We live in an era where your business checks your Facebook page, your date searches for you on Google and your aunt wants to be friends with you on Farmville. In this time of social networking - and superfluous information - it would seem that anything you say immediately reaches the whole world. Or at least the world you interact with.
And it does. But will that have people clamoring for privacy? For some, yes. For others, not. It seems society has a laissez-faire approach to privacy on social networks. I’ve heard stories of persons losing their job, or a job opportunity because of Facebook indiscretions. Politicians and celebrities have faced criticisms because of a Facebook or Twitter status. Even the latest “Facebook scandal” – it now has your status updates indexed by Google – doesn’t have people leaving that social network.
So if you Googled me, what would you find? Too much, I’m sure. But what is privacy to this social networking world? How can we set privacy settings without people being offended? It seems our thirst for instant knowledge has begun to be a ravenous consumption of personal information. If you don’t tweet enough, “it’s just not worth it”. Whether it is tweeting about the weather or reading about the latest economic movements, we consume it as supplementary information.
But then, how does one in this Public Era keep things private? It is the popular thing to tell the world all your thoughts. What does it mean if you keep some of those thoughts to yourself?
How do you live a private life while fully participating in this Public Era? Or do you set a proactive standard of privacy and understand you’re not “all in” when it comes to social network immersion?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
