Privacy

Sometimes I really do wonder at what social media brings people. On the surface, it allows mass interpersonal interactions to occur synchronously and asynchronously, thus bringing everyone together in one big happy family. Yet with technology, we can always be sure that every goodness is effectively a double edged sword, and social media is no exception.

As people have known for quite some time, social media like Facebook is a pretty good source of information for investigations. Those who are most connected to the social media have the most information on themselves out there. The most involved ones even provide live updates on their daily lives (not sure why I'd want to know that, but thanks anyway). With this information, friends can better understand other friends and law enforcement find this to be quite the boon as well. Unfortunately, stalkers can do exactly the same.

What worries me is the propensity of such lack of privacy to become habitual, in that people realize that they cannot avoid the breach without simultaneously cutting themselves off from the social stream. For many people, that is actually a very high price to pay. The problem here is that the value of privacy will go down as a result, and I foresee people not protecting their privacy as zealously as they previously would have. This is especially worrying, in that it brings us closer to a world without barriers for the common folk, but the walls remain in place for those in power...