What Privacy?

How private are you? Do you share your thoughts with people freely, or are you like me and often feel that if I share my thoughts, it’s an invasion of privacy. I don’t know what’s happened to me as I’ve grown. I used to share everything, my thoughts, my heartaches, whom I didn’t like, whom I loved, etc. Now, I’m not willing to share anything. Part of the problem is that I think nothing is private anymore, so I think I'm enforcing my freedom. Try searching your name on the Internet. I can’t believe what comes up sometimes. Stuff I did years ago with the non-profit that I ran still comes up. Then there’s Google Earth, have you tried looking at where you live? The Google Gods updated it not that long ago. I live close to New York City, doesn’t that matter when it comes to terrorism?

I like some of the benefits of this transparent world we live in, but I’m too private, perhaps even paranoid, to write everything I might like about it. I like being able to blog, I enjoy my Facebook, I love posting my pictures; I have a few sites for storing my photography. I really like the idea that if my house burns down, I’ll still have those precious photos.

I don’t know about all this though. My son tells me that because of the terrorist attacks, New York City has enough cameras to follow a person just about wherever they go. Does it make me feel any safer knowing that there are people out there watching me live my daily life? And who is it that’s watching? Why do I care anyway? I care because it used to be our right, it used to be our privilege as free people to not feel as though big brother is watching us all the time, but that was before the really bad people came along.

I guess in short, I’m not confident that what I say will not be held against me at some point in my life. I hate this loss of freedom and forgiveness, but love the openness. I’ll still keep my most precious thoughts to myself though and never completely admit that that’s what I’m doing. For now, I’ll just post my concerns on the Internet and hope that the Internet Gods care enough to keep some things private.

Until next time: may your thoughts be yours and your privacy kept safe. And even though we live in a transparent world, may life never get so transparent that we need cameras in public bathrooms.