Isn’t Life Strange?

There’s an article in today’s Houston Chronicle about some teachers who had content from their Facebook profiles revealed on television by a Houston TV station. 

Putting life online could haunt later

The article mentions one teacher who was so embarrassed at the revelation of a video on his Facebook profile that he quit his job. 

A teacher at South Houston High School in the Pasadena district joked about his mostly Hispanic class’s pronunciation of "mister."

The Pasadena teacher, who could not be reached for comment, resigned after the broadcast.

"He did this rather quickly, out of concern for his students," said Candace Ahlfinger, spokeswoman for the district. "That says a lot about the quality of the young man, a lot of positives."

A lot of positives.  Right.  Those spokespeople sure do know how to weave a tapestry of words, don’t they? 

Perhaps he didn’t want to be beaten within an inch of his life, or most likely, he was so embarrassed that he couldn’t show his face in Pasadena again.  I have no idea what resigning in this case has to do with a person’s character.  If he had used better judgement he never would have posted the video on the Internet in the first place.  But perhaps the young man has learned a valuable lesson, and maybe others can learn from his mistake. 

And this is the point of my little rant here. 

There is no one on this planet who has lived a life without saying or doing something regrettable.  Making mistakes is part of the wild and wacky experience we call life.  

I cannot put into words how grateful I am that I got out of school and into the real world before the advent of online networking, profile web sites, digital photography, and the practice of documenting online everything a person says or does.  If there had been cameras present for some of my antics during my formative years, the limited and self-induced embarrassment I endured then might still be following me today. 

Much can be said about the indiscretions of youth.  Those who are my age or older know all about it, so I won’t bore you with the details.  This age of information and the ability to instantly communicate with the world has provided a great opportunity for people to make colossal lapses in judgement.  While I fully comprehend the age-old truth that young people do stupid things, I am completely lost when trying to understand why they want the world to know about them.  This is even more puzzling when considering college students looking for their first jobs. 

I don’t know if there are any easy solutions to this strange problem but I suppose this is a new lesson that parents can teach their children to help them avoid potential embarrassment and perhaps even more serious problems when trying to convince someone else to give them a job.  All I can offer from my observations are three simple guidelines. 

• Don’t allow yourself to be photographed or filmed in any compromising situations. 
• Be very careful of the people you meet and the information you give online. 
• Don’t do anything online that you wouldn’t want your family or friends to know about

It’s unfortunate that so many people are oblivious to concepts so clear to the rest of us.