The times not only "are a changing", they have changed when
it comes to privacy. Go to any public place today and listen to the
sounds of the cell phone nuts screaming the most personal information
about themselves or others into their phones and to anyone else around.
Years ago we had phone booths as a matter of privacy and politeness.
now we have people broadcasting their lives to uninterested others and
more.
Now, many members of society are not just unconcerned about overheard phone calls, they purposely broadcast their personal business to large groups of "friends" and "followers" on Face book or Twitter. Just a century ago, when the first home phones were "party lines" shared by neighbors, "worrying you were being listened in on was a common feature of American culture. Now, privacy seems unimportant as the addiction to communication technology has such a hold on society that it is erasing what little is left of public manners and consideration for others.
I wonder if we are we're fast becoming a nation of casual eavesdroppers because, unwillingly or not, we hear more and more private maters All this "sharing" (annoying , in my view) may be feeding a tendency toward exhibitionism, and devaluing the very privacy that earlier generations so desired. Ergo Reality TV that humiliate humans for the sole purpose of their getting a few minutes of attention on television.
Cell phone cameras photograph us, grocery shoppers chatter loudly on phones while shopping, often telling anyone who is nearby intimate financial or personal or information the cell addict would feel indignant of "sharing" if by any other way. And this leads to more than eavesdropping. Eventually those who hear inadvertently may want to hear other ways as well. they may spy on others, intercept and read E mail, bend over to eye the screen of a cell addict or computer user, looking in an opened window or door...
But wait! The real "victim" is no longer the person being eavesdropped on, it's those who overhear them and can't escape the exhibitionists who assault them with their phones and use other mediums from which the victims can't get away. What had once been private behavior has now become public and is being shoved in our faces and we can not escape.
In reality, I think the end of privacy has as much to do with people wanting attention at any price. The unimportant are trying to make themselves feel important, and technology makes that not so hard to do. Perhaps the only remedy is for society to just tire of it all, ending both the eavesdropping and the ego gratification of broadcasting. At that point we will realize that chattering loudly about ourselves on a phone or a web site doesn't make us important. It only makes us look self absorbed and appear loud.
Now, many members of society are not just unconcerned about overheard phone calls, they purposely broadcast their personal business to large groups of "friends" and "followers" on Face book or Twitter. Just a century ago, when the first home phones were "party lines" shared by neighbors, "worrying you were being listened in on was a common feature of American culture. Now, privacy seems unimportant as the addiction to communication technology has such a hold on society that it is erasing what little is left of public manners and consideration for others.
I wonder if we are we're fast becoming a nation of casual eavesdroppers because, unwillingly or not, we hear more and more private maters All this "sharing" (annoying , in my view) may be feeding a tendency toward exhibitionism, and devaluing the very privacy that earlier generations so desired. Ergo Reality TV that humiliate humans for the sole purpose of their getting a few minutes of attention on television.
Cell phone cameras photograph us, grocery shoppers chatter loudly on phones while shopping, often telling anyone who is nearby intimate financial or personal or information the cell addict would feel indignant of "sharing" if by any other way. And this leads to more than eavesdropping. Eventually those who hear inadvertently may want to hear other ways as well. they may spy on others, intercept and read E mail, bend over to eye the screen of a cell addict or computer user, looking in an opened window or door...
But wait! The real "victim" is no longer the person being eavesdropped on, it's those who overhear them and can't escape the exhibitionists who assault them with their phones and use other mediums from which the victims can't get away. What had once been private behavior has now become public and is being shoved in our faces and we can not escape.
In reality, I think the end of privacy has as much to do with people wanting attention at any price. The unimportant are trying to make themselves feel important, and technology makes that not so hard to do. Perhaps the only remedy is for society to just tire of it all, ending both the eavesdropping and the ego gratification of broadcasting. At that point we will realize that chattering loudly about ourselves on a phone or a web site doesn't make us important. It only makes us look self absorbed and appear loud.
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