I was a teenager in the early to mid-2000's, so of course I was playing video games and throwing around slurs and insults and what have you -- words I've grown out of saying "for the lulz", of course, because I know they can hurt people and I honestly don't get anything out of saying them. But if you look hard enough there's a record of that online, linked to my real life identity, and in the court of public opinion that record would overrule any actual beliefs or policy positions I have as an adult. "This guy says he stands for gay rights, but look at how much he casually used the f-word as an insult on this Counter Strike forum."

This isn't something previous generations have had to experience in politics or in the workforce and it'll only get more ugly with time. The kids today who are in their teens are churning out exponentially more troubling data than I ever did. Just imagine what kind of political mudslinging fodder that will provide in 20 years.