BellaOnline Forums Computers Blogs & Social Networking Does social networking kill privacy?

I think our impression of what constitutes privacy is going to experience massive upheaval in the present and coming generations. I don't think that what we had been accustomed to as 'normal' privacy is going to exist any more. The standard will be changing vastly.

Whether this ends up good or bad remains to be seen. It's good when we can provide alibis for the falsely accused or provide actual evidence for crime.

It's good when no one has to feel alone and can find like minded others to share their issues with in specialized forums.

It's not good when criminals use the information they find to steal your identity or credit card numbers, or simply to go rob your house when they realize you've told the world you are on vacation.

But youngsters will never realize the kind of privacy we experienced last century, and for them it's not a loss. They are extremely comfortable blogging and FBing their entire lives online.

In fact, I find I am doing this too. Instead of diminishing my life, it's enriching it. I can crowdsource all kinds of problems, get emotional support, document my learning experiences in several unique areas...

What do people think the new standard of privacy will be like?

I think we expect what we grow up with is the "normal" thing and any change to that is "abnormal". But look back say 200 years when people lived in small villages. They had no privacy! If they wet their bed until age 3 the entire village knew about it for their entire life. If they were snubbed by a girl, it was a village story forever. We are actually far better off in terms of privacy now At least now we can (mostly) choose what we want to share.

Unless one chose, 200 years ago, to live in the big city. I would guess there was a lot of privacy that way. Maybe everything is just variations on the same themes. :-)

I agree with you Jilly.

But also I feel that you can have some privacy on social networks by controlling the amount of information that you do share. Everybody does not need to now every little detail about you.

What do people think about telling the world all your life details on Twitter and Facebook?

Social Networking not only kills privacy, but eventually it will diminish the art of face to face conversation. The natural ability to make small talk with someone in a bar will be harder. One other important factor of too much Networking is the loss of family life and the light conversations you have with your partner. If on average someone is facebooking, myspacing, blogging or twittering 3 to 4 hours a evening, where's the family life. Your too busy inviting these vitual strangers into your life.

In my case, i am not good at or comfortable with face to face conversation, so it's kinda a better method for me, in terms of communicating socially.

This comment made me think about the movie "Surrogates". In it people no longer went into the outside world at all - they linked up to robots or "surreys" that went out into the world for them. When a man was forced to go into the world in his own human body he had major panic attacks and could barely function.

Also, you never really knew who you were talking to. A gorgeous 20 something blonde woman was really an obese, bald man.

How different is that than some of these facebooks people we meet. We really have no way of knowing what that person we are chatting with is really like - just their word for it.

Anyone who goes online is risking having their personal information hacked. As far as that goes, apparently, you can find anyone and all their personal information if you only know where to go to find it. It's scary, if you think about it. There are so many crazy people out there.

Young people (kids) don't understand or believe that it's dangerous to put your entire life online. Adults have the info and know about it, so if they choose to live their lives online, that's their choice.

I'm glad that people have these sites to go to, to find someone to talk to when they are lonely. If they are concerned about their privacy, they have to be careful to protect it--as much as it can be protected. But some apparently are not concerned about privacy.

Social Networking could lead to all kinds of invasion of privacy. I'm all over the place [Facebook, Twitter, Link, Good Reads, and even still Myspace] promoting my book. Sometimes I find that I can't always tweet or post what I want because I understand that my family, co-workers, and friends will read it and try to decode the meaning behind my tweet/post.

Real or imagined, people think they know you because of your tweet/post. If your the type of person who tweets every part of your life, all day, every day; then you've relinquished your privacy.

I must admit, it's kinda of addictive. At work, when I'm annoyed, I'd love to tweet something and vent, but I don't because I know it's not private.

When we join social networking sites we've consented to give up some privacy, but we can also get our privacy back, by not posting or tweeting all our business.

Feel free to invade my privacy at any one of these sites:

www.facebook.com/dijones247
www.twitter.com/literarydiva_di
www.transformation247.wordpress.com