Is Social media the end to our private lives?
Is Social Media ending our right to privacy or have we the people brought this on ourselves?
This question is being raised not only in the media it’s self but threw surveys and discussion panels throughout the world. In this humble bloggers opinion our privacy has been taken away from us peace by peace. Whether it is from social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter. From items in our lives like smart phones and cameras placed on street corners. But the real question is have we brought this on ourselves. I know what you’re thinking that “I did not ask for the privacy of my life to go away. Not once have I said those words.” And you would be right not a single soul in this world would have woke up one morning and said hey I want my privacy stripped from me! That of course would be absorbed. But indirectly we have taken our privacy and threw it out the window so to speak.
How you ask and maybe also why or when. So let’s look at the facts at hand. Let us start somewhere in the middle and work our way outwards. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 for use by Harvard students then it expanded to other Ivey and Boston based schools. Then it got popular and reached to high school kids and beyond. As of September 2012 Facebook has over one billion users and over half of which access by using their digital devices. Wow that’s a lot of people all sharing their thoughts and ideas. Plus not to mention things like where the party’s are at or my little one took its first steps and on and on it goes. All done of course to my “Friends”. But there is a problem with that. Your friend may be friends with another person you do not even know from a hole in the ground. Yet he gets to see your post because your friend liked it. The long and short of it is when you press Like or Tweet it is out there for the universe to see. Whether it is your harmless Grandma or your best friend. But also your boss the wired guy down the street or even a pedophile. Yes I went there; what just because there that way they don’t have Facebook or twitter. Fact is they love using it because currently there is 7.5 million users under the age of 13 using Facebook and 5 million under the age of ten. {consumer reports survey May 2011} Yes there is an age restriction on Facebook of 13 but just 13 years old maybe it is because I’m in my mid 40’s and grew up in small towns when I was a kid. But thirteen to me is a child all be it a teen but still a child. Thirteen is not the Thirteen that it was when I was a kid. But maybe it should be. But I digress that is for a whole new blog on ratings on movies games and social networks. Heck when I was a kid I was excited I was allowed to answer the house phone at thirteen finally. But that is not here nor there and probably would not write that blog due to the fact I could not be neutral on the subject.
So the question at hand is how we allowed our privacy to be taken away. It is quite simple. We made Facebook and twitter popular not the creator sure he spread the word but to his fellow Harvard students not to the world. It was us the people that wanted more and more from this new Facebook site. We said hey would it not be cool to get this on my IPhone or Blackberry. This even goes as far as what we put on these sites and who we add as friends to it. It is now become part of our language. Who has said “just Facebook me” instead of call me. Now we text, Tweet, Facebook, each other and not just “friends” but others in society. Like your boss just the other day I heard two people talking and the one asked “aren’t you going to work today and the response was no I facebooked her and it all good now”. Everything out in the world to see. We as a society do not think twice about doing that. I remember my mum once telling me off when I was in my 20’s and I had an argument with my girlfriend at the time on the street corner. My mum heard it and told me not to air my dirty laundry in public for all to see. Well now we have Facebook and Tweeter and text messages to do this with. But it is okay because only my “friends” see it right, wrong the world does. I have an example no names given of this incident.
There was a customer of mine I have on Facebook and she has kids. She is not close but a customer friend of mine. She came to me for some advice. It seems that Child welfare came and took her kids. Reason given for not providing to the needs of the children. How did they get this damming evidence, Facebook that’s right Facebook. She and her boyfriend had great party drugs booze up all night. She posted the photos on Facebook of this great party. With comments and picks of her kids up late at 2 – 3 in the morning and how cute it was that they were holding on to a Mickey of Jack and partying with them. Of course not meant that the kids were doing the drinking but still the kids all amongst the booze and the drugs. An absolute mess of a house. Mad at the welfare for taking her kids. My only comment to her at the time was what you posted it to FB you don’t think that out of the millions of people on FB that one or two may be child workers or friends with child workers that are friends with your friends or family and that what you post on your wall hits everyone when they comment or like it. Turned out although she was mad at me for a while she came back and said that she was sorry and I was right. Her cousins that are Foster parents seen the post and were contractually obligated to produce and report it as child neglect. As part of their job. The post of the party went out to friends and family. The long and the short of it was, once the cat is out of the bag it is out there and believe you & me it is hard to get a cat into a paper bag lol.
So we made it popular and we as society post and make it more popular to “air our dirty laundry in public.” We as a society could have said no this new thing Facebook and Twitter are to public and let’s just keep it under control. But were or are we smart enough to do this. Or have we all been lauded into a false sense of secretly and eased into this way of life.
Let’s push out from the center a bit further. To the start of all this before Social Media” The cell phone thought of at the time in 1983 – 1984 that it would not take off; when introduced publically for the first time. It was big bulky weighed about 2 pounds and unless you were outside you could not get reception. But even back then it showed signs of invasion of privacy. You got within two feet of a radio and the people listening to that radio heard your conversation but that got ignored. Companies said we will correct that glitch and they did buy the 1990’s it became more and more popular again by us the people. And texting was invented and at the same time the internet or World Wide Web became popular along with personal computers. Something else said at the time in 1984 that the personal computers were just a fad and would just go away. Now to most the thought of this and some other technologies to go out of our lives would be devastating. Think of what we all do on a day to day basis on a device not any bigger than your hand. We text like demons to everyone. Where are you what you doing. Even as far as text dating sites now. Technology is amazing and wonders abound. But I ask you at what cost. Our privacy is one thing but what has that affected. The loss of privacy is so much more than the guy down the street knows your wife wares a thong or that little Jimmy lost his first tooth. What has occurred is a self loss of little pleasures in life. Such as just sending our kids out to play at the park down the street. The kids can’t do that what if there abducted or molested. How did this become a problem. Me as a kid played for hours outside and fought with my mum about coming in. Played street hockey and the only break you got was when the car came by and you screamed CAR and had to move the net. Or your feet were frozen inside your skate or boot from being on the outdoor rink or at the park to long in the winter. But it became a problem. Before the resources for pedophiles were limited at best they had to go to were kids were iE: the park or look into the back yard or hang out at the local schools. All places that we trained kids about stranger danger and parents and kids and teachers looked out for these bad people. It is not that way anymore. Why, we are too busy to look up from our laptops and smart phones. But it is not just that prices soar higher by the month and where once we had at least one parent or adult was home now both parents or the single parent has work 2 and 3 jobs just to pay the rent or mortgage payment. It does not stop there. No instead we a whole society serve our kids and ourselves up on a silver platter to these creeps. How well the kids play on their PS3’s and Xbox 360’s all of which are online. But it is okay because he or she is playing with other kids on their right. Wrong here is a scary concept we don’t want to think of but people lie on these sites. Just like little Jimmy did to sign on to FB at the age of 12. But it’s okay because he is 12 and he knows stranger danger right. But you don’t know if that jack he is talking to while playing Halo 5 or 6 or whatever the case is. Is his age or a bit higher and neither does he or her. The fear comes from the innocence in the child as we all know kids will say anything to anyone as long as they feel they need to know right. Sometimes it is funny. Like when you’re in Wal-Mart and your kid says hey mum here is that pair underwear dad likes on you. As he holds up a bright pink thong in the middle of the store. Not funny to you at the time maybe but others get a good chuckle out of it. That same innocence is also in the fact that “Jack asks if they can meet later and hang out cause your cool man.” So your kid says sure and tells him the address. So that’s one way that the fact comes about that you don’t let your kid down to the park by him or herself. The same has to be applied to kids when on the Net whether it be on Facebook or Twitter or even on the gaming system. Remember that not all people are upfront and true.
In conclusion I am not suggesting that all people are bad on the net or that all people air their dirty laundry in public. But the fact is we along with the creators of these devices I mentioned in this blog need to take equal responsibility when it comes to our privacy and in how we as a whole society are allowing our privacy to go by the waste side. If we all make an effort to change what we do on open form sites like Facebook, Twitter, IM, Texting, Etc. and think before we react. Such as buying the new devices that come out right away without thinking about our privacy first. We cannot make these creations go away nor change who we have become in this new society. But maybe by being more aware of our privacy rights and freedoms while embracing some of the old rules that generations from the past had. Like do not air your dirty laundry in public; or let your kids be kids and not let them do whatever they want to do. There was a reason behind our parents and grandparents rules even though it may have seemed when growing up that they were rules for rules sake. But like I like to say there is method to the madness or madness to the method whichever comes first.
So be safe out there in the cyber world.
