Digital Footprint

Recenty, I was told that my digital footprint would likely have a pretty big effect on my emploability, future, etc. Now then, I feel I've done a fairly good job at minimising embarresment or idiocy on mt part, but I know there are things out there I'd rather not people see. I was told not to be too political from now on. Just to clarify, I'm not overtly trying to be partisan. I made a post called 'A biased commentary of PMQs' a while back. The title was a joke, the content was not particularly biased at all (or at least I tried to be), however we are all humans and we all have innate cognitive biases. So of course it was biased. Now enough of that b-word, it really tires the toungue.

Anyway, it was slightly worrying, that employers will judge me based on my digital footprint, and most likely this blog, which appears to be the first thing that shows on a google search of my name. So here it is, this is inside my head! Why airports are shit. It's strange really, to the younger generation, how employers will judge based on our digital footprints. My friends tend to say that they wouldn't let an embarresing moment on the internet cloud their judgment for who they'd employ. Of course, they're not employers. But it still remains an interesting piece of evidence for generational gaps.

Generations are a facinating idea. They're a great way of highlighting how society changes, but they can contribute to quite negative barriers. It was George Orwell that said "Every generation thinks it is more intelligent than the one before it, and wiser than the one after it" or something to that effect. But every generation has its geniuses and ideas. One particular idea I found facinating is the Strauss-Howe generational theory.

This is the theory that every 4 generations there is a cycle: High, Awakening, Unravelling, and, Crisis." Within each of these generations certain types of people are born due to the Turning they grow up in of the above 4. Respectively, these are: Prophets, Nomads, Heroes, and Artists. An example of this is: 1860-1882: Reconstruction and the Gilded Age (High). 1882-1900 Missionary Awakening (Awakening). 1900-1924 World War I (Unravelling). 1924-1945 The Great Depression and World War II. We, are cheerily in the Crisis era, apparently charecterised by the War on Terror and The Great Recession, preceded by the Unravelling of the rise of Postmodernism.

I do really doubt this theory. I mean one of the cited Highs is Superpower America, so does this only apply to America, when it relied on the Armada Crisis during the 1500s? Oh well, it does seem filled with cherrypicked events to fit a narrative, but that's alright, cause it's a pretty good story.