Private Matters

Recently I read an article on how the Internet is changing the way we view 'privacy'. The writer states that the younger generation have a much more relaxed view of personal privacy. The argument is that the Gen Y have grown up with the Internet and are much more comfortable with offering their private details for shopping, online communities, etc. As a sweeping general statement, I guess I would have to agree. This is especially true as I look at my 'friends' on Facebook.

Most of my friends are around my age, well educated and really comfortable with technology. Almost everyone I know has a Facebook account and those few who don't are usually avoiding it because of crazy ex-girlfriends. Though I have a couple hundred contacts, a few accounts really stick out in my mind. All for different things but it all loops back to privacy or lack thereof.

First is the colleague who logs all his big party nights. Every Monday I look forward to seeing pictures of him half dressed and draped over strange women waving around beer bottles like trophies - as if the chicks weren't reward enough.

Then there's the colleague who recently ran into issues because another female colleague found some of his FB content offensive.  To be clear, his profile was extremely benign and usually limited to pictures of his young son. I'm not entirely sure what the woman found objectionable but I guess there's a reminder there that like privacy, peoples' threshold for 'offensive' material varies greatly.

Finally, I know someone who used to constantly make fun of people who broadcast their lives on Facebook. Basically, people to report their whereabouts and relationship status are exhibitionist and the people who react to it are voyeurs. And he's not necessarily complimentary about this observation. This of course was during his single days when he didn't have a lot to report. Recently he's met a new girl and all of a sudden nothing's too sacred to share with all and sundry. So effectively, this guy's threshold wasn't determined by age but rather how happy he was. All of a sudden he had something worth shouting from the rooftops.

At the end of the day, FB and other social networks are little more than enablers. They allow us to share, show off or communicate as we choose. The personal choices on how much you choose to share works the same in the reverse - there are personal choices to be made on how much you wish to consume of others' news and alerts.

I for one, don't need to know the mating habits of friends and so I choose to stop getting those kinds of updates. The sad thing is that most people have so many 'friends' that no one's noticed when I place them on the lovely 'blocked' list.