I was in High School during the explosion of social media platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. My grandfather's reaction to social media, which he shared with me during one of our family's Sunday dinners, was something along the lines of, "That sounds like an awful lot of noise to me, and it could lead to trouble."
While researching this post, his rant which sounded so out-of-touch to my younger self, is starting to sound a bit wiser and more prescient. Words have the power to inspire us to hopeful action, or even drag us down into painful despair. The value of what we say and share is hard to measure in the moment. It takes time to sink in and the ripples can be felt for generations.
Gregory Gopman's Facebook Post Casts a Long Shadow
An example of this phenomenon in action is Twitter's decision to terminate Gregory Gopman. If his name sounds familiar, it's probably as the driving force of AngelHack, one of the world's largest communities of hackers and the organizers behind countless hackathons designed to help creative types network and gain access to diverse skillsets and funding.
Gopman currently resides in San Francisco and has been extremely engaged in the world of Virtual Reality. His efforts gained the interest of Twitter, which contracted Gopman in September of this year to work as their VR Program Manager. Unfortunately, the contract was short lived, only lasting until the end of October. The reason for his termination? A 2013 rant posted by Gregory to his Facebook page about the "...degenerates [who] gather like hyenas, spit, urinate, taunt you, sell drugs, get rowdy, they act like they own the center of the city...Believe me, if [the homeless] added the smallest iota of value I'd consider thinking different."
The high-profile tech entrepreneur has long lived in the spotlight, but his hiring by Twitter resulted in a fresh batch of publicity, including an October 18 TechCrunch article which quoted his 2013 post in full. His new employer was previously unfamiliar with his 2013 post, and felt that the resulting attention brought to the brand wasn't favorable, leading them to cut ties with Gopman.
Ironically, as Gopman's past transgressions were being drug through the digital mud, he was attending a charity event for the homeless, a cause which he has since become very passionate about. Greg Gopman's foundation, A Better San Francisco, founded in 2015 to help assist the homeless in and around San Francisco, works with the city to promote social change and end homelessness by empowering individuals with options to pull themselves up from abject poverty.
Is there hope for "Digital Absolution"?
Clearly, Gopman is not the same man he was in 2013. He had learned from the initial backlash to his post that his views were callous, and went so far as to start a foundation to help alleviate the suffering of the homeless population by championing sophisticated social causes to aid in their rehabilitation. The catholic faith would call this a true story of penance.
Unfortunately, his good deeds were not enough to counter-balance the impact of his social media post, archived for posterity by multiple news outlets. So, the question needs to be answered, is it just that a post from years ago can impact an individual's present life? Are we not supposed to factor in personal growth and development when judging an individual's past acts? Especially, in the case of isolated incidents, shouldn't individuals be given the opportunity to defend themselves and show they are better than their past selves?
Cold Calculations, Combined with Human Wisdom and Compassion
The idealistic solution to overcoming the poor choices of one's past that I outline above certainly isn't the reality for a 21st century society, built on the bedrock of capitalism. Companies are most concerned about market share and ROI for investors; a tainted brand hurts both.
In our personal lives, we have a little more leeway. So, I call for anyone reading this to look inside themselves and consider the fact that we are all human and make mistakes. There are areas where we change, evolve and grow. Can we accept ourselves and others for the new and improved versions that we are working hard to become every day? It's my hope that the answer is yes, for the cold world of technology needs to be blunted by humanity.