Monday, February 2, 2009

Moo! Moo! Woof! Don't follow the herd!

Today I wish to discuss, or I guess more correctly: monologue, about a raging phenomenon that has reached pandemic levels: internet uploads.

This alarming trend of posting anything and everything on the web for the whole world to see threatens to leave individuals open for predators and conmen, public humiliation, and also presents a rather amusing contradiction in American ideology.

Firstly, I will bring up social network tools, like facebook, myspace, etc. They are brilliant innovations that have probably strengthened millions of friendships and started thousands more. However, it also strips you of your privacy. Sometimes, it is you through your own actions, sometimes it is "friends" of yours posting stuff you wish had been forgotten.

I read an article not too long ago about how often companies and HR employees use facebook and the like to find out more about job applicants, and how damaging some material can be to prospective employees. I personally did a thoughtful double check on the kinds of things I had online, whether it was photos I put up, political affiliations, interests listed, and other options. I deduced that I had nothing that I wouldn't want a potential manager or boss seeing, if not my parents.

The second thing that I had to look up was what other people had posted about me. I am not a wild person, unless you count a musical obsession with Billy Joel, so I didn't have too much to worry about. However, I know there are people out there, some that I think I know, who have pictures of them when they are absolutely plowed, high, or doing something astoundingly stupid. I can't see how I wouldn't be embarrassed if I had pictures like that on my site. I would not want the world to have access to any poor lifestyle choices I had made, nor would I want vulgar postings from my friends, nor probably, would I even want to be reminded of stupid things I had done.

Now, I'll move on to a more entertaining aspect of the internet posting craze, and I'll give it the auspicious title of the Patriot Act Paradox. Remember how incensed people got when the Patriot Act passed all those years ago? Remember how everyone got paranoid about Big Brother after reading 1984? Remember how quick we are to defend our personal liberties?

If we were so adamant about privacy, why do we not hesitate to post stuff? Big Brother doesn't have to tap ANYTHING anymore! They can just google us, check our facebook profile, or youtube videos in the public domain to find out our entire life story, political connections, car make and model, and our toothbrush color!

Also, half the time on facebook, people post shoddy-looking photos of themselves, usually shot at a downward angle, tilted sideways, color-washed, and cropped to closely. I think we all know the look.

So PLEASE! For the love of everything good and holy in this world, don't be a posting addict, don't embarrass your friends (if you do, you'll see how soon you stay on their list when they see what you put up), don't put up a fuss about privacy until you keep your own, and especially, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't take "myspace shots." No one will take you seriously.

It just looks kinda dumb. Sorry, but it does.

Until next time, when I can come up with something a bit more sophisticated to satire...

2 comments:

  1. just so you know... i changed my facebook picture, just so that i wouldn't be one of those "dumb" people...

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