Social Media's Generation Gap

An elderly relative recently upbraided me for my use of Social Media.

He is scandalized by my tweets. Aghast at my Foursquare check-ins. Dismayed by my blog. Horrified by the updates and pictures in my Facebook profile. And agog to learn that I actually know a mere handful of the thousands of people who have regular access to all of this personal stuff.

How’d all this come up? Apparently some of his friends’ children are “tracking” me online.

So when my relative’s friend says, “Say, my son tells me that Todd is moving back to Boston this summer, how nice!” — he is crazed with anxiety.

He feels that I am exposing myself and my family to harm.

For the record, I am fiercely protective of my family, so part of me gets genuinely angry when anyone suggests otherwise.

But in calmer moments, I can rationalize my relative’s anxiety. They come from a generation in which being a Jew, a homosexual, a communist sympathizer, a divorcee, etc. was cause enough for personal destruction. The politics of cultural and racial and religious identity were to be feared.

I suppose somewhere out there lurks a Social Media savvy criminal mastermind who could use my Foursquare check-in as a handy reminder that it’s time to come steal my TV. I suppose somewhere out there, a competitor might try to use my vacation photos against me in a Big Pitch, or send along a weird-sounding tweet that, without context, makes me seem like a big ol’ clueless jerk.

But I choose not to be afraid. I choose to share. To think that we’re evolving as a culture. Certainly my teenage children share oodles of info online with their Facebook friends. It’s 99.9% goofy, innocuous stuff. They too are without fear. And they are the future.

I could be wrong, or naive. But I hope the sensibilities of my children — that online sharing is safe and acceptable (with certain obvious ground rules) — will win out over the reasonable fears born of a scarier yesteryear.

Continue reading here: Guess Who's Talking: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

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