I woke up to an email from my good friend stating that her cell phone had been hacked, and it was sending vulgar messages to all of her contacts. Then I mosey into the living room and the Today show was doing a report on eReaders and how they are able to track what people do as they read, as far as highlighting sections of a book, spending a longer amount of time on a page, or adding a note.
Then I logged into Facebook and looked at the ads on the side of my page. A couple for casinos, a few parenting ads, and one for a dubstep music concert. Yep, they know exactly what I like, who I am, and what I do.
Is anything about our lives really private anymore? As much as people try to stay out of this online world by not joining social media networks or not getting smartphones, are they really succeeding? There are just too many ways to find out information anymore.
We have all had our emails hacked, probably received spam from Twitter or Facebook, and received prank phone calls or texts. We’ve all been tagged in a photo we didn’t think our friend would post, or maybe someone posted a video to YouTube with us in it that we didn’t even know existed.
My generation really didn’t start using social media until we were in college, and I talk about it with my husband all the time. Can you imagine if we had Facebook or Twitter when we were in high school? We’re both glad we didn’t.
Kids born today have pictures and information about themselves posted online within SECONDS of being born. Their names, their birth weights, their first nap, their first birthday, the list goes on and on.
Their entire lives will be documented in blogs, photos, posts, tweets, you name it. Imagine our President in 40 or 50 years. His or her entire life events will have most likely been posted online. There will be no privacy, no mystery, no hiding anything anymore. But maybe by that time, it will just be the norm. Mostly everyone’s entire lives will be online. And that might make things easier.
Bosses may be more tolerant of that late night drunken tweet, because they will have something embarrassing out there, too. Kids will see their parents in a different light after being able to view photos of their wild times, or get to read what they posted in their younger years. People will find their soul mates easier since they can look up people’s whole lives in an instant.
It’s crazy to think about all of this and how it will affect the future. How we feel today and in as little as 10 years could be completely different. So, does privacy really exist anymore?And, does it even matter? What are your thoughts?
Tara Darazio 
Your points are so obvious yet so scary… I think we tend to not even think about things because it is moving so fast. Just last week my cousin sent me a video of his newborn’s “first breath”… I was shocked to see a video of the actual C-Section and literally his first breath. I wasn’t sure if I liked that he emailed this to a bunch of family members or not. I thought the same thing that you mentioned about how EVERY second of life can and will be documented. It gets scarier everyday. Privacy and rights in technology will be a huge part of society for a long time. We just saw Google pay out 22 million dollar settlement for privacy infraction… a slap on the wrist for now, but it will get bigger and bigger.
Great job on bringing some things to light and making people think.
Thanks, Kevin! It is a crazy world out there.
It is very scary. Since I’m already a social network user, even if I deactivate my account, it won’t matter because everything will still be there, which is the scariest part. Privacy DOES matter to me and I think people over step boundaries all the time…especially when friends post pictures that you did not know existed!! Or pictures they promised would never make it to FB, but they do. It doesn’t seem right that people’s lives can be posted online in a second. Our world needs a lot more privacy in my opinion!!
Great point, Lisa!! Thanks for commenting.
These are very good points. We all make our own boundaries. My sister chooses not to use facebook/twittter for that reason if she has an email its because her work makes her. Does she utilize it-nope! At this point she doesnt even get her own pictures developed because she doesnt know who will see them and what they will do with them when printing them. I guess we all choose to provide our information out there and therefore really cannot get angry or blame anyone but ourselves for making our personal lives public. I am a social user but it is what it is in todays world.
Thanks for the comment, Caron! I hear ya. It’s hard not to be a part of it all!