Privacy = Wrong?

[Cgull]

Firstly, I did a searchy search and didn't find anything like this that had recently been done so apologies if I missed it.

Anyhoo, it occured to me a while ago that more and more it feels that being a private person (which, to an extent, I am) is the exception rather than the rule.

I can't figure out whether this is due to the influx of social sites such as Face(stalk)book, Twitter etc. which, for the most part, encourage those with an account to detail every aspect of their lives and share it around.

In fact, it seems that if you give any indication that you're a private person or have the cheek to keep your social/sex/normal life to yourself you instantly belong in a strange bubble where people now consider you to be an outsider. To use personal experience, telling people that I don't have a Facebook profile generally seems to be met with disbelief, as does refusing to tell them the surname of my other half so they can look her up on it.

Anyway, to put it in question form, does anyone else feel that being a private person makes them the exception, or, if you're a fully Twitter'd up social fiend, do you find it odd that others aren't?

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm referring to being private outside of the internet as well as on it, being private on the net is easy, it's more in 'the real world' I tend to find it more diffcult.

I'm also aware that saying everything above is a fairly open thing to come out with, no need to point it out

 

[eggy32]

Strange, nobody seems to care that I don't have a facebook or twitter or anything of the sort other than msn, which is not the reaction I'd expect from my friends who all happen to be teenagers addicted to facebook and twitter and such.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

Reading the title I thought this was gonna be another privacy vs security thing.

About the social media... eh. I don't mind them, but I'm not their biggest fan either. I've got a Facebook and a Twitter account, but I don's use either of them. I keep in touch with people in real life, through telephone, through e-mail, through Windows Messenger, through IRC chat... I don't really feel the need to add a few more layers of nonsense to that.

And no, I don't feel like I'm the only one. Most people don't mind at all that I don't have an active Facebook account or anything.

 

[child of lileth]

People are always amazed that I don't have anything like twitter. I just don't see the point to things like that. I don't think it's wrong to not want stuff like that, or to want to keep things private. I come from a time where the internet was a place where you weren't even supposed to use real names. Now everyone gets pissy if they can't find your street address listed in a profile, along with your SSN, and bank account number.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Oooh, you should (if you haven't already) read Blind Faith by Ben Elton, I won't say anything else about it, but it's very interesting considering your situation.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I must say that I'm a rather open person. I tell people my name, give them my STEAM, PSN and Xbox Live. I don't tell them where I live because that is just silly. You would all send me coconuts. Without wrapping them.

Privacy on the net refers mainly to Anonymous, who I would go into detail about only if I saw something god damn awesome that would make a currently dead brain work.

To be private on the net is kind of along the lines of not trusting the people you are with, and I guess, on this website anyway, being Private would make them an exception. Not to make that feel bad, it's just that people on this site do seem to be rather open here. Heck, next thing you know, we'll be comparing [Insert Something Here].

I'll let you fill that in.

Calumon: People like me alot. They even make Fanclubs after me! :S At least no-one does it here.

 

[Cgull]

Oooh, you should (if you haven't already) read Blind Faith by Ben Elton, I won't say anything else about it, but it's very interesting considering your situation.

So you want me to read a book called Blind Faith based on...well, just that?

 

[andrat]

I actually misread the title and thought it said "Piracy = Wrong?" at first. Mah bad.

And no, if you don't want a Facebook/Twitter/Msn/whatever, that's up to you.

 

[Kagim]

Well for not wanting to use Facebook i was given shit by tons of people until they figured out that i didn't want to use it because i found it to be a broken version of MSN mixed with blogging and stupid flash games.

I already have free flash games through Kongregate. Better ones that aren't cash sinks.
I hate blogging.
I have MSN and skype.

Why the hell do I need Facebook?

Eventually people will piss off OP and stop caring you have no interest in documenting your private life to everyone on the internet.

 

[LevelSix]

I have a facebook account, which I rarely use. I also created a twitter account out of curiosity, but never really used it. It has been inactive now for a significant amount of time.

I personally don't feel the need to detail every aspect of my life to the masses, and wish others shared that opinion.

 

[Woodsey]

Well, you sound as if you come across a little brittle. And given that Facebook has, what, 400 million users? It's a little odd to come across someone that doesn't have it. Given that, I too would find it a little odd to come across someone without Facebook, especially of my age bracket.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

Im more of a loner so people really aren't that amazed. I have had people give me that reaction but those people didn't know me.

 

[DMonkey]

Social networking sites like facebook and twitter is narcissism at its best.
Inflated egos march down that particular road of the internet like parade balloons.

 

[Cgull]

Well, you sound as if you come across a little brittle.

To be honest this is a possibility.

That said, I just find it odd that people wanting to keep themselves to themselves (without becoming insular) might be perceived as being brittle in the first place.

 

[rokkolpo]

Yes privacy is wrong! now take those pants off.....ok don't. but still.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

-ker-snippety-

Hello fellow social outcast! I too receive dumbfounded looks of shock when I tell people I abstain from that whole social networking fad, though not very often because I'm practically a hermit and thus don't need to tell people that often because I never go anywhere, heh.

In all seriousness though, the advent of persistent easily accessible internet access, constant inter-connectivity and the proliferation of social networking have all contributed towards encouraging a sort of exhibitionism that would have been unthinkable mere decades ago. We think nothing of telling the entire world what we had for lunch, intimate details of our personal lives, our complete schedules such that an outside malicious observer could easily plan a robbery around them (as one site hilariously points out), etc - the internet has made us attention whores.

Then you have folks like the founder of Facebook challenging the very concept of privacy as an outdated cultural norm that's becoming increasingly irrelevant, and while I despise his policies I can't really say that his assessment of the situation is necessarily wrong. It's really a frightening thought that those of us who simply keep ourselves to ourselves and don't feel the need to share intimate details of our lives with people we just met (or have never met) may soon be, to the greater portion of the populace, as inexplicably backwards as self-isolating communities like the Amish appear to the world at large now.

I shudder just thinking about that possible future.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Oooh, you should (if you haven't already) read Blind Faith by Ben Elton, I won't say anything else about it, but it's very interesting considering your situation.

So you want me to read a book called Blind Faith based on...well, just that?

Tricky little ...


Yes, yes I do. It is about your problem so I suggest you go out and get it from a library and read it.

Or maybe just look up the plot synopsis on Amazon ... or something.

 

[Cgull]

Oooh, you should (if you haven't already) read Blind Faith by Ben Elton, I won't say anything else about it, but it's very interesting considering your situation.

So you want me to read a book called Blind Faith based on...well, just that?

Tricky little ...


Yes, yes I do. It is about your problem so I suggest you go out and get it from a library and read it.

Or maybe just look up the plot synopsis on Amazon ... or something.

Heh, sorry, I was just being difficult for my own amusement.

In all seriousness, thanks for the recommendation, I shall look it up!

 

[Kwaren]

Calumon: People like me alot. They even make Fanclubs after me! :S At least no-one does it here.

Not yet anyway *evil snicker*.

OT: I don't see how facebook and twitter caught on on the first place. Maybe I don't get it because I tend to ignore fads.