Generation Z: A future in a digital world?

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]ntroductory lectures for first- years never fail to make a song and dance of the esteemed reputation of Warwick students and our global high standing: our ticket to go on to do great things.
Minus some inflated hyperbole, this is all very true. Warwick students can – and do – go out and put themselves amongst the trailblazing professionals of the world. The problem, though, is that our generation is afflicted with an issue that others haven’t been.
Namely: that stupid picture of you with the questionable-looking rollup when you were 16, helpfully captioned ‘Friday highday’, ever so slightly contradicting the professional demeanour which you stressed in the interview.
It’s never been claimed that teenagers are paragons of reason and virtue. The perennial sense of teenage angst has only been exacerbated by social media.

A lack of foresight and a want to impress leads to tasteless pictures posing with a bottle of Glen’s.

Thankfully, most of us mature, have a harsh life lesson or two, and grow into an adult with a touch of humility under our belts.However, evidence of your cringey teenage self is harder to remove than you comprehend at the time.
If my Facebook feed is at all typical then, by trawling through the social media accounts of almost anyone, you can find examples of: poorly worded political opinions/offensives joke, oversexualised photographs, indulgences in drinking or drug-taking or just general buffoonery.
It’s getting much harder to sweep past antics under the carpet. This creates a problem for the next generation of public figures.
Today’s leaders already have their personal lives dissected to the point of an autopsy. The same goes for pretty much any public figure. As past generations retire, it is our generation who will inevitably fill the void. Yet, this is a world where a bad tweet can ruin a career and the cyber sins of our ignorant teenage self are considered fair game.

The result being that the next generation of tabloid hacks, general busybodies or people who simply don’t wish you well will have all manner of material to create vivid character assassinations.

The next generation of public figures, then, will have to factor in the very real possibility of seeing their hedonistic exploits splashed out on a full-page spread in The Sun. Faced with such a stark dilemma it seems that at least some of the gifted minds of tomorrow may bury their idealistic ambitions and settle for the world of HR instead. This prospect could be a huge loss to society.
However, one such way around this – ironically – might be to take a leaf from the book of the Catholic Church. If, for instance, on taking up a position we confessed our digital sins publicly and tweeted 500 hail Marys, then the scandals of the future could be nipped in the bud.
Whether you take this idea literally or not, eventually we will have to start cutting some slack – or face no one stepping up to the podium.