#session9

Way back before the age of the internet and social media, family feuds stayed within the family, the inebriated escapades of the everyday person remained un-photographed and unless you were on the television or radio, your opinions were generally a private matter too. Yet, as the internet and its various manifestations have developed, our once private lives have become intertwined in this online evolution. Our online “friends” and followers know our whereabouts, our shopping habits, and even what we had for breakfast this morning. Further, with a general governmental fear of hindering growth and innovation, the intimacies of our personal lives are slipping through our fingers as easily, and as unstoppably as water.

Our ever-growing desire to be connected to others and within our own lives means that privacy has been tossed aside. There appears to be a (generally conscious) trade-off between privacy and convenience, even worse, an exchange of privacy for social gratification and status. Most profess high regards for online privacy protection, but few practice it. As such, we leave behind a trail of cyber breadcrumbs, which if put back together do not make a steaming multigrain bloomer, but a detailed (and oft embarrassing) imprint of our inner being. The internet has provided us with an anonymous platform which may, and has been used for both good and evil. However, paradoxically, while we have the ability to appear unknown, even as we operate incognito, we are accumulating data which paves the way to our deepest most hidden selves.

But does anybody really care? That is, do they care enough to actually do something about it? Would they stop posting pictures and statuses? Would they avoid cookie wielding websites? Would they live in a world where they are not invited to the party because they do not have the means of viewing the invitation? With privacy hungry platforms so intensely woven into all aspects of our lives, for many, simply opting out is a difficult and deeply inconvenient sacrifice to make. It would mean breaking from the flock. Further, in doing this, it would likely add disruption to our lives. Contacting your old university friend from Australia would no longer be so easy. With cookies littered all about the internet, and growing in number, online shopping would be a minefield. 

Moreover, there is exists a general attitude that those who do not subscribe to the online environment are simply old and incapable, or a hermit, and those who go the bare minimum route are regarded as creepers. Even social attitude is slowly and sneakily pushing us to increasing divulge private information.