Thomas Friedman recently briefly examined the firing of CNN editor Octavia Nasr. He touches on something that I think points out a coming shift in our on and offline social persona — how closely do we have to watch what we say online? Certainly there are limits, but it seems as though skittishness of employers might hinder our ability to express our personal thoughts. Personally, I favor more speech and dialogue. As Friedman states:
What signal are we sending young people? Trim your sails, be politically correct, don’t say anything that will get you flamed by one constituency or another. And if you ever want a job in government, national journalism or as president of Harvard, play it safe and don’t take any intellectual chances that might offend someone. In the age of Google, when everything you say is forever searchable, the future belongs to those who leave no footprints.