A problem though is some not grasping the full reach of social networks yet.I'm pretty much a huge advocate for social justice. I understand that people may have been distastefully bigoted in the past. It pretty much goes with the territory of the landscape of the society we once lived within. It's easy for society to progress forward and then condemn the past rhetoric of people who really just went with how society went, but is it restorative to just blacklist and recast such people? Without restorative justice, an opportunity to atone, and make right their past errors? Social justice is just not that effective. We are better when we bridge the divides between us and work together to create a more brilliant society.
I'm a transgender woman. I've identified as such since the early 00s. I have been terrorized, dehumanized, and isolated throughout the years. I have been treated so badly that thinking back on some, or most of my experiences from then to the present date makes me cry, it fills me with sorrow, but we are stronger if we rehabilitate, acknowledge past mistakes, and commit to progressing forward, and that's what I focus on. I take the anger and fury I feel from past misdeeds against me and use them to propel me forward.
I've always said if your job involves personal branding or you can be seen as the face of something... social networks can be your biggest friend or enemy. I don't care if you are weapons dealer that supplies to the worst of the world, who are wanted by the Hague. Crap you say today will be around somewhere years from now, what you said as on 'off color' joke amongst friends years ago is saved for today.
Social networks are the biggest bag of receipts, and someone will dig thru that bag eventually.
If one wants to truly atone or make right, the time to do it, is BEFORE you get caught for those things.
When you start shining in the public eye, make your PR person proud and start that redemption tour THEN. Going on the redemption tour AFTER you get busted, seeing NOW what you did or said hurt others is just seen as mouth noises. Being apologetic AFTER you get booted from a job, is a bit late to have a mea culpa. One gets sacked by a company for such a past, because they either were blindsided and/or they are covering their own butts.
As our society becomes more sensitive to the issues of people everyday, the time for owning up to being a relic of the past is BEFORE someone digs up that relic. That same sensitivity we are gaining for others can certainly spare some sensitivity for those who are making the effort to genuinely grow from who they were, along with the rest of us.