The danger of posting...

10 years ago, there was an innocence to the web. You could write what you felt like writing and you didn't think about the fact that those words would be stored forever and potentially come back to haunt you.

Now, we think about emails (Microsoft vs. DOJ; the Frank Quattrone trial, and thousands of others) and we think about the fact that potential employers, investors, mates, and others will be checking us out online before they even meet us. There's so much room for pre-conceived notions to form and for misinterpretation.

What if you are feeling depressed at some point and you post about it as a way of self-therapy? Will someone reach the conclusion you are mentally unstable?

What if you are having marital problems? Will a potential employer shy away from someone whose homelife is shaky?

What if you have a period of suicidal thoughts because of some traumatic event? Does that mean you don't have it together?

For me, the blog and the emails that preceded them have been about authenticity and genuine communication with my circle of friends. It's upsetting to think that I have to be guarded in these efforts because of the possibility that there is a potential that somewhere, someone, somehow will use my words against me.

The age of Internet innocence was lost long ago (relatively speaking). I'm just blogging on it now. Maybe someone will think that I take too long to identify trends :-)