I rarely spend more than 10 minutes reading an article on the web, but New York Magazine's article - Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll - was well worth the 8 pages and 20 minutes. The crux of the piece centers on how the desire for celebrity has eclipsed the issue of privacy in my generation and those behind me:
... Younger people, one could point out, are the only ones for whom it seems to have sunk in that the idea of a truly private life is already an illusion. Every street in New York has a surveillance camera. Each time you swipe your debit card at Duane Reade or use your MetroCard, that transaction is tracked. Your employer owns your e-mails. The NSA owns your phone calls. Your life is being lived in public whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.
So it may be time to consider the possibility that young people who behave as if privacy doesn’t exist are actually the sane people, not the insane ones. For someone like me, who grew up sealing my diary with a literal lock, this may be tough to accept. But under current circumstances, a defiant belief in holding things close to your chest might not be high-minded. It might be an artifact—quaint and naïve, like a determined faith that virginity keeps ladies pure. Or at least that might be true for someone who has grown up “putting themselves out there” and found that the benefits of being transparent make the risks worth it.
From the trenches of the web marketing field, and certainly in an industry rife with cults of personality and constant struggles by bloggers and conference attendees to gain recognition and respect, this comes as small surprise. However, the article does more than most in getting to the heart of the issue, uncovering the debates on different sides and illustrating positive and negative outcomes, at least at the personal level.
What the New York Magazine piece fails to do, though it's hardly their duty, is extrapolate the results for the online economy and ecosystem. One of my favorite quotes in the piece came from a 15-year-old Missourian girl:
One night at Two Boots pizza, I meet some tourists visiting from Kansas City: Kent Gasaway, his daughter Hannah, and two of her friends. The girls are 15. They have identical shiny hair and Ugg boots, and they answer my questions in a tangle of upspeak. Everyone has a Facebook, they tell me. Everyone used to have a Xanga (“So seventh grade!”). They got computers in third grade. Yes, they post party pictures. Yes, they use “away messages.” When I ask them why they’d like to appear on a reality show, they explain, “It’s the fame and the—well, not the fame, just the whole, ‘Oh, my God, weren’t you on TV?’ ”
The fickleness, the desire for celebrity, the incredible online savviness - this generation hasn't yet reached a time of full economic participation, but as I've mentioned in the past, the age of web enterpreneurship has only just begun. I suspect we'll see a massive effect on both global and local economics and politics - in a world where no one wants to hide, and everyone is participating in reviewing and recording every part of their lives, the business of information might well dominate and control the success or failure of everything else. It's even possible that marketing may turn from an active practice to a passive one - controlling the messages others spread, rather than spreading your own. I don't know if I'm afraid or ecstatic.
BTW - Not to be missed is the special one-page graphic detailing on of the 17-year old contributor's various profiles over her last 5 years online.
The graphic that they posted up is a pretty tame one. My biggest issue with Myspace, Facebook, et al and the kids that use them is the fact that any given day, you can stumble across 14, 15 year old girls in their underwear, pictures of themselves drunk, and in some cases using drugs. Employer's already 'google' prospective employees, do they really want something like that popping up in 5 years on a cache?
I think society will have to adopt to this new honesty. I know very few people that never tried drugs... and even they drink. Sobriety will have to be rexamined. And so will a lot of other issues as we start seeing that our "dirty little secrets" are the rule, not the exception.
The really important issue is reputation recovery. Common people are going to have to learn the rules of PR and marketing.
Now you know at least one - me. Don't do/did drugs, don't drink, don't smoke. And no, not for health reasons. :)
Me two. Don't consume alcohol, drugs, or meat.
But everybody (including me) has faults. If it's not that, it's something else. Everybody also has some righteous or good qualities - but the media will not only focus on those if you make your life more public.
Me three. We really are a boring lot, aren't we?
It's true though. And speaking personally, I've gone through my name on google a couple of times and removed things that I've put online when I was younger. It's a wierd thing...
In essence, everyone is going to have to start doing what David Cameron is doing over here (guy who wants to be the Prime Minister) - admitting that they've done stuff in the past that they shouldn't have, but showing that they've now changed, and that it actually means that they've got personal experience which lets them relate; that previous mistakes aren't necessarily a bad thing.
The worry for me is that a lot of people my age 1) don't know that this is going to be an issue yet, and 2) don't care because they'll do ANYTHING to get noticed and be "famous".
I've got to say though, I'm not really scared or ecstatic. Just quietly thankful I know it's going on, and resigned to the fact that it's going to happen.
Everybody wants their 15 minutes, but nobody wants overtime.
Everybody wants their voice heard, but not by the wrong people.
Everybody wants some attention, but nobody wants an examination.
Everybody wants to be loved, but nobody wants to be idolized.
Word of the day = Reputation Management
Here's where I see the issue... people - teens being no exception - want to be seen. They like sharing their ideas, their thoughts...their pictures!
They understand that privacy is a thing of the past - so why not embrace it? The problem is that they fail to recognize the importance of Reputation Management.
I’ve pretty much given up on the privacy thing myself. In my SEM work I constantly preach transparency – so it’s no surprise that much of what I do is out there for anyone to see. However, I learned that if you don’t pay attention, you can do irreparable damage to your reputation, career, and future in general.
Google yourself every once in a while. Not just to see if you’re “popular” – but to see if there are things out there that can harm your name, image, and reputation.
Teens will learn that their cached Myspace pages will hurt them, and may be difficult to make go away. Unfortunately, the damage will likely have already been done.
Haha.. Reputation management .. the industry of the future.
The industry is NOW.
Wow.. this company is smart..
This is shocking really if you think of the effect that invasion of privacy can have. Living in South Africa the amount of invasion of privacy in the US is pretty new to me. I certainly would not want my privacy to be invaded that much and cannot see that it is fair for any country to be governed by people that wish to invade people's private lives.
However, as far as online communities are concerned it is certainly your own choice to handle public reputation in your own way. I think us old timers on the internet also need to have more tolerance with people still in the schooling phase. I personally got banned a few times before I learned to respect other opinions and also had to learn the hard way that it takes time to rebuild your reputation every time. Young people of today might not care about that as much while they are young and might act reckless to a large degree because they have different values during their teens and early 20's than we had.
Funny it seems privacy is not a concern even to governments.... https://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/070221-115432
It is one thing when someone is looking for 15 min of fame by exposing their lives - it's their choice/problem. But the list of privacy invasion above has nothing to do with that. I don't ask, nor want, anyone to track me in such Orwelian way. Accepting it would undermine our freedom of choice.
2 Things.
You have to keep in mind that youth is fearless. This isn't because they are necessarily stronger, bolder, more courageous, more daring, or anything else than those that came before them.
Youth is fearless because it doesn't necessarily know any better. Youth has a false sense of invincibilty. Youth lives in a world where, the majority of the time, actions carry limited consequences. If most of us live in a world of "that would never happen to me," then youth lives in a universe of it.
The scary part is that the bar continues to get raised on what is okay, acceptable, safe... ironically in a world that seems to be ever more the opposite. And while the world may have short-term memories, we all know the web is like an elephant, seeming to never forget... just take a look through your 404 logs, seeing requests for pages or images that have long been moved or gone.
Perhaps, some day, notoriety will be in mystery, those whose pasts are hidden and secret, those for who a search reveals nothing.
"Perhaps, some day, notoriety will be in mystery, those whose pasts are hidden and secret, those for who a search reveals nothing."
It already is. Look at the artist Banksy. Would he have become as famous as he has, if he'd just been open and said "Hey, this is me"? It's the fact that no-one knows who he is that made him an inverted celebrity: famous but un-known.
The question is, not whether this will happen, but whether people will even be able to remain hidden. If we even can now. With all the cameras and monitoring and tracking that goes on, are we really hidden anymore? Or is it just information that isn't publically available. In which case, what do we use to define privacy? Is it simply that information which isn't visible to the public?
In a world where everything about you is known, or knowable through some means, privacy (it would seem to me) becomes not what is known about you, but who knows it.
Fear of data about me, friends, family, etc being accesable online is what led to my transition as a graphic designer to a web designer. There was so much paranoid press at the time I figured I'd have to be a complete idiot to not learn the reality behind the hype. Turns out security isn't as big an issue as thought on a daily basis and the systems are there so only irresponsible companies leak really damaging info... and usually by leaving their laptops somewhere to be taken - not by being hacked.
Privacy on the other hand... Hell, perception is out of control. Most businesses are still in denial and think they are in control of their reputation and what information gets to their customers. Thanks to the internet that just isn't true anymore and hasn't been for a long time.
Just as employers Google job prospects, consumers Google businesses, products and services. And I think that is a good thing.
The lack of personal privacy anymore does bother me. Crime is down, perception is up. Criminals are easier to catch. Prisons are full.
The technology available to track any one person's movements makes 1984 seem like a playground for the uninhibitted. Only 2 things stand in the way of a big brother existance:
1. Budget
2. In-fighting
Thank God politicians can't get along! As long as they are battling each other they aren't able to focus on us.
It seems like, and these two articles back my opinion, that it is getting almost harder not to be recognized than it is to be recognized. Very interesting indeed!
Everyone want's their 15 minutes of fame....but does the world really need another reality show? Do we really need another Paris Hilton?
There is so much going on in the world that is being ignored because people want fame - becasue they think it will bring them fortune.
I look at some peoples MySpace pages and shudder at the thought of them trying to get a job a few years down the road with all that information publicly available. Why the hell would you want people talking about your boozing/drug/party habits in a public arena? I just don't get it.
And, man, I hadn't even heard of Xanga?
But in our over-production / over-consumption society, information is just the next commodity. We act now, and worry later.
Of course we don't need extravagant luxuries. We don't need so many clothes or such wasteful automobiles. I didn't need to eat 5 pieces of pizza today (even though it was vegetarian). We just do, because we can.
In the same way if people think they will receive some benefit from producing some website, blog, television show, or any other type of media, they will do so - regardless of whether it has any practical purpose for themselves or for the world.
And the easier and more accessible something is, and the less risk there is involved, the more we will do it. Especially in terms of internet technology.
I think it's all about seeking fame - so many want to be well known/a big fish in a specific community/small pond. It is the same all over (damn that degree in psychology! Look at how cynical it made me!).
I have printouts from 1986 of stuff I had done online and frankly I'm glad that'll *never* be found (gods yes I've been online since 1986 so that smug *ahem* person who was trying to impress me in the elevator over having been online SEVEN YEARS *patpatlittlegirl* has no idea...).
The young are fearless - witness my 2am forrays in to a rough neighbourhood for pizza - and possibly the wisdom of those older is what saves and preserves us when we are young.
Privacy might be so 1994 but I do value that part of my life is private. I really don't want you all to know what I get up to at the weenend ;-)
I wouldn't say is good or bad, it's just a different, we humans are always adapting to changes, we just have to learn to deal with this new situation, everybody will be educated on privacy matters related to the Web.
I had an experience with this kind of recently. I'm at the very beginning age group for this kind of thing. I have facebook, myspace, AIM, etc.
Anyway, I went on a date with this guy that I didn't know very well, and he checked me out on myspace beforehand! He knew all about my favorite movies, books, music, etc. It we like he kind of knew all about me already. It was slightly weird.
I mean, obviously I checked out his profile too, but I didn't mention it to him. haha.
After seeing my thumbs down, I want to re-phrase- I'm 24, saying beginning may make it sound as though I'm 13. I meant it the other end. :)