The Real Point of My Times Union Op Ed
People read an op ed and assume the headline tells the whole story. Mine in the Times Union was not really about Google. It was about what it feels like to be frozen forever at your lowest moment.
This post reflects on my Times Union op-ed and expands on the personal experience behind it.
People read an op ed and assume the headline tells the whole story. Mine in the Times Union was not really about Google. It was about what it feels like to be frozen forever at your lowest moment.
People read an op ed and assume it is only about whatever headline sits on top of it. My Times Union op ed was not really about Google or search engines or a single old article. It was about something larger and more personal. It was about what it feels like when one moment of your life becomes the permanent version of you for strangers who know nothing about you.
I wrote that piece because for ten years I lived with one headline that froze me in time. It sat on Google like a scar that refused to heal. Anyone who typed in my name, Jay Werther, saw the worst version of me and nothing else. A decade of work, recovery, self correction, and effort did not matter. Google picked the loudest moment and kept it at the top.
The op ed was my way of saying this is not how a society should measure a person. We all make mistakes. Some of us make big ones. Some of us pay in court, in our families, and in our own bodies. But we should not be forced to carry that moment as a lifelong digital sentence. That was the real point of the op ed. It was not an excuse. It was not a complaint. It was a simple argument for fairness and common sense.
I wrote it because I wanted people to remember that people change. Addiction can pull anyone into a dark place. A person can rebuild his life piece by piece and still get judged by a headline written when he was at his lowest. I wanted to show that recovery is real and that someone who climbs out of that hole should not be judged forever by the moment he fell.
I also wrote it because I am not trying to hide from what I did. I already owned it. I already paid for it. I already rebuilt myself. But it becomes impossible to move forward when a decade old snapshot becomes the only version you are allowed to be.
If anyone wants the full context, the original Times Union op ed is here. It explains the entire cycle of the mistake, the fallout, and the recovery that followed.
That is what the op ed was really about. It was about time and forgiveness. It was about recovery and the way we talk about it. It was about how we treat people who get back up. At its core, it was a human story. It was the story of someone who changed and simply wants the Internet to catch up.
If you want more context, read my other post, “Digital Reputation Should Have an Expiration Date: