Online Contents Sharing: How far is too far? A comparative of then and now

It is difficult, perhaps almost impossible to know exactly the life and times of our parents and elderly relations who have existed prior to the advent of internet, particularly the social media. Back then, there was no Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Badoo or Instagram. Communications were mainly formal; meeting people face-to-face was the in-thing as there was no Skype for online chats or emails and whatsapp for superfast message deliveries and responses. That was a heck of trouble, the new generation would opine, and though I totally do not disagree with them but would rather say that our parents may not have taken it that way though. Might be they liked it so, might be they did not.

But how can we tell? Of course, word or mouth is never that reliable as lies would most definitely set in. ambiguity and adulteration of the truth is inevitable also no matter how careful the reporter may be in telling the tale due to mistakes whether intentional or otherwise. Fear and/or personal, selfish interest could also predispose the truth to aversions of sorts. Our parents might not have been the saints we're made to know and see. They might have been better or worse than us. The question remains, how do we know? Perhaps the pic on their or friends Facebook would tell, perhaps the text messages across social sites would testify, perhaps their Instagram would speak up, perhaps we would have seen or shared some of their tweets. It’s a whole long story, really long.

Can you please close an eye and ponder for a second? Don't you think our knowledge of these would have caused problems for the new generation? Imagine discovering that some of the truths you were told were actually false, how would you feel? It could lead to strife, broken homes, and social disharmony. How far is too far then, between life then and now? The new generation has abused the new media. You may now keep both eyes open.

Similar situation for our forebears and parents as regards the issue of identity and privacy cannot be said of the new generation. The generation of the now has almost thrown caution to the winds and I wonder what we shall tell our children - that we used to dress responsibly with half-naked picture dangling on our Facebook walls, Instagram and twitter profiles? That we were good advisers when our posts on social networks encouraged crime, rebellion, revolt, abuse and nonchalance? Or that we were best of students when we were almost always online daily indulging in aimless chats? What will we tell our sons and daughters and the generation coming after us, and how shall we influence them positively?

The nest generation will not require a seer to know the past life of the present generation. Just a click would do the magic even as the web gets both simplified and complicated too. Lies would not help much, as there would be no room for fear by the witnesses – that is if life witnesses would ever be necessary again as everything could be accessed by just a click. It is high time we retraced our steps and checked our activities on the web as nothing posted online can be totally retrieved, no matter how hard we try. You may delete it from your account, but how will you delete it from the thousands of friends and alien accounts it has gone into, whether knowingly or otherwise. The time to stop/start is not later but now.