This whole Google Buzz thing has had me thinking about privacy, again. Mainly how it relates to our current, past, and future societies. Through it all, I’ve come up with one conclusion; we don’t want privacy. Jonathan Franzen said it best:
“Americans care about privacy mainly in the abstract.”
Yup, ladies and gentleman, if you say you want privacy you’re bullshitting yourself, and only yourself. So, back up, put down your “privacy or death” signs, and do something more productive with your time.
Let’s begin by listing some of the most non-private websites on the web today:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Myspace
- YouTube
- LiveJournal
- LinkedIn
- Blogs
- Anything Google based (such as Buzz and Orkut)
Now let’s list some of the most highly visited websites on the web today:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Myspace
- YouTube
- LiveJournal
- LinkedIn
- Blogs
- Anything Google based (such as Buzz and Orkut)
Get the picture? You (and I) are flocking to the very thing you say you’re against, sites that diminish privacy. And if you’re anything like me I just listed 80% of everything you visit while online.
If anything, the main protesters can be found in one specific age group, those that are 30 and up. If you don’t use any of these sites, you’re more than likely over 30 years old; if you’re one of the main defenders of privacy in these spaces, you’re more than likely over 30 years old; if you do use these sites, and you don’t post up pictures of yourself at a party, don’t publish something personally revealing, or don’t talk publicly about something deemed private (sex, drugs, love, life, etc.) then you’re more than likely over 30 years old.
Am I wrong? Nope. But, why is that? Well, Clay Shirky, a 42-year-old professor of new media at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, who has studied these phenomena since 1993, has a theory about it.
“Whenever young people are allowed to indulge in something old people are not allowed to, it makes us bitter. What did we have? The mall and the parking lot of the 7-Eleven? It sucked to grow up when we did! And we’re mad about it now.”
People are always eager to believe that their behavior is a matter of morality, not chronology, Shirky argues.
“You didn’t behave like that because nobody gave you the option.”
And for that you have deemed our “non-privacy” as wrong, shameful, and as a sign of the dumbification of our generation (don’t worry, the irony behind using dumbification is not lost upon me).
Here’s some news for you old-timer, our “shameless” publicity has in fact made the world a safer and more equal place, given people unlikely opportunities, made us stronger and more mature, and in the end is simply inexorable. And, technically we can deem you as the one in the wrong for protesting something that’s inexorable, instead of using it as a force for good as we have :).
For the next few posts I’ll give you reasons as to why we are right, and why you should stop with the privacy speeches.
Making the world safer through non-privacy
Are you disgusted and shocked that many of us use our real names, real identification, and real personalities everywhere online? Don’t we know how many stalkers and pedophiles there are out there?!
Let’s look at the facts. When you discovered the internet (and it seemed all bright and shiny to you) what did you do when you were confronted with the sites that asked you for your name and information? You lied. You didn’t see it as lying though, you’d never do such a thing! When you saw the “Enter Username” sign you simply took it as “Enter Nickname”. Right? Why the hell would you give some else your real name? You’re not that stupid right? And why would you be stupid enough to use your real personality online? Why would you be stupid enough to do something like use foul language online when you know that people such as your boss can gain easy access to the information? And why, oh why, would you talk about something that is so unique and non-conformist that it can be easily pointed back to you?
Well, when we were confronted with the “Enter Username” sign do you know how many “names” we could choose from? One. The “Enter Username” sign has, if you haven’t noticed, changed to the “Enter Email” sign. And, we have few email accounts.
What we don’t understand is why you don’t see the brilliance behind this. Don’t you see that by being forced to use our real emails, the one piece of consistent identifying information throughout the internet, that not only are we being forced to be revealing, but so are those that have ulterior motives?
It gets even better when you add Facebook into the equation. We know, we know, we reveal too much on Facebook, right? I won’t argue with you that some of us do, but the fact that you dislike all of Facebook because it’s too revealing is just too close-minded.
Even though you say meeting people online is dangerous, if we meet them through Facebook for example, it’s actually not. Do you know what we do after meeting someone new on Facebook? We check their pictures, number of friends, recent wall comments, recent status updates, and anything else we can get our hands on. Don’t you think that we would know that something’s fishy if we saw that the person had no pictures, no friends, and no activity? Red flags would go off everywhere!!! And do you know why? Because, in our non-private world anyone who isn’t sharing any information would automatically be suspicious. And, if they do share information, yet we find out that they are either too old, too young, or too whatever for us we can easily ignore them (the magic of never meeting someone face-to-face).
When you factor in such applications as Facebook Connect, that allow us to sign up anywhere on the web with our Facebook accounts, you get a pretty consistent identity of a person, where they’ve been, what they do, and what they like.
In fact, the jealousy thing makes sense here. You must be pretty mad that in the old days when you met people you couldn’t just go and Google them to see if they were being truthful about themselves, as we can. We get the ability to find out anything and everything about anyone and everyone at the touch of our fingers. Wow, kinda sounds like we have a superpower.
Yup, if I were you, I’d be jealous too.
photo credit: SocialGrow