In Thesis 35 Greenfield touches on the aspect of invasion of privacy with networking. He talks about sites such as Friendster or Orkut. The first obvious thing I think about in comparison is Facebook, and the not so popular upgraded version a few months ago. I really didn't care. But the new facebook informed all of your friends essentially what you did, when you did it, and everything else in facebook. To the majority of students on facebook this was a huge invasion of privacy. I did find it odd or somewhat disturbing after a while. For example, now whenever my ex-girlfriend posts new pictures of her and her new boyfriend kissing or going to Mt. Bonnell...I am immediately informed and see the gory details.
Social networking sites aren't all that Greenfield touches on. I particularly like the part about information receiving a sort of "immortality" once it reaches the grid. Sometimes we need to forget things or not know about something, but now once it hits the network it will always be there. Greenfield says "One trouble with this is that we've historically built our notions of reputation such that they rely on exformation - on certain kinds of information leaving the world..." Although facebook administrators enabled privacy settings, a lot of people still aren't satisfied. And what of things were no privacy settings can be enabled? We're getting so fixated on acquiring more information in more ways and more rapidly that I think we sometimes reach the point when it's too much. But that's what technology is doing...bringing more information that will be immortalized.
3 comments:
Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one who hated the facebook upgrade. I really don't want the world to know exactly what I am doing. It definitely crosses the line with social networking privacy. There are some things that just shouldn't be shared. It's one thing to find out a friend has new pictures up, but do I really need to read every single comment they have made and see who every one of their newest friends are?
A related matter is something I saw posted in my dorm. Anyone, including parents, employers, cops, and the government, can read your profile. Of course there are some privacy settings, but God forbid you forget to make something private. And I'm sure there are ways of going around the rules and looking at the private profiles too. The information really is "immortal", and permanent as it were, and I think it foreshadows where our society is heading technologically speaking. The amount of available personal information is rising quickly.
What happens when the amount of personal info posted on facebook is converted to a global scale? I can see it being comparable, with the glasses that Everyware mentioned that tell info about people as you meet them. Both give information without being asked, and it can be information that one or both parties don't want shared. So why are we continuing to act like this is ok when we are clearly losing the right to privacy? I think it's time to step back and take a look at what this is leading up to, not just the irritating facebook upgrade.
Yep, the world is shrinking fast, and sometimes we forget to duck and bump our heads. I don't subcribe to facebook but I'm all to familiar with the crack which is Myspace and can relate to the erosion of privacy which can be associated with it. I have to remind myself that, while I have some control over who sees what in regards to my page, its still outhere, posted for all of posterity to muse over. More than once I've had to redact silly, drunken posts etc. The point I'm laboring at is this: we all choose to suborn our privacy when we enter into the ephemeral world of the web; plain and simple we wanted to do it. Here's the rub, its there forever, so we just have to desensitize ourselves to the shrinkage in privacy or choose to not be so intouch all the time.
Still, its pretty lame you get a heads up every time your ex posts a new pic.
These new mediums of keeping in touch with friends via an online community has always made me feel like I was on a menu at a restaraunt and someone was trying to decide, "Hmm.... who should I try today?" It seems like the more open you are to share things, the more people flock to you. I, of course, am not an example of this. Sure, I participate in the whole Facebook thing, but it is very minimal and out of courtesy.
I can totally feel you on the experience of seeing a former significant other on one of these online communities and reading what they have been up to and what they may have planned next. It's almost like a way of stabbing you in the heart and saying, "Haha. It didn't work with you, and I found someone better." I suppose it could go both ways, but I know I am not one to be that open with my personal life. If you are friends with me, you know what is going on without having to read it online.
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