An old saying which is often cited is â??forgive and forgetâ??. Another is the idea that â??time heals all woundsâ??. These two useful adages express an interesting idea that bad memories fade with time. This may be true. But they do not take into consideration the ubiquitous camera phone.
Most people have forgotten most of the painfully embarrassing things they did as a teenage. Some people are able to recall things they did as a teenager that they are thankful not many others remember. A few of us, hopefully not very many, may still carry scars of things that happened long ago.
But things are different now. This is a simplistic statement. But valid nonetheless.
Most things that happened in the teenage period of most adults today occurred off-camera. Not all â?? but most. Growing up today is different. Most, if not all, friends and acquaintances carry cameras with them in their mobile telephones. This ensures that most, if not all, memorable occasions will be recorded.
Can you imagine if the un-reflected, immature actions of your youth were stored on a hard disk somewhere? The threat of revelation will ensure that you can never relax completely. This goes beyond an old friend showing up and discussing â??the old daysâ?? â?? there is no element of deniability once the image is produced. But there is ample room for misinterpretation.
How will the future accommodate this? Will the future be filled with paranoid stunted people fearing the revelation of past indiscretions? Or will the future free itself from the actions of its youth? The latter would be the same as experiencing the past as an exotic, but irrelevant, distant country. Familiar but not.
The forgiving and forgetting will not be quite so easy anymoreâ?¦