Fandom is weird now. It’s becoming less trusting and friendly, and the Orwellian surveillance issues that are currently running rampant in the USA and UK have bled over into fandom spaces.
I’d read the articles that young people have no privacy and have become so accustomed to it that they enact on themselves. Abstractly I knew this and had accepted it, but it’s only now that I’m seeing it become a major issues.
Obviously part of the problem is I need to become a trusted member of my new fandom. But fandom in general is becoming far more hostile to privacy than even just 5 years ago.
I’ve had to leave 3 servers that want to do age verification. And this is new. Not even 5 years ago when I started zines ppl just turning 18-20 were far more receptive to the ideas espoused by us older folks about not being surveilled. But now it almost feels like they *want* to be surveilled.
They’ve become so used to it from tiktok and their government that they crave it. I’d write a dystopia about it but unfortunately what even is there to say that hasn’t already been said?
If you’re 18-22 now and you’re reading this and willing to listen without immediately calling me suspicious: this is not normal. Age verification will not keep you safe and will not keep minors safe either. It will only lead to the normalization of further surveillance and erosion of your privacy.
I know it can be an unwieldy text especially if you’re not used to reading academic sources, but go read The Panopticon. Watch V for Vendetta or read the comic, read 1984. Watch The Lives of Others and understand the ways this modern era is not so different from the Stasi in the film.
Please.
I don’t want to see a rerun of the surveillance state anymore.
"Think of the children!!" is such a cliché, yet useful, tool to erode privacy.
Back when I first got online, eons ago, it was drilled into your head not to reveal your true name, location, or anything identifying about you on the internet. Not your school, not your town, not even your teacher's or local football team's names. Because there were Sickos out there who would use that to find you and snatch you off the street.
Okay, sure, maybe an overreaction, but still good advice to not simply announce your personal information to people you don't know.
These days, it seems to have swung in the opposite direction. People are encouraged to reveal as much about themselves as possible. Age, sexual orientation, personal gender identity, any and all mental illnesses or disorders, race, religion, etc, etc etc. And if you don't, you're asked point blank, and treated with suspicion if you don't want to answer.
People, this isn't right.
This 'open book' policy that so many have accepted is dangerous, and encouraging the idea that everyone you've (n)ever met is entitled to know things about you that is none of their business.
Would you answer a complete stranger who came up to you off the street and asked what genitals you have? Would you stand on stage in a crowded auditorium and scream out what mental illnesses you deal with?
No? Why? Because they could become hostile and use these against you? Because it's none of their business?
It's the same deal online.
"It's for the children's safety!" is a great rallying call. Because who doesn't want to protect children?
Thing is, this doesn't protect children. It's just a way for people to separate others into categories, and gives Big Brother Internet data to collect, sell, and use against you.
"But I'm proud of who I am/have nothing to hide!"
This isn't about 'hiding'. This is about privacy. About being selective of who knows what about you. There's a difference.
Your Tumblr mutuals aren't the only ones who can see your profile, and if you wouldn't want your bully from school seeing all your personal information, then maybe you shouldn't post it online for literally the world to see.
