The recent presidential election made history not only because the first black president was elected, but also because of the use of technology during the campaigns. It is known that an influential factor in President Obama's landslide win was his campaign's mastery of the Internet, Facebook and text messaging. The whole dynamic of the presidential race was transformed by these information-sharing technologies.
But even though Obama made great use of the technological revolution to organize his supporters, he is not the product of the Facebook generation. He did not grow up sharing his private moments through status updates with 1,000 Facebook friends. He didn't share scores and scores of photographs, videos and status updates of his romantic pursuits or fraternity escapades with one and all. So the question is, how will the public availability of all this private information affect our perception of those who run for higher office in the future? Will our pool of potential candidates be reduced to an almost non-existent pristine few? And if so, are we sure these will be the people we want to lead us?
Today's media regards it as a coup when it manages to capture a few private moments of public personalities. For instance, Time magazine photos of a suave and collegiate Obama with a leather jacket and cigarette in mouth made national headlines.
But these kinds of images will be commonplace 16 years from now when today's 20-year-olds become eligible to run for president. Forget the media, employers and college admission officials are already tapping into Facebook to learn about foolish mistakes made by potential applicants. Photos from Facebook have even been used as conclusive evidence in criminal cases.
The fact is that, at some point, everyone has done something unlawful, unethical or simply embarrassing - and for today's youth, chances are that that something is saved on a classmate's Blackberry or is permanently posted on the Internet (Facebook does not delete your information, even after you've deleted your profile).
Many argue that people who have ambitions for higher office should simply refrain from compromising behavior so that they will be free of these new dangers. But that is unrealistic. It will require one to have omniscience about one's future and refrain from behavior that is commonplace for the vast majority of our peers. Indeed, 80 percent of Americans have drunk alcohol illegally by the time they are in 12th grade (according to teenhelp.com). It is unreasonable to expect people to undergo a turnaround shift in behavior simply because new information technologies are available.
Some say that the solution is to not to refrain from engaging in such behavior, but to be more discrete about them. "Don't post anything on your Facebook that you wouldn't want your grandmother to see," Scott Anderson, director of college guidance at St. George's Independent School, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. But this is not a solution either, as you have no control over what other people post on Facebook (or simply have saved somewhere).
So what will happen to the 85 percent of college students who use Facebook (according to The Stanford Daily)? Will they all be encumbered from seeking prestigious leadership positions because of their well-documented youthful indiscretions? If that is the case, then the 2024 candidate pool is looking very bleak.
In an age when privacy, faced with a battle against communication technology, is of decaying importance, my prediction is that our youthful "indiscretions" will cease to be of importance. It will no longer matter what the next Barack Obama did when he was 18, because, courtesy of evidence permanently saved on Facebook, computers and the Internet, it will be well-accepted that everyone acted foolishly when they were young! So much dirty laundry will be freely available that the stealthy tabloid detective who tries and digs up ancient sleaze will become obsolete.
Some might worry that this Facebook culture will lead to a coarsening of our social mores. But I think we will make an important step in seeing one another as much for our flaws as our virtues. We will see our leaders for who they really are, not as some exalted persona of our imagination, but as mortal and fallible beings. And this, I believe, is something to be celebrated, not mourned.
