by Madeline Laughs
I was reading the USA Today and enjoyed the article about the actress portraying Bella in the Twilight series. She talked in detail about the state of exposure today;
“Everyone is complicit in their own surveillance, especially young people, who chronicle their lives obsessively, maybe seeking validation, which is still no easier to find.” I love the phrase “complicit in their own surveillance”!
Are you complicit in your own surveillance? I know sometimes I hesitate about putting my location up there. I have a couple of friends on Facebook, dear ones, that are friends with someone that I would prefer not know my personal business. So I utilize the Privacy functions as often as possible because the people I have chosen as my friends are truly people I know or have met.
But even with those safeguards the creeps will always find a way back into your yard. When your Facebook page becomes an open channel for mean people, stalker-ex-girlfriends, relatives needing a loan or just your general flame throwers then it’s time to wonder if you’ve become overexposed on Facebook.
I watch as people dear to me post their inner most thoughts, fears and daily experiences and sometimes I cringe. Some of these written confessions are made of stuff that other people, more evil than my friends, will race to find a way to use it to their advantage. I see people accepting new friend requests from individuals that I know want nothing more than a window of voyeurism so they can watch and perhaps report back to someone else. Should I be more responsible for my friends? Should I speak up and say “Hey, you really want to steer clear of this person and I’ll tell you why.”?? Or do I remain silent and allow my friends to find out for themselves? Where is that line drawn? When do I become less of a messenger and more of a harbinger?
And Kristen continues;
“You’re so connected to people and they all know how to get to you, and everyone knows who you are, so explicitly. They think they know you. It’s like, ‘You really think you know me? I don’t know me! How do you know I’m not different around someone else?’ ” Her voice gets a little loud, and she slumps back in her chair.
“It almost makes the secrets more important, those few things you actually do choose to keep to yourself,” she says quietly.”
Now this is a young woman who has already come to terms with this beast…Social Networking.
She is absolutely correct. No one on here truly knows the other unless they have constant ties outside of this series of electronic pages. People on here can present any front they wish and embellish with great enthusiasm. There’s no law against telling lies even though being a complete fake is against Facebook policy.
As I ponder my own contribution to the cyber garbage can with my myriad of Pictures and Status Updates, as I express my own opinion in the most honest way possible with Comments and Postings, as I attempt to bring a smile to someone’s face or let someone on there know they are in my thoughts, or as I cultivate a new friendship within the confines of my own Facebook existence, I will consider my actions with more care from now on.
Kristen Stewart, though I do not know her and she is not one of my friends on Facebook, has shared with all of us the greatest truth here; there are few things in life so precious and important as protecting your special secrets. The truths in all of our lives that give constant meaning to why we wake up every morning and live life to the fullest. Those are the ones not meant for a meaningless empty Comment box, they are the ones worth holding close to our hearts.
thank you Kristen.
Related Articles
- Unfriending Facebook Friends (ariherzog.com)
- EXCLUSIVE: Spencer Pratt Says Overexposed Kim Kardashian ‘Should Just Disappear’ (foxnews.com)
- Facebook to incorporate Suicide button onto users profiles (chatootsboots.wordpress.com)
- How To Find Out Who Defriends You On Facebook (businessinsider.com)
- Facebook Vs Myspace (newsfroml124p2.wordpress.com)
Regyna Longlank
madelinelaughs
i0naverse
seabbaticals
blossomoflight
Trapped Ape
singlenotdesperate
Lisa Wields Words
skyrooster
robinblogsaboutit
“Complicit in their own surveillance.” So true. Like a tattoo, your online confessions/advertisements are there to stay. I have a nephew that sported long spiked green hair for about a year while in college. He blogged and socialized profusely. He got involved in student government and so appeared in numerous campus newspaper articles that way. He partied, he appeared in friends’ blogs doing so. Some of them were smashed; by implication, he was too. He has struggled to find a job. Did prospective employers google him? You bet they did–the smarter ones anyway.
On the positive side, you can tell that he’s really smart and thoughtful. He probably blogged as much as he wrote papers. In a way, he went to college twice. If I needed a capable, independent thinker, I’d hire him in a minute. But I know him better than those employers. He mostly works as a bee keeper right now, in a place where they make beer and mead and have a good time when things aren’t busy. It’s ok. He’s just not on his way to becoming a lawyer like he’d hoped.
As some here may note, I’m doing a little experiment with anonymity right now, contributing some pieces for Spread Information. Musings, self-reflection, some personal stuff. Only a couple of my real friends know my true identity as Trapped Ape. As such, I know I don’t have *complete* anonymity. But it’s been liberating and fun. I decided that you *do* have to stick your neck out a bit here and there if you’re going to be who you really are. It may be that we’re entering an era of lost privacy. Sure there are some very anonymous realms on the Internet, but it’s also an era where immense corporations like Facebook and Google and countless nameless ones almost know you better than you know yourself–in some ways. Think about it.
You both make very valid points about Facebook and our ever-growing loss of privacy in general. Many of us don’t stop and think about ALL of the information about us that’s floating around in cyberspace. Take a moment to Google your name or search a “people-finder” site; you’ll be stunned at the results. And if you can see it? So can anyone else.
I have found a good way to avoid overexposure on Facebook, though. I make sure that whenever I post there, I’m always wearing clothes — at the very least, a t-shirt and sweats. ;)
Pingback: Are you seeking Validation on Facebook? | Spread Information