The Grandfather Paradox

[Varda]

Of course it was illegal. That was the point. We’re all very familiar with the Grandfather Paradox, thank you very much, but hasn’t it occurred to you that we were aiming to erase ourselves from the timeline?

So we went back with daggers and family photographs to eliminate the troublesome grandfather and win our independence.

And you have to ask why?

Look around you. DNA swipes, retinal scans, ubiquitous security chips, 24-7 surveillance. And that’s just scratching the surface. We’ve existed online since before our births. We’ve never not been on camera. It’s suffocating.

And you have to ask why.

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This story is my apology to the whole generation that's gonna have to grow up with all their parents' Facebook status updates from their infancy following them around. At least all my embarrassing baby pictures aren't Google indexed and tagged with my name!

[ROU Killing Time]

Well now, that's a radical solution.

[MonsieurMoustache]

Oh gods...will there be a google search for fifty year old Facebook pages? There will be, won't there? It will never die...My kids will know I was a drabblian.Drabbler? Drabblerine.

They're gonna be so popular in school.

[strawman]

No one ever said the Convergence would be painless.

[Varda]

My husband read this and thought it was an overreaction. To which I replied, "You work with teenagers! There is no such thing as overreaction!"

This is not to besmirch the name of teens who have excellent self-control. Please don't kill me, your grandfather's over there!

[chemistryguy]

Oh gods...will there be a google search for fifty year old Facebook pages? There will be, won't there? It will never die...My kids will know I was a drabblian.Drabbler? Drabblerine.

They're gonna be so popular in school.

You have no freaking clue how embarrassed my kids when they'll look back at my YouTube years. It gives me immense pleasure.

[ROU Killing Time]

"We'll always remember, in digital splendor, the things we wished we didn't remember, the way we were..."

Somebody get me a hanky, woulda? I'm feeling verklempt.

[Flintknapper]

I actually like where we are at. I google everything and everyone. It is always fascinating to see what comes up: both the good and bad. You can find some really obscure stuff about yourself. I found a 20 minute video done by some college students of me reading a paper at a small museum in Las Vegas, New Mexico. I remember not being very good in that presentation and the fact that this is what represents me to the world as a speaker is a bit unnerving (bad). Yet a journalist picked it up and decided to do an article on my paper for a national mainstream magazine (so good too).

[Varda]

While I totally agree with the fun and value in our online lives being there for the next generation to enjoy/laugh at/relentlessly mock, I still think kids nowaways face a truly awful prospect of having their parents document their lives in explicit detail in a way that no previous generation's had to endure.

I have acquaintances who will write things on Facebook/Twitter/their blogs along the lines of, "This morning, little Percy smeared his sister with feces, then they both ran around the house naked except for their underwear on their heads. HERE'S A PICTURE!"

While I understand these things happen, someday their little larva is going to grow up and have to deal with the fact that this is forever a part of their publicly searchable electronic history. I wish those parents lacking in discretion would consider this, and instead pick up the phone to tell their horror stories, or perhaps write a thinly veiled Drabble about it.

[strawman]

On the other hand, Shame is a great motivator. There are many who abstain from alcohol because they witnessed their parents under its influence. And it might have been a great many more if they had not witnessed it at so early an age that they mistook the behavior for normal.

Same for tats, piercings, and the Hokey Pokey.