I’ve been thinking about privacy.
I have just, for the first time, explicitly asked a friend not to mention something on a social network of which she’s a member. Making that request was momentous to me. I watched myself type the words while sighing at what our times have become. I’m seldom in a position to ask a friend to not do something.
I’m no curmudgeon. I’m no technophobe. And I understand the theory of “six degrees of separation.”
I’ve known since childhood that grownups discuss the goings-on of children; their own and that of others. I learned in fourth grade that my friends talk about me, as do my frenemies, enemies, and complete strangers who happen to see me somewhere. I recently saw the proverb “who gossips to you will gossip about you” in a restaurant. I get it. We are all subject of conversation sooner, later, at any time. And the revolution won’t be televised; it’ll be on YouTube, starring you.
But privacy isn’t dead. And I stand by my grumpy mantra that I don’t want to be on the news. Yes, there are plenty of positive reasons to be on the news. There are plenty of negative ones, too. I don’t want to play the odds on what would occasion my being on there.
I enjoy getting updates from my family and friends about their life. How easy the Internet has made keeping in touch! However, I draw the line at reporting someone else’s news in a public forum. Let each tell her/his own business!
Mostly, I requested privacy this time because I was sharing with a dear friend something I hadn’t yet shared with all of my family members. I also did it because my news was not the business of my not-so-close friends, or of their family and friends and reunited schoolmates and old flames and childhood neighbors, or of… Well, you get the idea.
I’ll share my own news, thanks.