I have been thinking about the privacy issues re internet pursuits such as blogging and facebook, myspace. I have read a few articles about the internet generation (which I am a bit older than...) having a different conception of privacy.
I have been thinking through such issues as - what do you do when someone you have issues with wants you to be a friend on facebook? now facebook has some ways around this - you can make yourself only visible to friends (though this then means you can't have the serendipitous reconnection with old friends) or you can block people (whats to say that someone can't sign in as a different name, or ask a mutual friend whether you are on facebook?). It means that you will now find it very hard to leave relationships behind.
I think this is, rather than a problem, instead a very good thing. It brings back the village. People used to have to live lives of getting along, sorting things out, putting up with eccentricities, everyone knowing your business, because people lived in small communties their whole lives. I think this taught the practicalities of love - you didn't just have to love when it was easy, when someone was the same as you. I think it teaches civility - we don't have to all be best friends, but we should all be able to be civil with each other.
And think on this if you are a christian - if you are going to live with other christians in eternity - what! can't you live with them now on facebook?
Of course this is all in my humble I'm still in the honeymoon period opinion. What do others think?
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For me, anything I put out there on the web, whether it's on facebook, my blog or the forums I visit, I figure it's in the public sphere. I assume there are no reliable privacy measures - I don't put anything out there that I'm not willing to share with the whole world.
As for having problems with people I'd rather not interact with on-line, well, no-one can make me respond to unwelcome advances on something like facebook and if things are really that bad with a particular person I believe I'd be wholly within my rights to stonewall any communication from them. HOWEVER I personally would be mortified if I had let a situation get to the point where I could not at very least manage polite albeit superficial interactions with pretty much anyone. So I guess I'm at least partially with you on the village idea, there's nothing to be gained from perpetuating conflict and much to be gained from building peace and I'll happily sacrifice my ego in pursuit of that ideal.
There is a flaw in the idea of the village as an ideal model for human interaction though and that is that very often the close living and lack of privacy didn't bring out the best in people at all and anyone who didn't fit into the accepted mode of living, who thought or looked or behaved differently, was not accommodated civilly within the community but rather persecuted and ostracised. And you see plenty of that happening on-line too unfortunately.
Of course, being human I'm sure I've stuffed up good and proper on plenty of occasions ;-)
I agree with you about realising it is in the public sphere.
and yeah, there may be situations where you just have to block someone - but in that case I would have always tried to work it out first, and tried communication first - and as you say it would be bad if it got to that.
there is probably no ideal human community in this world *sigh*
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