Credit: Getty Images.

It’s not the world’s biggest problem, but it’s a quietly dehumanizing one. Imagine that when someone types your name into a search bar, the very first thing that appears isn’t your work, your education or anything you’ve done in recent years — it’s a single news story, frozen in time. One headline becomes your permanent digital résumé.

For a decade, that’s been the reality for me. The story itself, from a North Country media outlet, can’t even be read without paying for a subscription. It serves no current public purpose, yet it’s the defining piece of information about me online. That one link has followed me through job searches, housing applications, even dating. More than once, I’ve watched opportunities quietly disappear because of something that lives behind a paywall.

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The piece that shadows me is about a DWI from a decade ago.........

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