"The Web Means the End of Forgetting"

In the web article, “The Web Means the End of Forgetting” Jeffrey Rosen explains how the internet has many social networking sites that have the potential to make you lose your job or even ban you from entering the country, all depending on what you post.  He gives an example of a 25 year old teacher from Conestoga Valley High School, Stacey Snyder.  She posted a photo of herself at a party on her MySpace page, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.”  The photo was viewed as unprofessional and a way of promoting under age drinking to her students.  Snyder was denied a teaching degree all because of one photo on a social networking site that is thought to not influence your professional life.  Everyone seems to think that if a photo or video is posted on a site such as Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, no one will see it other than their friends or followers.  In today’s society, employers want people working for them that not only work hard at their job, but leave a good impression of the company outside of work.  It was said in the article that “The worst thing you’ve done is most often the first thing everyone know about you.” The majority of the population pays more attention the bad people do, instead of focusing on the good.  Society has come to terms with the fact that humans evolve over time and can learn from past experiences, but that doesn’t always mean you get a second chance.  Jeffrey Rosen talks about how we can’t control what other people think about us or how they view us.  What we can do is control what they are basing their judgment off of.  The point of this article isn’t to stop people from partying and having a good time.  It’s just to make people aware of how much your life can be affected from what you post on a social networking site.  People in today’s society just need to learn how to keep their personal lives private, and not let it interfere with their professional lives.