Episode 18: the right to be poorly behaved

My friend Josh recently completed a documentary marathon. He’s an apprentice journalist and was preparing to move to the documentaries team. So naturally he watched ten documentaries in 5 days. He said his most favourites were those produced in the 2000s, because those in the documentaries acted themselves in-front of the camera. The fourth wall was completely collapsed, and people act naturally. 

But then there’s this shift starting in the mid 2010s of how people behave in front of the camera. They are more aware that they are being recorded, and more presciently, the consequences thereof….

This is uncharted territory for humanity. All prior generations to Gen-Z were afforded the right to be poorly behaved in their adolescence. To sin, to commit taboos, to burn bridges, to say stupid things and to do stupid things. This is a luxury no longer afforded. Gen-Z, and younger, are all too aware that one recorded, and published, mistake can have career ending consequences. 

I fear that this inability to make mistakes, be held accountable by your group of friends or even the wider public, apologise to them and move on and be forgiven… might have some pretty bad consequences?? I’m not saying people should be able to do and say what they want, I’m saying a permanent record of people’s youthful stupidity is probably a bad idea. 

I’m not really sure of the solutions for this but given the transient nature of life, and given our growing environmental disaster caused by piles and piles of data, is it about time we introduce statutes that limit how long social media posts are allowed to remain published? Likewise is it maybe an idea that we expand phone/recording free spaces?

I think obviously a part of this is developing a new etiquette around phones. Allow me to recall a travel vignette: I was scuba diving in Egypt in December 2024. The hostel had arranged a karaoke in a local (sans alcohol) bar. The vibes were a bit dead (perhaps sobriety related), so I decided to take matters into my own hands. Naturally the solution being a big Scotsman giving it full yaldi to Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’.

“We were both young when I first saw you // I close my eyes and the flashback starts…”

Immediately the audience, all aged 20-30 whip out their phones and start recording me. Not once, not twice, but three times I ask people directly to just put their phones away and stop recording me and to just be in the moment. Nobody cared. I’m not really fussed about people exposing my love for early Taylor Swift – but we’re kinda cooked as a generation if we think we have the right to own other people digitally. 

Repression seems to have this effect on the human psyche of building up a natural frustration, sometimes boiling over to rage. Its insidious to one’s wellbeing. With that in mind, I worry about the long term consequences of this digital panopticon we have built.