Privacy is Dead
Uploaded by lmmu on Jul 25, 2008
Most American teenagers have spent an evening dabbling around with a Ouija board. They sit in a dimly lit basement surrounded by tea lights and attempt to “communicate” with spirits. Whenever a bizarre answer is given, the users assume it stemmed from a ghost trying to tell them something or wishing them harm. As stated in Mad Magazine, “If there really is an afterlife, I’ll bet the best way to contact it is through a plastic, mass-produced board game from Milton Bradley!” In all reality, any understandable responses are caused by the ideomotor effect (the effect based on the unconscious due to influence or expectations). However, many Ouija board users still believe that they are communicating with the deceased instead of just playing a game.
People are just disillusioning themselves into thinking they are doing something surreal and terrific. It’s a lie. They are playing a game. Similarly, privacy is another issue that people believe exists. Privacy is just a game people play with themselves; it doesn’t exist.
According to Webster, privacy is defined as “the quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others.” Obviously, unless a person is “a technophobe hermit who pays for everything in cash,” (Plotz 58) that definition does not suffice. People surround each other; they are a natural and principle extension to man’s environment. One cannot walk out his front door towards work without seeing someone.
Another definition states it as “the state of being free from unsanctioned intrusion.” How does one actively define unsanctioned? Who determines what warrants a search? If there is no uniform standard on what can remain private, then privacy (simply stated) does not exist.
For years now, objects and possessions that were thought to be private have become more public. For instance, a standard Google search for “Paris Hilton” yields 17,400,000 results. After Wikipedia and IMDB (including the page specializing on the film One Night in Paris), the third option is to the risqué site www.parishiltonzone.com. The site brags of the best pictures, wallpaper, sex tapes, lyrics, audio, video, and daily news featuring Paris Hilton. A deeper delve into the options prove that many sites contain such content.
Perhaps instances like Paris Hilton’s occur because the heiress desires it; however, little situations like that happen...