This is SO embarrassing…

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I had a embarrassing moment on the inter-webs last night, and in the interest of “grinning and bearing” it, I just had to post this.  I hacked my AppleTV using a great tool last night so I could install Boxee. (I’ll post a review in another post.)  I’ve had Boxee on the aTV before and I love the freedom of being able to watch anything I like via the channels you can add to the system. 

Flipping through some of the content, I came across a reaction video to the old “2 girls, 1 cup” video meme from a few months ago. If you DON”T know what 2 girls, 1 cup is about DON”T go looking for it unless you want to loose your lunch.  It is a disgusting porn vid that made the loops as a way of shocking people with scatological play. Having been tricked into watching myself, I like to watch other peoples reactions to the video.  The video is disgusting, but watching people watch it is, well funny.  I watched the vid, had a laugh and moved on to watch an American Dad episode without a second thought.

A few hours later while reviewing replies on Twitter, I saw a message from someone  @greggwitt  (his posts on Twitter are private so I will respect his privacy and not name him here He gave me the ok to name him) telling me my sharing Boxee viewing on Twitter was “TMI.”  I then looked at my own tweets and saw “AndyG1128 is watching 2girls, 1 cup on Boxee.”  I instantly had that “OhNo” moment.…, You know the feeling where, not long after an action, sometimes just milliseconds, you get the feeling something just went horribly wrong.  I was trying to figure out how the posting was happening because I knew I had set Boxee to only tweet my recommendations but here was the offending post right in front of me, just sitting there, mocking me.  I went to Boxee and saw Twitter and other services set to share Recs only but then I saw the entry for Tumblr. 

Just so you are aware, I use my Tumblr blog to aggregate all kinds of info from my “social life” so I have one place to find a post I made somewhere in the past.  This has proved invaluable as I go back and try to remember things I’ve posted to services which no longer exist. Everything worked fine until I realized posting on one site  had lead to a chain of cross-posts that propagated that little Boxee post across a multitude of services.

Let me explain the web in which I wove myself.  I have my Friendfeed set to read my Tumblr blog as well as other sites.  Friendfeed is also set to post anything to Twitter that didn’t come from Twitter.  From there, anything sent to Twitter ends up on my Facebook page, Plaxo, and a host of other social sites.  In other words, my attempts to make my posting life “easier”  ended up biting me as it propagated an embarrassing comment around the webisphere.

I reset the link in Boxee to only send recommendations to Tumblr and set about cleaning up after giving a hearty thank you to the friend who pointed it out to me.  It only took me about 3 sites to realize I would NEVER get that set of posts back so I decided to post here and “come clean.”  (considering the subject of the video, that is definitely a BAD pun) It had spread too quickly and was drawing a few responses around the web.

I can rest in the fact I am not the only one to regret a post on a social site.  This post on the blog “I’m Not Actually A Geek”tells about a tweet that cause a person to loose a job offer.  You can go to the post to read more. My accident and that poor soul on twitter have learned a valuable lesson on the propagation power of the web.  Once a post is out there, you can’t take it back.  People need to be aware of the digital trail they leave, even accidentally so they can control how they present themselves.  I can imagine there are going to be a lot of embarrassed adults in a few years when they go to apply for a job and an employer finds that “naughty pic” they posted on MySpace, or the description of a drinking binge they left on Twitter.  I’m sure we all remember the Michael Phelps story from a few weeks ago.  We have to realize we are so visible now that our private and public personas are merging, whether we like it or not.

I am very certain some saw the posts yesterday and went “What was that about?”  Well, it was about me learning the lesson to be careful what you post and check ALL of your cross posting sites to ensure you have a “safety” in place to try and stop some of the “OhNo” moments from happening. Also, be aware posting is like talking, once it is said/posted, you will never get it back.  People cannot “unhear” and unremember” things and what we say or do will always be out there.

What about you?  Do you have any embarrassing “OhNos” on the web?  Come on and share so I don’t feel too much like a schlep.

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