Pardon the pun...but technology, the internet, social networking, transportation - all have made being a human more difficult. Yes, there are great benefits - but for each benefit, there is a potential danger. Please allow me to explain after the flip.
Now this could apply to any individual, politician, child, parent etc. Let's take a walk through some of the advancements of technology - their benefits and their consequences.
Human existance at one point was tribal - hunters and gatherers - close knit groups that moved, mainly on foot and lived off the land - even today, nomadic tribes exist in some parts of the non-developed world.
In the advent of travel - people were able to migrate much farther than by foot. Let's use for this example migrants from Europe to the New World (America) - while Scandinavian Nordsmen had made the trip centuries before Spain and Portugal - it was not until ships that could be build to transport many people and cargo to the New World that settlers could actully move here.
While the settlers brought European technology to the US, their ability to travel to a new and distant place also brought disease to Native Americans. These diseases (common cold, small pox, chicken pox, measles) wiped out many eastern tribes.
Lets fast forward to the industrial revolution - Trains, medicines, postal service - this all continue the ease of communication - most New England towns were formed when there were enough people to start a church congregation (ie Congregational Church) - take a country drive an most towns have a big white Congregational Church in close proximity to the town green. Counties were formed by region and the distance was so that town leaders could travel to the county town, to and fro in one day via horseback. So think about it - if you were going to have an affair - you pretty much never traveled too far from your town - and towns were small. Ways to communicate were limited. Places to meet were limited.
Great advances were made throught the 20th century relating to medicine, travel and communication. Telephones, automobiles, cameras, airplanes, computers.
Now, if you wanted to "stray" you cold do so much easier - you could meet in a car, talk on the phone - fly - most places now had hotels and no-tell Motels....
Life was becoming better - yet more complicated.
If you are middle aged - when you were young, you could get yourself into some trouble - but typically, not every detail of your questionable behavior was documented. If you were bold, maybe you have a few Polaroids - if you were reckless - you took the roll of film to the local drug store to get developed. You may have called someone on the phone - but no one really had any record of your calls. You could write a letter - usually the note got tossed. Yes you could get caught - and lots of times you did - and lots of time you didn't - and when you got away with it - if you kept your mouth shut - you got away with it. Didn't make it any more right but didn't make it any more wrong.
If you wanted to see some nudies - you had to buy a magazine (or find your Dad's stash), go to Times Square - the local strip bar or get one of those Super 8's or VHS tapes.
I feel for young people today - they didn't live in the dark ages of the 70's and 80's. I have kept up with technology - but I respect it. I understand that whatever you send - somewhere - if someone looks deep enough - there's a record of it. Fully aware - I'm sure I have forwarded emails that if someone dug up and questioned me about it - I would not be proud of the fact I sent it along. Am I a bad person becasue I did this? I don't think so - but if someone who didn't know me saw it and read it - it would be embarassing. These were private emails - but with technology, there is a skew about what is public and what is private.
Someone told me that the definition of morals are what we do when no one else is watching. But in todays day and age - isn't there usually a camera somewhere, a recording somewhere that if someone really wants to, they can see what someone never intended anyone to see?
Kids have it tough - most have mobile phone and most today have camera's, video recorders email and texting capabilities. Hey, they're great - problem is, little Johnny getting a blow job today can video record it and text it to his friends....before he's even finished! Think of how this one act has now documented an event - there is photographic evidence - time and date stamps etc.
Does this mean that these things were not going on when I was young? No - but I didn't have the capability to document it the way the hypothetical little Johnny did....and when I burned the Polaroid - it was gone.
I didn't have Facebook, Twitter, texting, sexting to deal with. I didn't have access to porn 24/7 - I didn't have the ability to chat with someone thousands of miles away instantly. I had a Pen Pal - how lame was that!
Current events tell us, technology has not made things any easier for adults. Should adults know and understand that electronic data doesn't go away - sure - but people get sloppy - are sloppy and now, the entire world is now at ones fingertips.
It's powerful....it's wonderful....and it's dangerous - it has consequences.
I envy people who can handle all of this - yet I'm not sure how many there are since I don't think I have met anyone who cold handle all of this.