Jeopardy

Alex Trebek hosted the immensely popular game show Jeopardy! for 37 years. His replacement, Mike Richards, lasted nine days. Richards was the victim of his own words on a 2013-2014 podcast The Randumb Show. The podcast title proved prophetic when his sexist statements and derogatory comments about people with disabilities surfaced. I have not immersed myself in the details of this story and have no intention of writing about where the lines of free speech, hate speak, and past transgressions should intersect. But in a technology world where everything you ever do or say is posted publicly, Bloggers should be keenly aware that their words carry future implications. Well, not all Bloggers. At age 74, I have no fear of losing a nomination for President, a job as spokesperson for beauty products, or a game show hosting gig. But younger Bloggers aspiring for bigger and better opportunities have more at stake. Controversy over Supreme Court nominations used to bog down in accusation hearsay. But in the future, writers will carry around their exact high school and college words frozen in social media posts. I would hate defending transcripts of my youthful conversations. I have enough trouble defending conversations from last week. The future dramatically changes people but not the words they published. I do see advice to new Bloggers about being respectful but that strategy seems aimed more at growing followers quickly in the dance of mutual likes. Of course, if you are blandly respectful and politically correct, you lose the very attention that being provocative brings. If you are absolutely positive that you are not going to be prominent enough to be hurt by your own words, you can relax like me.