On 01.03.2017 12:29 PM, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 09:43:29 on Wed, 1 Mar
2017, d remarked:
Only because they are young and dumb. Payback will be inevitable and
painful. We are, after all, less than ten years into this new era, and
the dust has barely had time to settle.
There is a big difference when *everybody* has some sort of photo or
social media posts from their past that they would be embarrassed
about, though. At that point, it won't be "what a pillock" but rather
it will be a "there but for the grace of god go I".
Maybe, but you need to wait until today's University students are senior
managers.
I'm not so sure about that. After all, *this* is social media, albeit text
only and anyone who knows anything about usenet could track down a load of
information about us on here.
Yes, it is, and they could.
And even though I use an alias I know its not foolproof and if someone
wanted to find out who I was then with a bit of effort they could and
then they'll know all my views which may or may not be a good fit with
Acme Plc or whoever. Luckily usenet is off the radar to most people
these days but its not 100% guaranteed especially when applying for
jobs with IT companies.
Which proves my point - until senior managers take an attitude of "there
but for the grace of god go I" regarding over-exuberant Usenet postings,
there is a risk. And despite Usenet being more widespread since the
eternal september, I don't think many senior managers have reached that
yet.
Speaking as a senior manager, I'm pretty sure there are postings I made on
Usenet in the 1980s I'd probably regret now, and being well aware of the
perils of social media would absolutely not be holding someone's youthful
indiscretions against them provided they're not of a nature that brings
into doubt their trustworthiness.
I suspect I am not unique and senior managers - in tech firms in particular
- are rather more forward thinking than you imagine. (Many of my peers do
not, for example, think a mobile boarding pass is the work of the devil and
don't insist on using a phone made of bakelite because the batteries in
those new fangled smartphones just don't last enough...)