When Gary Hart, former U.S. Senator from Colorado, declared his run for the presidency as a Democrat in the 1988 election, the term ‘internet’ was barely used, and Web sites like Blogger and Facebook were decades from being launched.

About a month after his declaration, a photo of Hart with a young woman who was not his wife on a boat was published in the National Enquirer. It was this photo that sparked a scandal that essentially brought Hart’s candidacy to an end.

Although it only took a month for Hart’s political career to take a plunge after the photo’s printing, in today’s world of mobile internet and social media it could have happened much quicker. If the same scandal occurred today, chances are a mobile Facebook picture upload or a blog post would have broken the story in a few days, hours or even minutes.

Although the previously mentioned situation is hypothetical, a similar instance of social media bringing scandal to the forefront of a campaign is occurring close to home during this election cycle.

In Wisconsin’s 87th district, Democratic candidate Dana Schultz, a former basketball player and activist at UW- Milwaukee, is running against long-time incumbent Mary Williams. Schultz, a woman in her 20’s, is part of a new breed of political figures that were brought up with the Internet and immersed in social media throughout college.

Recently, the public became aware of a blog Schultz posted for a 2006 class at UWM in which she wrote distasteful things about people from her hometown of Athens, Wis. It is this very blog that is resulting in political ads against her and controversy in her current Assembly race.

When Gary Hart finished his undergraduate work at Bethany Nazarene College in 1958, I am willing to bet most of his assignments were thrown into an Oklahoma landfill. And as Gary moved on so did any radical statements he may have written, never to hurt him politically in the future.

However, in our current age of social media, more personal information than ever is being put online. A Nielsen poll saw an 82 percent increase in the amount of social media usage from 2008 to 2009, and it seems surprisingly permanent. This scenario, in which Schultz is being called out for past remarks she made on the Web, is one I foresee appearing more and more in future elections.

The negative political implications of using social media seem to be on the rise, and the use of online tools such as blogs is also increasing. The social media phenomenon has me questioning just how much my generation will be affected down the road by what they post online today. While the use of social networking sites is the future of many careers, could it be the downfall of others?

Jim O’Connell ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism and political science. He currently works for the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.