In the last week it has really dawned on me just how hard it now is to escape your past. There was a rumour that a neighbour (call him X) had been convicted of a sexual assault. I typed X's surname name into google, plus the words "sexual assault," and a story from the local paper immediately popped up. It took me seconds to find. He had been convicted 12 years ago, yet the story was still there. Obviously that is a very serious thing, but I can think of several other people who were convicted of relatively minor (though often quite shameful) offences. In every case the story is still out there. You only have to type their name into google and the story appears – often from years ago.
When I was a teen (in the 1990s), people would often point someone out and say "see that guy, well he went to court for X or Y," but I hardly ever listened because there was no way of knowing if it was true. I'd think "ah, the whole thing has probably been exaggerated" and then forget it. Today, you can type their name into your Iphone and bingo.
It does make me wonder where we're going. Will privacy soon be a thing of the past? When I look back over my life, and think of some of the stupid things I have done, the thought of other people being able to read about (or even watch) them any time they like is just horrendous. Thank god I was a teen just before the Internet took off. Young people seem to film everything their friends do, and there are cameras everywhere you look. Also, cyberspace has limitless storage (it's not like the Internet gets full!). I remember a friend telling me that she knew someone at university who wouldn't let himself be photographed or filmed on night's out. He wanted to go into politics and was afraid that photos or video footage would re-surface some day and ruin his career! Once it's out in cyberspace it's out there forever, whether it's a sextape or the newspaper report of a crime or the screenshot of an embarrassing text message or a photo of you drunkenly urinating in the street. Think of that row those people had during an online Parish Council meeting. Someone even put that online!