So nice to meet me

I could use my middle name as a last name.

I mean, who isn’t friends with at least one Megan Anne or Sarah Nicole? And Tyler Douglas does have a nice ring to it. But the goal is to be smart, not ridiculous. It seems like this Facebook face-lift is going to be tougher than I thought.

Not that I have anything to hide.

I don’t.

Seriously.

I just want to be proactive about my online persona. About my Internet identity. About who people meet when they Google “Tyler Chernesky.”

You can call me narcissistic, but don’t pretend like you’ve never wondered how you come off online. You have.

In fact, the Pew Research Center has shown the majority of American adults use search engines to keep tabs on their world-wide webutations.
Chances are, you’ve removed a poorly articulated status on more than one occasion.

And you’ve probably untagged an unflattering photo as well. Profile management is a fact of life in the Internet age.

Whether it’s choosing to publish your birthday or deciding whether “Jesus shaves” accurately describes your religious views, each bit of personal information posted online paints a portrait of you for the world. And not only is the portrait painted, it’s preserved.

Last month, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt suggested young people should be entitled to change their identities so they might escape the details of their “misspent” youths.

These details, of course, have been meticulously recorded, catalogued, stored and made available to all by the very corporation he runs.

Until Schmidt’s suggestion becomes reality, however, you and I seem to be tethered to our pasts, which is nothing new.

Reputations have followed people for as long as we’ve been doing things that are smart, stupid or scandalous enough to inspire others to talk about it. Nevertheless, I wonder if we should embrace Schmidt’s words and panic. Because I don’t want a new identity. I rather like the one I have now.

But in two years, it’ll have to go, right? Or maybe there’s another way? Maybe I don’t need to begin the new name hunt just yet.
 
Maybe legislation will save my employment prospects.
A new German law bars employers from using social networking sites to research potential employees.

It would be unethical for a company to examine the abundant information found on social networking sites, these lawmakers are imagining and legislating a future where personal pasts don’t interfere with professional futures.

Such a law, which protects personal privacy and individual autonomy, seems like it would play well in the American political sphere.
Or, I guess I could live a life that, even if it were accurately portrayed on Facebook, wouldn’t paint me as an irresponsible, lying addict.

It wouldn’t suggest I was immature or out of touch. It might require a large dose of discipline and a whole lot of self-control.  

But it sure beats Tyler Douglas.


E-mail: tycherne@indiana.edu