- Kathy Halper
- Family Portrait
At least once a week, I hear something that makes me glad that I both am no longer a kid and have none to worry about. There are countless stories of young people getting into varying degrees of trouble for things that they’ve posted on Facebook. Facebook of course is not a diary that you hide under your bed, but a fairly public forum. So news of your erstwhile virginity, plans to throw a party while your parents are away, and pictures of you passed out in your friend’s front yard are probably best kept somewhere else. Yet kids continue to post evidence of their misdoings and continue to get caught. Kids are so stupid, I like to think. Then I realize that I got caught for all of the things I just mentioned. The difference was, my mom just had to figure things out the old-fashioned way and none of my stupid adolescent mistakes were etched into virtual eternity—until now.
At the risk of sounding like a crotchety Luddite, it’s frightening to think that kids have unlimited access to the powers of technology without a fully developed awareness of the consequences. Life is hopefully a very long thing—do you really want a picture of yourself doing a pantless keg stand around when you’re 45? LOLOLOLOLOL.