Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Privacy is Crazy


Dear Mr. Boyd,

After reading your article, Surveillance & Society, I’ve realized that our societal norms have completely shifted from even what they were 10 years ago. As you said, we are no longer a private-by-default culture but are now a public-by-default culture where anything we do can be put online without us even knowing. When you think about it, in theory this should make us a more pure culture and society and where we are concerned about what our public image is. But it has actually seem to worked opposite of that thinking. Internet users appear to embrace the ability to publish their foolishness to all of mankind willing to watch. No longer does it bother people that their public info, while even set to private, is on Facebook and subsequently all over the World Wide Web.



Your reference to Bennett is acceptable because I do believe that privacy is not the best remedy for our openness on the Internet. This false sense of privacy makes us more comfortable to post our daily lives online. We used to be a much more closed society but now it seems to me that Facebook and other sites such as Youtube are just what we have been looking for. It’s like an oasis for those of us, most of us in fact, who need the attention that we do not normally receive. Your insight into this matter is quite interesting and I think that it is a great mirror being held up to our now publicity obsessed culture.

Andrew Kerth

No comments:

Post a Comment