(with apologies to Peter Steiner http://bit.ly/rOjHWf)
The below link forwarded not so much for the content — I'm sure you could find 11 zillion comments on Facebook saying pretty much the same, asinine thing — but because it's emblematic of people, especially but not solely public figures, realizing that there's no such thing as "just a private joking reference between us 'friends'" on the Internet. Put it in Facebook, or Twitter, or in your blog, or as a comment on someone else's blog, and it might come back to bite you some day, if it's a biting sort of thing. "Personal Opinion Security through Obscurity" fails when Google searches are available.
And, thus, yet another small town politician doesn't think about what they put in their Facebook once upon a time, then prevaricates while taking the content down, not aware of things like "screen captures." Hilarity / outrage ensue.
At the same time, I have to think that society is going to figure out new bounds of what to treat as private, or what to tolerate as personal opinion, or else the future of things like Facebook and the like will have to change dramatically. When we're all in the goldfish bowl, something has to give to reach equilibrium. I'm thinking of the comment in Japan about how nudity is seen but not looked at … perhaps naked opinions in certain settings will come to be treated the same way. #ddtb
Embedded Link
Small-Town Mayor No Longer Loves NYC Because 'Queers' Can Get Married There
Troy, Michigan mayor Janice Daniels will never again be able to visit New York City without bumping into hordes of same-sex married couples showing off their wedding bands and ruining the city she onc…
Via +Doyce Testerman, a somewhat related thought: http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/322261cd73/why-internet-commenters-will-eventually-end-the-world