Let’s think about this. As more is known about us, or is available to anyone who is interested, what will happen? I suppose this is the obverse of privacy. What do we achieve through privacy? Then, how much do we lose when we give up privacy?
Privacy is a protective mechanism. We might be protecting against a number of things. We might not want thieves to know what we own, or where we keep it. That would make it too easy for them to steal it. We want our passwords to our money accounts to be private, so no one can steal our money. Most of us keep personal details private, either because we are ashamed of them, or we think they will cause friction between us and others.
Of these, I think it is the last that is most affected by the internet. We can make our preferences and history and opinions known to the world. Sexuality, religion, political opinions, hobbies and loves are all things that people are making more widely available. In addition, we are spreading around what we look like, our taste in music, what our friends look like; even details about our jobs. Our personalities become public.
The real issue here is when all this information spreads out to people you don’t know. What will they do with it? Will potential employers use it to deny us a job? Will companies use it to market products to us? Will it attract unwanted attention from weirdos?
Stalking, or the concept of stalking is in vogue, these days. It’s being used to describe almost any amount of attention whatsoever. Real stalking is a fear, although it is probably an overblown fear. It happens much less than its publicity would suggest. The real issue is bullying. People being attacked, via words and doctored pictures and videos over the net.
This brings us to shame. Most of us have things we are ashamed of. Things we don’t want people we are close to to know. I don’t want it known that I’m mentally ill, nor the things I did before my illness was controlled. It shames me. It is stigmatized in our society, and, more importantly to me, in my family. I could lose my job, and my friends. My children could lose their friends.
My mental status is very important to me, and yet, I can’t talk about it with people I know. I can talk here, but then, I’m anonymous here. People know a lot about daloon’s ideas and opinions. Fortunately, they don’t know the person behind daloon.
However, if you don’t cloak yourself in anonymity, you risk information getting out to people who might use it to hurt you, socially speaking. You might not get a job. You might be asked to leave your congregation. Your friends might give you the cold shoulder. You could be teased and stared at wherever you go.
We do have one thing going for us, and that is that there are so many people on the internet, that it is hard to get singled out for public humiliation. It does happen, occasionally, though. The bigger concern is that the number of people online does not protect us from the people we know gathering information about us that we really would rather they didn’t know. My daughter doesn’t want me to know about her crushes, and her 12-year-old concerns. She wants privacy, but I can see what she’s doing on facebook. And now, twitter, which allows people to update their doings constantly, and friends can all keep track of each other.
On one level, the internet brings people closer. You can keep a conversation going with your friends, even though you are not in the same place. This binds people together more tightly. Openness helps this process.
The internet brings isolated people together with others like them. There’s a group for everything from slug farming to shawm collecting and everything in the cosmos. It provides support for us who do have things that stigmatize us in real life.
I do not think the ability to stay in touch over the internet will keep many people from connecting in real life. I think that it takes isolated and lonely people and brings them together. I know a number of husbands and wives complain about the amount of time their spouses spend online, so to some extent, it does get in the way. However, more people get together than are driven apart. The problem comes when people do not share a love, say, for sites like fluther.
As with all things, the impact of the publicizing of private information, and the impact of virtual connectivity will have mixed results. There will be some increased alienation. But I think that alienation will be more than counterbalanced by increased connectivity.
Our private information will be used by marketers and employers and law enforcement agencies. It will become harder to keep things private and maintain a presence online at the same time. People will have to make a choice. For many, the internet provides a stage to present themselves on. They become more famous, and can sell stuff, or sell themselves, or market whatever they want. Again, I think the uses outweigh the dangers, although there will be both.
What will become most important is education. We all need to learn how to practice safe internetion: how to set our privacy settings; how to respond to bullying; how to be kind and proactive. Of course, what’s the diff? Education was always important.
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