To delete, or not to delete? That is the question

Of course, my filter bubble matters. Some argue it’s a world that matters most to me and it’s true that it shifts daily, shaping my views and an ethereal existence in my head. The barrage of information I consume is vast and instant. Nevertheless, I constantly check to consider how it shapes my perception and experience or whether it should be constrained by rules. The rules that persist are in the main, the outcome of rational intellectual argument, supressing a visceral response. What is right, what is wrong, the ever-changing wave of public opinion. Nothing can be set. Once there is an utterance then it has to be endured. So I walk forth cautiously.

However, for a younger generation there seems less caution. There is no fear of the treacherous waters. They forge onward building social capital and declaring a lifestyle silhouetted against an exotic backdrop of the achingly cool. But I suggest considering a profound sense of the now. Think about not what you do, but more what you’ve already left behind. This week the terrors of the social media phenomenon and its unintended consequences have been on display. It is difficult to warn or to explain to people who haven’t experienced it for themselves how a harsh and unruly savage, tribal, brutal and complicated world unfolds.

Take Jack Maynard, who this week discovered the real world was harsher than the pampered bug-eating fake reality TV jungle he signed up for to harvest more fame. The 22-year-old, whose funny videos have attracted 1.2 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, was unceremoniously kicked off “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here” on Tuesday, after a series of tweets, most of which date from 2011-13 came to light.

Jack Maynard’s actions highlight that there is nowhere to hide for a generation who have grown up on social media. Perhaps it proves a degree of abject ignorance and arrogance. Past attitudes and social hubris will haunt many, many celebrities who now attempt to plunder celebrity status. They will reach the realisation that fame is toxic fame. And it shows your social history can be dredged up by anybody – be they journalists or HR people deciding on jobs in other walks of life. I tell my own kids to be careful what you post. I think kids are pretty savvy about it now and I think this is a fantastic lesson for anybody from the millennial generation to learn, that your life is no longer your own.

As folk consider their bubble there is a realisation that there are few unbreakable rules. It takes a lot of experience, training and a solid gut instinct to manage online your niche. Truthfully, we should face reality and our past mistakes in an honest, adult way. The way forward is perhaps to reconsider the past. Of course we all have regrets, to err is to be human, but what was the context. We can’t go back in time undoing mistakes. Wise humans state the bleeding obvious: learn from past mistakes and move forward. I cherish the wisdom of folk in my youth who tried to bestow on me the life skills that remain relevant in the disrupted Social media universe. Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.

For all those seeking fame turbo charged by social media, I say this only once – if God wishes to curse you, the supreme one will grant riches to petty celebrity