The End of Ephemeral Youth

by Matt Stambaugh

Recently, a British Columbia NDP candidate decided to resign over Facebook photos displaying what some consider to be ‘lewd and inappropriate conduct’ for a future representative.   It is just the latest in a string of incidents where ‘private’ photos on Facebook have been ferreted out by the media and displayed for all to see.  This issue illustrates two important points;

1.  Nothing posted on Facebook should ever be considered private.
2.  It is much more difficult to have a foolish youth without someone placing it in the public record.One of the difficulties of Facebook is that the candidate may not have posted the pictures themselves.  Even people that don’t have a Facebook account may be ‘tagged’ by people posting photos to the site, allowing inquisitive researchers a fantastic tool by which to evaluate the moral fibre of anyone from a current romantic partner to a future politician or employee.

Everyone is quick to blame the people who’s photos are exposed – ‘how could he be so careless, you need to keep some parts of your life private’ – but the Internet is quickly evolving to make voyeurs out of all of us and at some point politics, relationships, and business will have to adapt.

All of us have naughty little secrets and perhaps the Internet is spawning the next social revolution whereby we all admit that sometimes we like to enjoy ourselves in slightly less “proper” ways, and quit holding our leaders to certainly difficult, if not unattainable, personal histories.

I for one would certainly be a hypocrite if I judged the candidate to be a lesser person based on these photos…

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Matt Stambaugh is an Information Security Consultant who dabbles in media, primarily as a weekly national technology columnist with CBC Radio. This post is cross-posted to www.mattstambaugh.com.