Pee in the Pool

The New York Times magazine had an interesting article on the end of forgetting. In a nutshell it said that in the day of digital data and the endurance of posts in cyberspace, there is now no way to erase your past and start over. Your life has now become unforgettable and the memory of who you are (good and bad) will stay with you forever.

Many people I meet are trying to find their voice, the song of their life that harmonizes who they are. The social networking of the internet can be a place to do just that. However some caution is called for. You can't share everything about yourself, nor should you. There has to be that private place, the most intimate part of who you are that isn't shared with the masses but only with a select few.

When I was teaching, I told my high school students that if they didn't want it on their resume, they shouldn't put it on Myspace.  Employers have the capacity to tap into the totality of what you post and cobble together a composite of who you are. Remember that taking something out of the internet is like taking pee out of the pool – not easily gonna happen.

But if you must, it will take some doing, here are avenues to help you erase your cyber identity:

• ReputationDefender was founded in an effort to protect your good
  name on the Internet. Their goal is to search out you and your families name on the internet and then offer to destroy all the information they find.

• HideMyAss is a great name for a service that hides your IP address and bypasses your
  work/school web filter with relative ease.

• RemoveYourName is rather pricey ($700 +) but they will not stop working until your name is completely off of the major search engines.

• Make a page dedicated to yourself on Wikipedia that illustrates your grace and godliness. With Wiki’s reach
  and rank, your post will appear above the other negative slop in no
  time.

• Simply, but agonizingly difficult, is to go offline for a long stretch and then tip toe back into the pool with positive resolve.