I officially plead guilty for the crime of dumbness and by doing so I make it even worse.

I don't like to assume that the world is going down, but judging by how little privacy is left these days, the statement achieves a greater sense of plausibility.

It's not just CCTV surveillance by the watchstate (especially in England) or fingerprints on passports coming to Europe. Worst of all are the users of the internet themselves, me included. Blogger, Facebook, Livejournal and most openly Myspace - just to name a few - have convinced us to share private, sometimes very private, things with the whole world. Isn't that a bit dumb?

Most people know the stories of businesses checking on their workers (some did get fired just by having a negative Facebook status about their work). Much more concerning is what we share online that normally only our closest friends would know. My post from yesterday is the best example - it's likely that the person read the C-entry and now knows much more than I would like them to know.

We writer's need to be aware of the consequences of volatile dumbness. We never know who might read what is published.

11 Comments:

  1. Li said...
    Good reminder. "Volatile dumbness" is a perfect description; I've burst into flames once or twice myself.
    Wolf said...
    I guess we are too unaware about what we do to ourselves when we share things on facebook, because not just the 10 - 100 people we have in mind will be able to read our posts but everyone we added, such as family members or co-workers. And then people can tag us at places and on photos in situations that we would rather not be seen in. Yes, we can untag them the night after, but damage might already have been done. I wonder e.g. how many LGBTs got outed by facebook so far...
    Alex J. Cavanaugh said...
    That's why I'm so private online.
    Michelle in a shell said...
    ^^ I try to be as relatively private as possible. People that post silly things about work, while working deserve their consequences. But we do deserve privacy.
    Apfel said...
    Yeah, this is exactly why I blog anonymously. I could never get myself to be open about stuff if I were blogging as myself. This way it is more comfortable. I do blog from my normal identity and that is an absolutely no nonsense blog. People have got to think about the consequences before they start publishing whatever comes to their minds.
    Unknown said...
    Don't post anything you wouldn't want your grandma to read... that's my rule.

    But on the bright side, think of how many future presidential scandals there will be from old facebook pictures, or sexting, etc... it's going to be goldmine for the media.
    Ellie Garratt said...
    I agree with everything you've said and that's why I'm not on Facebook!

    A thought-provoking post.

    Ellie Garratt
    Talli Roland said...
    An important reminder, Nahno! It's easy to forget that we're really putting ourselves out there with social media.
    Unknown said...
    Thank you for all your opinions.

    Future presidents and outed LGBT are really something to think about.

    I guess for writers it's the balance between private and professional sharings.
    Sylvia Ney said...
    Wow, interesting and scary what people will post/publish. I'm a fellow "A to Z" blogger and I look forward to reading more from you.
    Bish Denham said...
    That's why I don't facebook or twitter or any of that. Blogging is enough for me, and mostly it's about my childhood and preserving a bit of family history.

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