by Peter Harris

Created on: October 11, 2010

A lack of privacy!

Who, in this day and age, would consider their privacy important? For most people, privacy is something resembling a switch that can be turned on and off to suit their needs or indeed, their mood. Incredibly, the younger generation do not seem in the least bit bothered by the fact that a wealth of personal details are floating around in cyberspace, for all to see…and abuse. This happens on an alarming scale, often without the individual’s knowledge, which is ludicrous.

OK, so the idea of keeping in touch with family and friends is fine in principle. However, the social networking sites have grown beyond expectations, causing something verging on a worldwide epidemic, whereupon the very fabric of our society is affected. Sounds far-fetched, doesn't it? But how much control do we really have over our privacy?

Thousands of users enter chat rooms, forward messages, invite friends, look up old acquaintances and utilise many other applications, each and every minute of the day, throughout the year. That equates to a monumental volume of data, which is simply caught in the net, like some squirming live bait on a hook, merely waiting for a fish to bite.

Although the intentions of users are, in the main, innocent – simply wishing to chat and relax with their mates – the system is essentially a smoke screen that has the potential to corrupt. And users, remain largely unaware that their seemingly harmless typing, blogging and messaging can cause them problems. Everything that users write is laid out, like some cyber shadow, following them for the rest of their lives. Information is vital, but with such intimate personal details, people need to tread carefully as you never know where they can end up.

As for privacy, this should not be underestimated, either. Privacy is part of our being, a personal space in which we alone occupy, away from the evils of the world, alone with our thoughts, feelings. But to take privacy for granted is criminal. Do we really want others to know our every move? It seems that content ranging from how the day went, to what is on tonight's menu for dinner fill pages on social networking sites. Private conversations are almost non-existent as individuals become almost obsessed with plastering personal details (favourite bands, colours, food etc..) all over the Internet. Control is key, but yet many thousands of users feel, rather naively, that this information is only viewed by their best friend (s). It is the same with photographs, where time after time, photos appear of individuals who definitely had no intention of sharing them initially, but due to the wonder of technology, have been slapped on others pages for all to see.

Privacy should be exactly that – private! It should be cherished. It is a safe place where you can be exactly who you wish to be, without having to exaggerate, perform, act or try to impress anyone else. That sounds an ideal place to hang out, rather than typing furiously about meaningless family exploits, giving away far too much information and somewhere along the line, losing your real identity.

Of course the boring, old fashioned method of making a telephone call or perhaps even visiting the person you wish to “socialise” may seem radical in this day and age…yet is far more effective.

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