We have to admit that on this day and age, people are more of an exhibitionist; we want ourselves to be out there for the world to see. We want to be seen, to be heard, and gradually, hopefully to be approved or even admired for one reason or another. This is an era of self-marketing; everybody can appear on screen (doesn't matter it's only a computer screen), anybody's soul could be displayed; you can share the most intimate information about yourselves on the web, and we do that on the daily basis. We share our artistic expressions, our lifestyle, our innermost feelings, right down to how we train our dog, with complete strangers sometimes.
I remember many years ago, my father mentioned to me that he wanted to live a long life, just so that he could witness new technology and what it could do for us. He was saying before PC that computer would be a BIG thing. But I'm sure he would have freaked out if he was alive and see what people are doing on social websites. Our older generations guarded their privacy. It was even bad form to talk about yourself. You were supposed to listen to other people's stories but if you have a story, people will eventually find out if it's good enough.
But now we even have our own blog to "sell" what we assume other people are interested in. Nowadays we don't even blink when we see people posted half naked or babble on about what's deep in their mind. We read and watch very personal massages, incidents, stories, clips, etc. everyday when we log on.
Another example of how hypocritical we are about our privacy concerns the way we use mobile phone. Don't you get it that having a mobile phone means people can get to you at any time--didn't that sound scary for you the first time you considered buying a cell phone? Now people who carry cell phone say they like e-mail because unlike a call on your cell phone, you don't have to interact with the person who wants to connect to you when they want to. With e-mail you can choose the time you want to interact--thus more privacy. Dude, this is not the time or the place to worry about privacy! If you want privacy, you wouldn't buy a cell phone in the first place.
This is why it strikes me as very ironic when people who live among all these technologies start whining about keeping their privacy. Come on, surely you are not too naive to know that to use the Internet or other type of communication technology means you have "sold" your privacy; you are like Christine in "The Phantom of the Opera;" in order to sing, you have to sacrifice your soul to the devil.
