied about it, though. I also hope that someday people's personal business will be personal and that politicians will be elected based upon their qualifications instead. If the only way that will happen is by everyone putting their business out on the Net, so be it. I'm still not publishing my photos, though.
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Kathy Hanson, 6 May 2006 @ 8:17am

people.
Listen to this. Kids who have computer skills are smart. So what is wrong with having a generation on the computer?
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Self-Proclaimed Crack Head, 19 May 2006 @ 9:47am

LOOOOOOOL
The guy who originally wrote this post is just jealous of all the fun other people are having and is trying to make up for it by putting them down. Don't be so repressed buddy. Nobody cares if you took drugs when you where a kid anymore. Wake up! Look at Bill Clinton, George W Bush and David Cameron. All have a known (albeit ancient) history of drug use and have managed to brush it off because all decent people really care about is how well they do their job. I do not condone drug use but I certainly think that such narrowmindedness is far more dangerous.

Funny post though
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iTuneYouOut, 27 Apr 2007 @ 5:12pm

Rather offensive if you ask me...
Well, just let me say, I am part of the "my space generation," although I realize myspace for what it is and, consequently, am not dumb enough to post my entire life on-line for anyone who feels like reading it, so no, i don't use myspace, but this article seems more of a blanket statement encompassing the whole generation, while yes, i do know many people who use myspace, it is not fair to generalize about the entire generation...
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