"This is going on your permanent record!"

[jim_p]

I remember when I was a kid, one consequence of my actions that I was often threatened with was the entry of any misdeed into my "Permanent Record". You know, that dastardly dossier of doom which determines one's destiny. Presumably kept by the school system, it would forever be available to colleges, universities, employers, and anyone else who needs to judge my fitness as a human being.

No joke, I *actually* had fantasies of being at a job interview in the far-off future and being told, "Well your grades are top-notch and you really seem to know your stuff, but... (pause)... we hire only the best here and we just can't overlook that detention you got back in fourth grade. Next!"

Okay, so fast-forward to today: in these days of facebook and twitter and of kids routinely oversharing... does the threat of a "Permanent Record" scare the kids straight like they used to? "This is going on your permanent record, young man!" "Big deal, I already tweeted it!"

Comments

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I don't think most of them think about it.

[tla]

Of course ironically, they are thereby making themselves a Permanent Record, which they may indeed really wish they didn't have twenty years down the road. I think it's my net generation (the net cropped up when we were in high school or college, old enough to be nearly adult but young enough to say and do some pretty dumb things) who is most acutely feeling this right now.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

This. I think the problem is they're not scared enough by their own publicizing of their permanent record.