Only not everyone, especially athletes, are smiling these technologically advanced and enhanced days.

Wince, you're on Dirty.com, Matt Leinart. The Arizona Cardinals quarterback was embarrassingly exposed on the website in the off-season beer bonging with young women at a party — in his own home.

The pictures made national news, and drew criticism from a local columnist who wrote it was time for Leinart to grow up.

Cringe, you're on YouTube, Shaquille O'Neal. The Phoenix Suns star was videotaped, unaware, rapping and ragging Kobe Bryant in a night club last summer. O'Neal tried to downplay the harsh words directed at Bryant, his former teammate with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the damage was done.

The list of athletes "out-ternetted' on the internet is escalating by the camera click. In this new age of public journalism, anything goes — even in the privacy of your own home.

Video cameras and cell phones equipped with cameras and audio are feeding a variety of internet outlets that frequently make their way into mainstream journalism, often putting athletes in awkward or controversial positions.

Sometimes, they manage to do that all on their own. In July, Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard was videotaped mocking the national anthem. He used his race to explain his disrespect.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban quickly came to his player's defense, blogging on his website that judging people on sound bites can be misleading. He later removed the post in which he made public racial comments directed at Howard by e-mailers, saying he had an upset stomach over the posting.

"I thought it was important to point out the hatred and ignorance of so many who quickly judge people they have never met, based purely on sound bites and headlines," he wrote. "If you think you know any public figure based on what you see on TV or read on the internet or in newspapers, you are sadly mistaken.

"I wanted to point out the irony of (public figures) experiencing the onslaught of attention from suddenly and unexpectedly being placed in the media spotlight from a throwaway comment. Try being in a position of always having to be 'on' and checking for cameras, because if you let down your guard, any sound bite, even one as short as 11 seconds, can turn into headline news across the country, no matter what the context. It's not always easy. Nor is it easy to just accept that its part of being a 'public figure.' ''

Once upon a time, athletes mingled freely with the public. They were almost one of them. The Brooklyn Dodgers had a love affair with their fans.

That all changed in the '70s and '80s with the advent of million-dollar contracts and hyped media coverage of athletes' off-the-field misadventures.

Now, athletes fiercely protect their privacy. However, when they venture out, they find themselves in a fishbowl the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

However innocent a picture with Hill might be, it can be manipulated or misconstrued as something it's not if posted on a website. "There isn't a lot of fact-finding going on," says Hill.

The Suns forward calls it a "different time. It's crazy."

And uncomfortable.

"When you're out in public and the so-called media isn't there, you still have to live your life as if they are. You have to live as though somebody is watching you."

Players, Hill says, don't discuss the issue. But they are aware of it. "Certainly, there is sensitivity now. You have to very, very careful."

Julie Fie, vice president of media relations for the Suns, warns players that they have to be ready to be on camera the moment they step outside their house. "The sad part is, if you're not sure who is walking into your home, the same can be true."

Ask Leinart. Guests at his house shot pictures and shared them with the world. "The toothpaste," says Mark Dalton, vice president of media relations for the Cardinals, "was out of the YouTube."

That, says Dalton, is the irony of the incident. "Matt was at home, trying to stay out of the limelight."

Leagues and teams across the sports landscape are integrating education on the budding phenomenon of "citizen" journalism into their regular media training of athletes.

"Three out of four cell phones have a camera," says Dalton. "Combine that with millions of websites that are available for citizen journalism."

He adds, "This wasn't an issue 10 years ago. Now, it's part of the natural evolution. Things you do in seemingly private moments are subject to public consumption."

Fie says the Suns spent more time addressing the issue at their media training session before last season than they did educating the team on the standard issues that arise out of celebrity — money, fame, drugs and sex.

"You're living in a glass bowl," she says. "It's escalated now to where if you think you're having a private conversation with someone at dinner, it's not necessarily private anymore.

"You educate people, but it doesn't become real until they actually face the consequences and wrath of it."

Like it or not, it's the "new reality," says Ken Kendrick, managing general partner for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "We all deserve some privacy. On the other hand, we have to be accountable for the actions we take, whether public or private. It requires us all to maybe behave better than we would otherwise."

News » Athletes take care to avoid being snared by web
Athletes take care to avoid being snared by web
Grant Hill used to accommodate female fans who ran into him at dinner and wanted their picture taken with him. Not anymore. The veteran NBA star politely declines these days. "I explain, 'Look, I'll shake your hand and I'll talk to you, but I'm a married man and I don't take pictures." The reason: Candid camera, a comedic fixture in the '60s, is all grown up. Too candid camera It's doubtful you'd ever forget these invasions of privacy. But just in case, refresh your memory on 10 recent Internet-fueled scandals involving athletes.