Openness online

"You can't open your heart in a blog. It's what it's there for, but it's the one place you can't"

-- Mettavihari

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas they say. And that may or may not be true. A lot of things that happened in Vegas have stayed behind in Vegas (Britney Spears' thirty-something hour marriage for one). But some things haven't. But I digress. The more appropriate statement is what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet

And it does. Oh not in the, this was on the internet so it's completely unrelated with my life way. But in a somewhat more, for want of a better word, disturbing way. Everything you say and do on the 'net gets archived somewhere. At the same time that sites like MySpace, FaceBook and Blogger have made it easier and easier for people to put their life online, Google and The Wayback Machine have made it easier and easier for others to track you down.

The problem with this information is that it never goes away. Something you said or did many years ago will probably come back to bite you in the ass. Ask Google founder Sergey Bring (who, by the way, looks absolutely ravishing in a dress), or maybe Bill Gates (smiling for the mugshot camera), or maybe the many people who have lost jobs, lost jobs, and Lost jobs because of pictures that they or their friends posted on the internet.

We all do stupid things. Some more stupid than others. We all hold beliefs during parts of our lives that don't seem appropriate at others. Maybe life, which has a way of changing people, changed what we believed in. Maybe our beliefs stayed the same, but society didn't. I still have a pair of cringeworthy MC Hammer pants from the late 80's/early 90's (I'm waiting for them to come back into fashion). There are posts that I have made on usenet that may be considered "supporting terrorists". There are postings here that my kids will use against me when they get busted for something.

But that's just the point. Weblogs were originally called Online Journals. People wrote their thoughts and their lives on them. People like Mary Anne Mohanraj who has one of the oldest online journals in the world, wrote a lot of their lives. But now, everyone has to be careful. So many companies google their employees, prospective and current. There are companies that will, for a fee, google your employees to find what they say about you and themselves. There are others that will (also for a fee) hide those things that you said, and wish you hadn't.

So what do you do? I know many people here censor for posterity. I try not to, but then, sometimes I wonder what my postings may cost me in the future. I've taken down one posting, and I don't intend to take down any more. So what do we do? Do we write what we feel? Or write what we hope to be seen as by the people around us? Do we censor ourselves to appear more acceptable to society? to our friends who may read it? Our neighbours? Prospective employers?

And what happens when time proves you wrong? When what you said or did many years ago is not acceptable now? I don't have answers for anyone. All I know is that this blog is me. Unvarnished and unedited. You read what I feel and what I believe in. My screwups as well as my triumphs are here for the world to see. How do you blog? How do you handle things? I would like to know.