Smart Mobs brings up the question of the panopticon and our current technology. To what extent is technology surveying and controling our lives? According to professor Mayer-Schönberger, that line has been crossed.

“If whatever we do can be held against us years later, if all our impulsive comments are preserved, they can easily be combined into a composite picture of ourselves,” he writes in the paper. “Afraid how our words and actions may be perceived years later and taken out of context, the lack of forgetting may prompt us to speak less freely and openly.”

Everything you put online is open for the world to see. Employers check myspace and facebook accounts when hiring. We are constantly told to monitor our accounts, so that nothing we say can be used against us. In the same way that employers use myspace accounts to check for inappropriate behavior, they also view the positive aspects of that person’s online personality. However, it is fairly easy to create an online personality that is nothing like your real-life persona. That being said, how much should employers consider online social networks during the hiring process.