Dear social networking privacy enthusiasts:
Facebook has gotten a lot of flak because you can’t control who sees what you post, and because you can’t consent to being followed, and generally because your shitty behavior on the internet might be associated with your real name. Now Ello, a new service that attempts to merge privacy and social networking is coming under similar critical assault, and it’s barely even launched yet.
It’s true that even on this new service, you might be held accountable for things you think and say, just like if you were bashing gays and shouting obscenities at a real life bus stop or a party. You might be reprimanded for things you do, like punching an elderly blind lady in the kidneys. You might even be subject to content containing other people shouting obscenities and punching cripples.
Because the internet is much like a big party, to which everyone is invited, whether you like them or not.
I have many complaints and objections to the course Facebook has taken over the years, but I can’t say I would have done it differently if I were in Zuckerberg’s place.
I don’t know what the hell I would do if I was singlehandedly responsible for totally changing and then continuously managing the way human beings all over the planet communicate with each other in such a fundamental way. That is a heavy burden – and the existence of the service in the first place, the system architecture required to support it, and the manpower and resources it takes to maintain it are pretty impressive.
It’s not perfect, but it does its job remarkably well considering “social networking” as we think of it now, has only really existed for a decade or so. If you can imagine the safety and reliability of the first decade of powered flight, in contrast, our mastery of technology is truly amazing.
Nobody complained when the Wright brothers first powered flight didn’t show a movie and serve drinks.
They were lucky to have only one passenger fatality in a two person craft.
To ask that social networking software behaves as a covert agency designed to protect hidden agendas and motives, would be asking it to transform into something else.
I would sooner attempt to make an omelette with a rocket launcher.
That’s just not what it’s designed for.
I’ve got sad news for all of you:
Social networking is the opposite of privacy.
Sharing is the opposite of depriving.
If you don’t want the world to have access to data about you,
Don’t put it on the internet.
Also, if you want only specific people you know to see your “posts,”
Have you heard of this amazing invention called email?
Or, maybe, the telephone?
If your intimate personal information is meant only for your trusted compatriots, have you tried… Talking to them?
Call me a Luddite, but I don’t think any form of networking has yet trumped face to face conversation.
On the other hand, it’s easy to maintain prejudice when you’re surrounded by members of your own tribe.
For the same reason you’re not likely to meet any black folks at a klan rally.
It doesn’t expand consciousness to communicate in an insular environment.
It is possible that, if the response you get from the internet is generally negative, you might be wrong.
You might even be a complete asshole, but being as you are surrounded by other complete assholes, you didn’t notice.
And that feedback might result in a change in your behavior. … Probably not, but… Maybe?
Of course, this doesn’t cover the LGBT debate, in which telling the truth may cost you friends or jobs… And that seems a harsh consequence, but do you really want a job supporting an organization with discriminatory hiring practices? Are friends who would shun the real you really friends you intend to keep?
Would there be a difference in perspective from the general populace if everyone came out of the closet all at once? Maybe not.
But I can’t see the response being much worse than hiding your true self from everyone, and living in fear of harm or rejection until your death.
The old bard said, “This above all, to thine own self be true.”
I would also remind my gay acquaintances that homophobes aren’t afraid of you, or that you are gay.
They are afraid they might be. And maybe if all the gay folks went public, the resulting shock at what a huge portion of the population has atypical sexual preferences might drive them to confront themselves.
This could even cause a sexual-philosophical revolution!
But at the very least it would result in a few members of congress and some professionals at Goldman-Sachs coming out as the great big flaming queens they are.
Admit it, you would love to see your congressman in drag. It would be hilarious. C-SPAN would finally be entertaining and whimsical.
I suspect also that less approvals to bomb other countries would come from representatives wearing dresses, regardless of their gender.
As for me,
There are some things I don’t want everyone to know.
I easily avoid them finding these things out by NOT POSTING THAT SHIT.
I don’t understand the difficulty here.
All those regrettable things that I did when I was 22,
Or any time after that hasn’t passed the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution,
Are not going to be discussed on this blog, or Facebook, or anywhere else on the internet.
I don’t talk about that publicly, because that would be fucking stupid. Because I know how our culture would respond.
The same way they respond to exposed nipples, the word “fuck,” and different skin colors: With shock and disgust.
Don’t blame Facebook because people are bigoted reactionaries.
Maybe that picture of you naked with that goat was “high art” and not “beastial pornography.”
It’s not Facebook’s fault if that one got misinterpreted by Christianity.
Maybe it should have stayed in your private album.
If the goat had a good time, it was a victimless crime.
Who are we to judge?
The backlash resulting from sharing sensitive information says nothing about Facebook policy, but something about our culture in general. What it seems to say most loudly is that our culture is
homophobic,
xenophobic and racist,
sexist and misogynistic,
devoid of empathy,
ignorant,
hypercritical,
petrified by fear of nonsensical bullshit,
and overtly manipulated by religious zealots who also have the gall to call themselves the moral majority.
This is the internet public, the society you’re trying to socially network with.
They’re angry, loud, abrasive, entitled, and they don’t give a shit what you think.
They’re the people in the youtube comment threads (ugh,)
But they’re the same people in line at the supermarket with you.
They’re the people you’re sitting behind in traffic.
They’re your coworkers and friends and neighbors and relatives, and, everybody else.
Again, speaking in a generalization, they’re people who would probably hate you if you told them the whole truth.
They clearly can’t handle the truth, even about minor issues, and that’s why they so happily fund giant propaganda machines that guarantee they’ll never find out the truth about anything except the Oscars, the Emmys, the Golden Globes, and the one big secret to a smaller waistline.
That’s not your fault, but since you live in the midst of it, it’s your responsibility to pay attention.
Otherwise you might say fuck in front of the wrong crowd, and not be invited back.
Our culture is not suffering from a loss of privacy.
It’s suffering from a gross excess of privacy,
And it’s terrified at the consequences of having to behave the way it has for years, out in the broad light of day.
It’s justified in this fear, for our excessively private lifestyles have allowed for numerous abuses of human rights, and a deeply sloping trend away from enlightened self-interest, towards mindless and self indulgent behavior. The reason why people have been able to behave so badly for so long is because they were behind closed doors. Now the doors are being thrown open, and many feel like they shouldn’t have to clean up their act.
They don’t. They, in point of fact, are free and even welcome to leave the internet. They can also hide under their bed, if they think that will help them continue to get away with a lifestyle of 95% consumption and 5% production. But that will solve nothing. Of course it is easy to blame Facebook, and hard to commit to personal change and self development… But the difficult path has the most advantages.
People who live in glass houses are less often victims of domestic violence.
If the emperor really had no clothes, he might work out a bit more often. Maybe eat some vegetables.
Lets all get e-naked and start the revolution.