By Amanda DeCamp

The days of privacy are long gone and the generation of exposing ourselves everywhere is upon us. Cameras are far and wide – whether it’s your actual camera, a cell phone or a Sidekick. There is no escaping them. The question is not whether your most embarrassing moments will be photographed , maybe even video taped, and on the Internet the next day, because they will. It is really a question of whether the fact that every moment is recorded is causing a downfall in the overall morals and behavior of collegeaged students and even younger teens.

Recently, an “American Idol” contestant, Antonella Barba, was exposed all across the Internet in partially nude and incriminating drunken photographs that she and friends had taken. Shocker? Not so much. Although we all certify that the pictures we upload to Facebook, My Space and other network Web sites are, in fact, not pornography, whether or not they stray far from porn is often questionable.

Instead of keeping their page PG to protect their reputation, it seems that people are almost competing with each other to see who can “tag” the most risqué photos.

The 20-yearold New Jersey native is not alone in her revealing photos. Miss USA, Tara Conner, was almost forced to take off her crown when rumors circulated that she had drank in New York City bars when she wasn’t yet 21.

She was lucky; no incriminating pictures surfaced and her crown remained in tact. For her buddy, Miss Nevada USA Katie Rees, the outcome was not as successful. When pictures of her kissing other girls spread like wildfire on the Web, she was dethroned.

You may or may not want to be Miss America someday or an “American Idol” contestant. If you don’t have such aspirations, putting up raunchy pictures might not affect your future so much. Or it might, as employers are starting to check MySpace and Facebook. But what is the allure? Why put up pictures that could very well affect your reputation?

The Roman author Publilius said, “A good reputation is more valuable than money.” Of course, try and tell a college student that anything is more valuable than money and you will probably be laughed at. More relevant perhaps is a quote by Benjamin Franklin, “Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never mended well.”

When reputations are easy to tarnish yet hard to repair, why risk everything with a silly picture? But if it is just a stupid drunken picture, should they be taken so seriously?

If the main subjects of these photos are girls, then they must be trying to impress guys. So I asked seven real college-aged boys for their opinion.

Boys that, like the rest of us, are probably suffering from a severe addiction to sites such as MySpace and Facebook, are very familiar with such pictures. For their own safety and for their utmost honesty, I will not reveal their names.

“If that was my sister, I’d become nauseous…”

“Some girls will get ready as if they are going out just to take pictures for MySpace”

“There are some girls that wear almost nothing, but you can tell that they aren’t doing it for the attention, while others simply post them so they can get comments from guys on how ‘hot’ or ‘sexy’ they look.”

“If you come across a pic of some girl in a short skirt or kissing another girl – yeah you look at it for a few seconds and are turned on by it, but I think some people think these girls who do this are getting much more exposure than they really are…”

“These girls wear more makeup than Cher.”

“I don’t think too many guys are really exploring Facebook just to find these sorts of pictures of girls, just if they do come across them, they do react in a positive turned-on way.”

“From a moral standpoint, you wish people had more respect for themselves because a lot of guys might say they like girls like that, but I think that really when it comes to relationships or girls they want to date, no one wants to go out with someone that has no respect for their bodies or themselves…”

Take your pictures, make your memories. But next time you decide to take on a questionable pose or wear little clothing to attract the opposite sex, you may want to think twice.

Amanda DeCamp is a junior print journalism student. You can e-mail her at [email protected].