I'm fond of grandfatherly rants, and I reserve the right to use this particular column to emulate that advisory style. Increasingly so, I feel as though our society is abandoning general decency and recognition of privacy for the sake of technology. I do not identify as a Luddite, nor do I object to advancements in order to preserve some sense of the "good old days" (which I understand is just code for the 1950s in America, if we want to put a spatiotemporal label on these things). Instead, I refer to the fact that venues for broadcasting one's life are growing larger, turning our society into some kind of sick collective exhibitionist cult. We just don't wear any snazzy cult robes.
My concern grows from a basic concept: the normalization of digital stalking.
Now I'm sure you've heard of those newfangled "social networking" sites like the Facebook and the MySpace (I understand the youth use them). The proliferation of profile−based sites facilitates the creation of endless portals through which we view one another's "identity."
Most importantly, they create virtual windows for peeping−Tom tendencies. The phrases "Facebook creeping" or "Facebook stalking" are so ingrained in our vocabulary that we rarely take the time to truly consider how WEIRD those actions truly are. Because we are physically distant and only digitally proximal, the exhaustive investigation of identity enabled by social networking sites is culturally acceptable. I am not peering into your window; instead, I am obsessively analyzing pieces of information I can glean from your various Internet profiles and filling in a personal background that will later be recognized as conjectural at best. This is all OK, though, since I found it on your page (after two solid hours of searching).
The recently released smartphone application called Color enables the habit and makes the topic relevant. We are familiar with the old forms of compulsive following, but Color takes it all to a new level. Innovative in its technological implications, Color is an app that allows users to upload pictures, videos and messages to be accessed, without barrier, by other smartphones using Color within 150 feet.
The app creates a mobile network for users that is shared among friends and strangers, making it a hip place to meet other individuals in your immediate vicinity. Its impressiveness lies in its speed; this sharing can be conducted in real time and without the necessity of constructing a profile. This, of course, is incredibly valuable, because it advances the process of uploading 50 photos of your cat to be adored by your doting fans (no seriously, I love every pose your cat strikes in a given day).
Color will help revolutionize virtual stalking in a very real way. There are almost no restrictions on uploads using the application, and its creators have come under fire for the seeming lack of privacy provisions. Color users permit an intense hike in publicity of their private life, and with the increased use of Color, we just might start seeing more of everyone than we would really like to see … or should see.
The stipulation to all of this, however, is that it is society itself that encourages and allows this erosion of privacy. The dissolution of the veil is not imposed by some Big Brother figure denying a basic human right; it is our cultural willingness to display and share our every move without restriction that propels this tendency. With every photo I share, I am personally responsible for my exhibition. Our need to show, to prove, to broadcast is so ingrained in every action that our criticism of celebrity is starting to seem a little hollow.
Vain? Absolutely. Culturally encouraged? I guess so … (cries).
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