Obama tells kids to be wary of Facebook

It's not every day that a high school student gets some advice on social networking from a president.

So it was interesting to hear where President Obama's focus lay Tuesday when talking to 40 students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., before his nationally broadcast speech to America's schoolkids.

There he was in the school library. Books abounded. Yet his focus fell on Facebook. According to the Associated Press, President Obama asked the 40 assembled kids, all sitting politely on nice wooden chairs, to think very carefully about their socially-networked content.

"Be careful what you post on Facebook. Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he told the kids.

Now you can see that the president, himself the father of two girls, is worried about the future consequences of present actions.

Is the president right to worry about kids' Facebook postings?

(Credit: CC SEIU International/Flickr)

He is concerned, no doubt, that practices such as sexting and other possibly absurd types of openness on social networking sites might lead to some future calamity.

But I wonder if this is entirely true. One of the strange effects that time has on human life is to render somewhat meaningless the actions of the past.

Once, people might have been concerned if their employee, or, indeed, their president, had smoked pot at some point in their flailing youth. Now, it seems almost a rite of passage. If you didn't at least try it, you seem just faintly peculiar.

Once you reach a certain age, does anyone really care what you did when you were 14? So isn't it fair to wonder just what effect kids' socially networked indiscretions might have 20 years from now?

Might it be that by then social networking will seem so ridiculously normal, that you will seem strange not to have some something embarrassing in your younger days, available for all to see?

Might it be possible that those who eschew a life exposed online will be seen to be the odd ones, rather than those who let what seems to be a little too much hang out?

I know it may be difficult to imagine, viewing it from our current perspective. I know that employers these days often search the Web for incriminating evidence of the misdeeds of potential employees. ("Aagh. He got drunk at a party three years ago! I'm not employing him!")

But it's extraordinary how quickly the apparently abnormal becomes the norm, especially with the accelerated change created by anything Web-based.

Of course, there will be those of you who will have had your heads turned by another aspect of the president's talk.

Why did he say "Facebook"? And not "MySpace"? And not "Twitter"?

I know there will be at least two boardrooms Wednesday where everyone will be terribly concerned about this apparent endorsement of Facebook's ubiquity.

I wonder if the CEOs of MySpace and Twitter will blog about it, or at least slip some bons mots of concern onto their Facebook pages.

[cshell]

"Later somewhere in your life" does not have to be a distant future. I've recently read a news article about a young woman involved in a auto accident who's pictures on a social network sites showing her drinking beer are being use in against her in a law suit.

[PixP]

Did he talk about the BIG spending bill deficit that he created just for them?

[catch23]

Well, at least they will get roads and bridges and fixed schools out of this deficit.
All Bush gave us for a $3 trillion deficit is craters in a country that did nothing to us.

[screamapillar]

Indeed a 50 year deficit in adequate infrastructure spending being rectified at an appropriate time (ie when the market is contracting so it is appropriate for government to employ economic temporary stimulus until the market can stand up again at which time the government will contract proportionally and take measure to recover the deficit).

[Cricker12]

Most kids want to "let it all hang out", but in fact the less people know about you the better. If it isn't something you would share with a stranger you shouldn't be posting it online.

[V2Blast]

Exactly. If other people can see (many) pictures of you getting wasted at some party, it might affect job prospects - or just people's opinions of you in general.

[murph0613]

There are still some of us who care about what someone did in their past. Some that still believe that character still counts for something. I know we're a dying breed in this society, but that's not a good enough reason to change course, just because it's not a popular way of thinking. And employers will always want to know about a potential employee's "black holes" of conduct, because they may surface while on the job! The best policy for social networking on the Internet is to keep it to a minimum, and save all of your personal information for in person interactions.

[ddesy]

"Character" exists whether or not someone posts something on a social networking site. That said, it is also something that can change whether or not you believe it. What someone does at one time might be completely out of character in his or her future.

[V2Blast]

Character can change, yes, but if there are many pictures of you getting wasted at some party or another - even if they're from several years ago - there's nothing on Facebook that can really prove that you aren't still like that.

[freeskierWI]

Murph, I highly doubt that you were a little angel your entire life. You are only fooling yourself. I agree that people should be careful as to what they post online. And if you want to share stuff online, make sure the posts are protected via specialized privacy settings.

Some things can't be controlled, for example: What if a young man is out at a bachelor party, and a picture is taken with a stripper in the background. Whats to stop someone from posting that picture online, without one's consent. Thus, an employer (that thinks like Murph) who is sneaking about online digging up garbage, would come to the conclusion that this individual has a problem with sex, strippers, alcohol, etc, whatever Murph's little brain desires to 'assume'.

Maybe, it is none of your business Murph.

[screamapillar]

Just to be seemingly contradictory I agree with both Murph and Freeskier!

Character is important and one should be lean with postings on the web of personal information as it can and will be used against them. I refuse to have any identified web presence, but that is me. I'm a private person with or without the web and having these things available doesn't change that. Others aren't and although, like Obama, I'd stress to them, be careful/cautious, it is still a risk they can choose to take on. Obama I dare say is concerned that young people can be more easily influenced, subject to peer pressure, etc to do things/post things that are not reflective necessarily of who that individual is... which is a nice segway I suppose into Freeskier's point...

Those that use content on the web against another - ie judge a person's entire character based on a single act that was no doubt an exception to the rule - they themselves are of questionable character. They lack good character, empathy, a sense of social justice, etc etc to judge a person on what they find on something like Facebook. Talk to the person, judge them on who they are in the fair grounds of what you were judged on. Most likely you were employed before social networking sites existed, so you were employed purely based on that interview - give the young person you are looking at employing the same benefit.

[mikexeter]

It is not a good idea to use Facebook , it just isn't.

[screamapillar]

I always find it amusing people think they are so important that anyone would WANT to see all that... but then, the same could be said about this very post!! :)

[perfectblue97]

Apparently this is all part of his big bad scary socialist agenda. Personally, I fail to see the connection between telling kids to work hard in school and not to put naked pictures of themselves on Facebook, and El Che.

[dowell100]

Hey, is Matyszczyk on vacation or what? This must be a guest columnist. This is the first Technically Incorrect article I've ever read that has substance and merit.

[ricallan]

Wrong about Maty on both counts. Whatsamatter, you get turned down for a blogger gig @ Cnet?

[born1968]

In Obama's school speech he praised the school children of 20 years ago who went off to change how we communicate, and gave credit to the inventors of facebook. I think we can all agree about how computer saavy young Americans are today. FB allows users to join groups, all kinds of groups to get all types of information. Some can include all types of blogs on every imaginable issue. Today's youth can easily twitter anything, for example, even read criticism about his speech. If someone goes back in time and reads his comment about how fb posts can follow you throughout your life, it may sound archaic, or give impression that big brother is watching over us.

[hawkeyeaz1]

Habits start early. Make it a habit not to tell the world every intimate detail of what might embarrass you later, then down the road, it will be easier to keep information private when the job interview looms. And you won't tell advertising agencies as much about you.

[IT_Lady]

Twitter and Myspace are major social networking sites but it seems like Facebook stimulates much more interaction for some reason. I do warn children about how permanent the internet can be so its important to be careful what information you post, especially during a heated moment or an action that may be embarrassing later on. Even if you change your status or post the wrong picture for a few seconds, the users can pull it up and hit "print screen" and its there forever. The internet is an infinite place so kids really should be careful.

[jake3373]

You can end your facebook account at any time... so if you had a facebook account at 14 years old, and it was "embarrising", you could delete it at 29 years old and everything is gone. Then, you could create a new account (facebook might get mad at you, i don't know how they would react to this if they found out.)

[V2Blast]

Facebook doesn't care if you delete and recreate your account.

[Mr.Whippy]

Even if you do delete (not deactivate), delete your profile, what about all those pictures someone may have already copied from your profile. Or all the cached copies sitting on everyones hard drive of all the people who ever looked at that photo or whatever. Once it's out there it's too late.

[shakshuka95]

Doesn't Mr. Obama have anything better to do? Sure, Facebook and other social networking sites can be dangerous, but this is the President of the United States! Doesn't he have important paper work to finish, or important decisions to make? At the very least he should address matters that matter more than what the kids do online! Lectures about such things are something parents tell their kids, not the President of the United States. I think Mr. Obama should be worrying more about the recession and his socialized healthcare rather than informing teenagers about the dangers of social networking.

[CyR00k]

Chris,
I really hope that you are right in asserting that years from now social networking will not be a liability to people's careers. I really can''t understand the compunction to punish people for having fun, and moreover, why should anyone be made to feel that some nebulous other has jurisdiction over the things that they are allowed to admit that they enjoy? I would love to live in a world where even supposed friends didn't feel that they have the authority to tell you that your hobbies make your life worthless. Unfortunately people like @murph0613 will always believe that they have the right to tell others how to live their lives.

By the way @murph0613 why the hell should any employer be given complete and utter control over your life? Do you have a life away from work? Did your boss give you permission to read this article and comment on it? Did you get you comment approved by someone else before you submitted it? Just because employers think and act like they own you doesn't mean they actually own you, you are allowed a life and interests aside for your 40 hours a week.

[science_mom]

Social networking has it's pros & cons, and it's important to ensure that kids are aware of it and they understand it. As a kid, one doesn't think too much about the future, but online profiles can cause trouble. In anycase, I think they should be spending time on sites like pbs.com, neok12.com, quizlet.com and the like.