Privacy on the Internet
After reading the first chapter of “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet” by Daniel J. Solove, I noticed a few things that really popped up to me and started questioning my own behaviors online as I react to the latest viral video online.
I feel like we are enslaving ourselves by making it impossible to escape from the shackles of our past and from the stain of gossip and false rumors. Bad news will follow you forever, especially on the internet. Nothing goes erased, even if you think it did. I feel like though, that’s not something we should be concerned about. I feel people are too obsessed with their social standing in life, that they forget people who love them are not judgmental and will never shame you for what you’ve done in the past. We all make dumb decisions and shouldn’t be forever shamed for them. A lot of us are judgmental backstabbers though and like to point fingers at someone else, pointing out their flaws no matter who they are now. Unfortunately it’s the majority of people who do that, over the minority.
I think it’s a no-brainer to say that the more you put yourself out there, the more you’re allowing for risk and trouble to come around. I think it’s important we all understand that before we start playing on the internet. People are going to face lies and rumors no matter what. It’s been here before internet, it’s going to be here with the internet. The problem is, it’s much more enhanced and people from all over the world will have access to see and read these lies and rumors. I don’t think I have the right to tell each other what they can or cannot share how much information they want to about themselves on the internet, I just think it’s important you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Although, it’s true that even if you don’t want to associate yourself with the internet and stay away, there’s almost always going to be some sort of information about you whether it’s through friends, family, and local community. Personally, I don’t put a lot of personal information about myself on the internet and I am fortunate to have had no trouble yet with personal information or problems leaked onto social media through friends and family. If a person wanted to get to know me, they’d have to come talk to me, because they won’t find much online anyway.
Quite honestly, I don’t think people are going to ever be in complete control of their personal information online. It’s unavoidable and inescapable. The best you can do is educate the people and get them to know what they’re getting themselves into by using the Internet. I like to think of it as a community. People are gonna get curious, they’re gonna talk, some are going to do you wrong and that’s just how the world works. I think it’s just important to care less about your social reputation and care more about the people who will not judge you, who know who you are behind the screen, and who support you. Not a bunch of people online who think they know you just because of a few things you’ve said, a few photos, or a few things they’ve heard from others.
I don’t think people’s social transgressions should follow them on a digital rap sheet that can never be expunged. It’s almost like we’re writing everything you do in your own book and exposing that to the public. Another reason why you have to be careful who you choose to trust on the internet, because if you’re a person who cares about reputation, you’re going to have a hard time when a snake comes and deceives you of your trust.
I think inciting moral outrage will create a mob driven police state. If this is a good thing or not, that I don’t quite know.
Ultimately with new ways of communicating, there inevitably comes ethical questions that will rise. I feel in order to answer these questions, we must remember who we are as humans: imperfect. Do we have the right to laugh, to judge, to hate someone else for the things they did? Can we find ourselves to be forgiving, loving, supporting more than spreading hatred and fear? When I was reading the first chapter, I felt myself feeling terrible for the things I have laughed at. Much like the “dog poop girl” for instance that the author had started his book off with. Yes, what she did was wrong and I can only imagine how upset and disgusted I would feel if I were there at the scene, but to think something like that will ride her shoulders forever, it almost seems like we’re the type of culture that will always humiliate and hate because of this new permanent spread of information. With this, people will probably be afraid to do anything they want to outside of their homes, because a large media police like us may not like what they’re doing and shame them forever because of it. I would like to believe we aren’t that cruel and we’ll probably know when too much is too much. However, I’m not the type to hold grudges and I believe in the good in people, and that people can learn from their mistakes and change. I just hope the rest of humanity will do the same.