It seems that many today have a constant need to share every little detail of their lives, every mundane event that happens - where they are, who they are with, what they are doing, what they are about to do and even, if you are really lucky, they will update you on the outcome of it all. It seems that if the technology is there to do something, then the process is a given...I wonder when we might stop and consider where that process might end up - which genie will we wish we had never let out of the bottle?
It is not so much the idea of sharing everything we choose to, but the fact that it 'softens up' any resistance to anyone else sharing data about us or wanting data about us..after all if we don't want our own privacy and happy to share all we do constantly, then we can become immune to others wanting to know and share our data.
If you put your life out there to be viewed then you can hardly complain when others want to view it.
We seem to just accept that we are the most observed nation on the planet through CCTV. I don't feel any safer for it, it would still be foolish to walk down a dark alley in the early hours on your own, after all that is not where the camera is likely to be...it will more than likely be in the shopping arcades or commercial areas, protecting businesses not people...that's a 'by-chance'
Put the right rhetoric with it and many people feel that why worry about it.....as many say 'if you are not doing something you shouldn't, then you have no need to worry' Well that's true and if we are all living with reasonable laws that are protective, yet not draconian or crushing to what the general view of freedom is, may be that view is safe. If the situation changes and you find what were once normal,harmless activities such as gathering with friends becomes seen as subversive, then the once 'helpful' technology may not be quite all that is seemed.
I read yesterday of the warning that voice controlled televisions could be listening into your conversations...well i guess they are or how would they know when you ask them to change channel etc....so who might be accessing that? But why worry anyway? If you are of the belief that if you are not doing anything wrong, then surely it doesn't matter who listens to your conversations - many constantly share with the world anyway via Facebook or twitter.
So if the tv comes with a little camera, that's ok too I guess - after all...'if you are not doing anything wrong.....' etc
Is it all good for our health?....governments and the media generating fear is certainly not, newspapers creating division. The adverts encouraging people to inform on others.....'Tell the inland revenue if you suspect someone of tax fraud' we are told...what else will we accept that we should 'inform on' I'm all for paying taxes, (may be we should all keep informing on those big corporations that avoid it) Adverts constantly reminding you of the statistics of you getting cancer.....well worth remembering here that where the thoughts go your body might just follow.
So what data are we happy to share and how much privacy are we happy to give up, either imposed or voluntarily? being mindful to where the steps are taking us, not fearful, not paranoid, after all that can be the effect of the methods employed now, but being the intelligent questioning beings we are.
The CEO of google defends the lack of privacy on the internet....sharing the right data with the right people.....he claims sharing your medical records with the right research doctors would save 100,000 lives this year....all anonymously of course... 100.000 lives...well who wouldn't want to be part of that? That is quite a high number and how did he arrive at anything like that. Stating figures without explanation....Trying borrowing money on that basis.
Sharing the right data...absolutely...what might that be then and who might really be benefiting - Hopefully you but who else?
Someone once said if you want to be a millionaire, you ask a millionaire how he did it...in terms of health, there is also mileage in asking those who rarely go to the doctor...those whose medical records are a bit thin on the ground. What did they do or are doing that keeps from the doctors surgery.
May be we will all grow tired of the constant sharing of artificial data and go back to meeting face to face and being in the moment with the people you are with and not constantly sharing info on ourselves, then we might just start to expect others to observe our privacy again. Living a life with ability to find some quiet space, away from technology could well benefit your health on many levels. For hundreds of years people managed it. For many of us, we grew up without it and the world still functioned.....may be we perhaps could ask the question....just because we can...do we need to?
Technology is a great thing and sharing is of course fine, may be we could all just question a little more where it might be leading so we avoid heading off on a journey to a destination we can't return from.
No comments:
Post a Comment