The children of the Facebook era-which truly began in 2006, when the platform opened to everyone-are growing up, preparing to enter the workforce, and facing the consequences of their parents’ social-media use. But now, thoughtless choices made years ago-a keg stand photographed, a grocery-store argument taped-can define our digital footprints, and a generation of parents like Millie’s are knowingly burdening their children with an even bigger online dossier. Two decades ago, this tantrum would have been just another bit of family lore, or at worst, a home video trotted out for relatives every Christmas Eve. “This is a great ad for birth control,” one wrote. Nine million strangers watched her breakdown, and thousands of them commented on it. (Luggage, unsurprisingly, was not what she wanted from Santa.) Her parents scrambled to explain that the real presents-tickets to a four-day Disney cruise-were actually inside the suitcases, but Millie was too far gone. When the large boxes in front of them turned out to contain two suitcases, Millie, who appeared to be about 4 years old, burst into tears. In December, I watched a TikTok of two young sisters named Olivia and Millie opening Christmas presents. I feel relief whenever I’m reminded of those vanished artifacts, and even more so when I see pictures and videos of children on the internet today, who won’t be so lucky. Even my earliest digital activity-posting emotional MySpace photo captions and homemade music videos-took place in the new and unsophisticated internet of the early 2000s, and has, blissfully, been lost to time. But I’m old enough that the kompromat is safe in the confines of physical photo albums and VHS tapes in my parents’ attic. I was photographed waddling in nothing but a diaper, filmed smearing food all over my face instead of eating it. My baby pictures and videos are the standard compendium of embarrassment. macOS 12.This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday.macOS 13 Ventura includes new wallpaper, and you can download it right here.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |