The latest house episode tonight was centered around a patient who was an avid blogger. In the story, the blogger, Frankie, had documented almost everything in her life on the internet for all to see. Forget about how plausible this is for a moment, though i'm sure it's doable... she commented at some point in the episode that we all would be more careful about what we say or do if we know everything was "on record". In a way, she is what...? "policing" the people around her?? in the story, this woman had loyal followers on her blog around the globe...one of which even offered to donate his/her liver to Frankie. I'm not sure if i believe knowing a person in the virtual reality alone actually counts as knowing. Sure, we all had our AOL/Yahoo/whatever days, when we were 15 and had multiple "online" bf and gfs. I remember there was definitely moments that i was certain my virtual illusion was true, that so and so was closer to my heart than the "real" people around me. If i was really going for the thrill of danger, we'd exchange phone numbers and talk on the phone. for the record, let me just say, thank goodness i was not cut into pieces and dumped in a ditch somewhere. The biggest problem is that we all try to present ourselves in a favorable way to others. Trying to pick the right clothes to wear, the right things to say, the right gesture to make...when left to our own devices on the internet, with typed words alone, fabrication of ourselves must be inevitable. If words are the only things we were held accountable, we can be anything we want to be.
Taub said that privacy was a modern invention. It's not the first time i have heard of it, but i can't make up my mind if i believe it. I guess if we all live in small communities where everyone is in everyone else's business, nothing "private" can be really protected. But after all we are still human being with thoughts and most of us can't read minds, so of course there's private things we can hide for ourselves. Information about ourselves though, i guess, is a different story. Where we live, what we do, how much money we have, what do we do when no one is looking... we tirelessly protect these things, we have laws and punishments, firewalls and passwords. when it comes down to it, really, we have figured out, or have always known, information is power, information about someone can screw them over if used strategically. We can protect all we want, but, if the intention to harm is there, it's just a matter of time when he/she screws you over. I think privacy is just the part of us that is the most "tender", if you will. The part that's the most vulnerable. Privacy = the short cut to screw you over.
Taub said that privacy was a modern invention. It's not the first time i have heard of it, but i can't make up my mind if i believe it. I guess if we all live in small communities where everyone is in everyone else's business, nothing "private" can be really protected. But after all we are still human being with thoughts and most of us can't read minds, so of course there's private things we can hide for ourselves. Information about ourselves though, i guess, is a different story. Where we live, what we do, how much money we have, what do we do when no one is looking... we tirelessly protect these things, we have laws and punishments, firewalls and passwords. when it comes down to it, really, we have figured out, or have always known, information is power, information about someone can screw them over if used strategically. We can protect all we want, but, if the intention to harm is there, it's just a matter of time when he/she screws you over. I think privacy is just the part of us that is the most "tender", if you will. The part that's the most vulnerable. Privacy = the short cut to screw you over.
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