It will haunt you
Kids of today who want to grow up to be the president of
the United States will have to be really careful what they stick on
their Facebook pages, warned President Barack Obama.
Speaking to a student at an Arlington, Virginia school
who asked him in a roundtable how he could get to be president, Obama
warned that Facebook postings come back to haunt you. He said that employers may be mining social networking
sights for background information on job applicants. Obama said that everyone should be careful what you post
on Facebook, because in the YouTube age whatever you do, it will be
pulled up again later somewhere in your life.
He said that when you're young you make mistakes and you
do some stupid stuff which is all really cool until the they go apply
for a job, don't get it. Obama's advice about the perils of modern technology were
born of bitter experience, as he has fallen victim to the YouTube age of
modern campaign politics several times himself when off-the-cuff
remarks or events have shown up on web videos or blogs.
His 2008 election campaign was rocked by past speeches by
his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright which were posted on
YouTube. His own words that some Pennsylvanians when sapped by job
losses become bitter and cling to guns and religion, showed up on the
Huffington Post blog, causing a political furor.