This guest post was contributed by well-known web skeptic Drama 2.0.
I was a National Merit Scholar who got a free ride to Yale. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and hadbeen nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship. I was a standout on the rowing team, active member of the local community and participated in student groups, including the Yale Political Union. Now that I was ready to make my way into the real world, two major investment banks were trying to woo me. Sixfigure signing bonuses were on the table, I was ready to buy a luxury condo in New York to serve as my bachelor pad and my brand new BMW M6 with custom paint and 22” rims had already been ordered.
And then it all came crumbling down. When I wasn’t studying, rowing, volunteering and networking, I was boozing, smoking, snorting and womanizing. My penchant for substances and pretty sorority girls from Martha’s Vineyard wouldn’t have been a problem had the pictures of my debauchery not made it onto Facebook and been discovered by the investment banks trying to recruit me. After learning that I lacked discretion and common sense, my job offers evaporated and I turned to a life of blogging.
Of course, Drama 2.0 never went to Yale, but the fictional story above is quite familiar to those who really have lost a job offer because of the information they posted on the Internet and it highlights the fact that the sharing of personal information online in the age of user-generated content can change the lives of individuals in very negative ways. Internet services that enable users to share their own content have reached mainstream popularity and as a result, the concept of individual privacy has not only been changed, but to a real extent, has been completely tossed out the window.
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