Facebook Forever

The NYT carried an article yesterday commenting on how difficult it is to remove one's identity from Facebook. In short, it's extremely difficult -- perhaps impossible -- to remove all vestiges of one's participation.  Apparently, people are surprised by this.  The truth is, the permanency of one's on-line presence has been a fact of life for quite some time.  For example, a fascinating site known as the "Wayback Machine" on the "Internet Archive" has silently logged the web for years (try searching for a page you posted years ago, but thought was removed or permanently changed -- it's startling in its comprehensiveness). 

Permanency may be the new reality, but I would imagine that most of us are not prepared to face it.  There's a duplicity in our Internet interactions.  We engage in ever more prolific posting, with the notion that some unwritten code of ethics will prevent it from surfacing in an unexpected context in the future.  But most would have no qualms about running a Google search on an acquaintance or prospective employee, perusing all that appears, personal or not.  It has been argued that this is a temporary problem because younger people are entirely accustomed to having embarrassing information on the Internet.  Perhaps it will become so common place as to be ignored.  I'm not so sure.  When America's youth graduates to positions of power, I believe concerns about corporate image and personal judgment pose the same issues no matter what one's age or experience.  Maybe there will be some increased flexibility on what is acceptable, but it is obviously better to be cautious.