Two weeks ago, I came across a piece of content on Instagram that made me think deeply about how far society has gone in decentering personal privacy. The content featured a young lady prepping her kid for school; from packing his lunchboxes, having him wear his uniform with his school badges largely displayed on camera, showing the route to the school’s location, its gate, and documenting what time she drops him off and eventually picks him up. All this was done in the name of taking an audience through a day in her life, and it made me ask, how much is too much information?
I find this behaviour quite jarring because it stretches further to every other aspect of life. These days, creators share confidential details on the internet, from their workplaces to school. Intimate moments and struggles are recorded and shared publicly, without a single thought, and all of this makes me believe that privacy is indeed going extinct. It’s more like we have all forgotten what it means to reserve some details to ourselves, and frankly, there are a few factors to blame for this.
The first one would be the creator economy. While this has created a means for earning and has even higher potential for younger people, it largely encourages oversharing on the internet. It asks people to monetize details of their lives without restrictions. Nothing seems to be out of bounds in the creator economy, which is concerning.
This same creator economy has also made younger people begin to seek too much validation from the internet whilst still trying to make money. Almost everyone looks at the bright sides of becoming a social media influencer, and to them, the best way to do this is simply to begin sharing any and everything to build an audience, and convert the numbers into currency. You notice that these people also cannot make a lot of decisions on their own without seeking the input of whatever community they must have built.
When this topic of privacy is raised, the defence often says people are in control of their privacy and no one can tell them what to do or post online, which is quite fair. We can’t own anyone’s life or decisions. However, we reserve the right to speak on these things, especially in calling out the risks that may be associated with them.
Now, while the creator economy may have these downsides, I believe humans are primarily the problem. People are so easily convinced to trade their privacy for money or convenience. It’s so easy for a lot of individuals to consider ventures without thinking of the possible risks. Many of these influencers do not think about digital footprints, their confidential information being accessible to the public, and even burnout when trying to fit into the influencer culture.
Everything that shuts down privacy is being normalized right now, and the number of people interested in oversharing keeps growing because social media is currently built to create that high dopamine level to keep people hooked.
For me, it’s always thumbs up to the few creators who exercise restraint while creating content and sharing to the public. But if I could, I’d love to bring back privacy, the exact way it used to be in the early 2000s. I’d love to bring back that caution we all exercised around our private moments and details.
I consider this something very vital because bringing that sense of privacy back is a great advantage to the newer generation. It would be a step taken further in protecting our autonomy, personal peace, and security.
Unfortunately, bringing this back seems almost impossible in today’s world. So, I hope. I hope that somehow we are all less dependent on the creator economy. I hope that the people who are deeply invested in it can remember to take a step back when need be, and ultimately place privacy above any incentive there may be. Only this way can we have a saner society with people less obsessed with oversharing to their own detriment.
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