the state of the internet

My new job involves the Internet. I'm expected to know the latest about the online world, web trends, and how to analyze every web metric, site statistic, and internet detail. I receive more emails from mediapost.com than my boyfriend. I constantly read about web 2.0 and ponder the business decisions of google, yahoo, and apple everyday. (And, you wonder why I started a blog).

I read a super interesting article today about our online "privacy/control" or lack thereof called We're all celebrities in post-privacy age. I thought it was interesting when I read: "George W. Bush and Bill Clinton might never have been elected president had sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube or News Corp.'s MySpace, the world's biggest online meeting places, existed to record the events of their younger years." I've thought the very same thing before. Or, in another words who are we going to elect in 20 years when we can expose the AIM chats, photo galleries or blogs belonging to any presidential candidate?

I think the voting population will probably need to be much more realistic about each candidates online revelations or recorded behavior that leaked on the net (or they uploaded to their flikr site). LOL ;) The fact is that the advancement of technology and our introduction to the online realm has completely changed the way we interact with others and the way we express ourselves. It is important to be conscious of our behavior even more than ever. It's not just think before you speak (support site), it's think before you post. You might really, really want to share that awesome picture from last night's party but is it really worth risking a great job opportunity, your reputation or your safety?

What is interesting though is thinking about how much more we'll know about the great minds of tomorrow. How wonderful would it have been to study Socrates in school or to learn about Blackbeard's adventures and reading their personal blogs. So cool, I believe.