The “Privacy Optional” Generation

Today I have some questions for all my readers out there. How many of you are a part of a social network? Facebook, MySpace, Flickr (using the e is sooo last century), Twitter, Friendster (no, they’re not dead yet, I checked), or any other similar website? A show of hands please, how many? Some of you, perhaps? I know, let’s make things even broader. How many of you express yourself in some way online? Maybe you post videos to YouTube or have your own blog, doesn’t matter, anything will do. Now how many hands do I see? A lot more this time around I expect. Great, last question. How much personal information do you give out in the process of interacting online?

In attempting to answer that last question, one of the most obvious places to start looking at is your online handle. If your name is Bob Smith do you go by bsmith (or some variant), or does everyone know you as DarkKnightForestKiller68 or some other such nonsensical name? In other words, how comfortable are you sharing your real name with the great vastness of humanity that is the internet?

Speaking personally, I write under the name “James R. Stoup” and, as it turns out, that also happens to be my real name. In fact, if you’ve been paying attention, you should have noticed that all of the writers for Apple Matters use their real names. And, for what we do, I am all for using our real names. After all, writing for this site is a job. We have deadlines (which I rarely seem to meet, through no fault of my own mind you), we get paychecks (which keeps me in hamburgers if nothing else) and we have a real, live editor who reviews our material (her name is Wendy and she’s very nice). So, in keeping with the semiprofessional atmosphere we try to create, we each use our real names. Because, as I said before, this is a job. It’s a very fun job, but a job nonetheless. In fact, from the first day I signed on here, it never crossed my mind to hide behind an alias. After all, imagine if you showed up to a job interview and introduced yourself as TrixiePixie07, wouldn’t that be a bit ridiculous? So why should this be any different?

However, when I go off the clock, I leave my name behind and pick up a new ID on the way out the door. I do this for the very simple reason that I don’t want the rest of the web to know anything about me. I don’t give out my real name, location, birthday, zip code, cat’s name, favorite color, zodiac sign, or any other significant information. And I don’t act this way because I’m paranoid or because I’m afraid of someone being able to track me down; rather, I do this for the simple reason that I am a private person and have no desire to share my life with millions of strangers. Apparently, though, that attitude is becoming old fashioned.

Increasingly, users (specifically the generation that grew up always having the internet) are more and more willing to give out not only their name, but their entire life story (complete with pictures and video) to anyone willing to visit their homepage. In my opinion, this trend can be traced back to the increasing popularity of reality TV. After all, what is reality TV all about anyway? Why, taking average people and making them stars of course!

Can’t act? Don’t worry!
No talent? No problem!
With the wonders of reality TV, you too can be a star!
Regardless of how stupid, lazy, mean, self centered, or crazy you might be, Hollywood can find a place for you!

Or, at least, that’s how it looks to me. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I can state for a fact that Americans love to get their 15 minutes of fame, and many of them will try and get those minutes any way they can. We are now raising a generation unlike any before it, one convinced that they are just one lucky break away from starring in their own reality TV show. And, as insane as it sounds, it’s almost like they are preparing themselves for the crush of public attention that would follow such stardom.

Once upon a time (read: 10 years ago), if you wanted to know all of the dark and dirty secrets of a star’s life you picked up the tabloids or magazines that catered to those who absolutely must know what the stars are doing: where they eat, what they wear, who they are sleeping with, everything. Watch Entertainment Tonight (or one of its many clones) so you can catch up on what Britney Spears is doing or where Anna Nicole Smith is going to be buried. That level of scrutiny was once only reserved for celebrities, but no longer!

Now there are so many wonderful sites dedicated to bringing you all the details of the life of the average user. But there is one important point many people seem to miss: the average user’s life is just that…average. Average looks, average personality, average job, average relationships, and average intelligence. I can at least understand (though not agree) with the level of interest shown in someone like Angelina Jolie. After all, she is rich, beautiful, interesting, and always up to something unique. I can understand people wanting to know what she is doing all the time. However, I cannot fathom why average people think that anyone in the world would show the same interest in them. Thus the whole my-life-as-a-blog thing mystifies me. I want to grab some of these people and scream “nobody cares” at the top of my lungs.

Before I get scads of insulting emails, let me clarify my position. I have no problem with people documenting their lives using MySpace or Flickr. I can appreciate that you want to keep a digital record of what is happening in your life at this exact moment. However, I become annoyed at the sheer stupidity of it all when people try to turn their private life into an online adventure for all the world to see. In the same way that I don’t like air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, or light pollution, I’m none too keen on information pollution either. And, by far, the worst offender of this new trend of information pollution is Twitter.

Here is an idea that I’m amazed made it to the light of day. How did it get started? Did the creator of Twitter hear someone say “if only there was a way for me to simultaneously annoy all of the people in my buddy list with inane observations of my boring life” and decided to take up the challenge? Please, somebody clue me in, why is Twitter so popular? After all, I can buy the argument that MySpace (or any blog for that matter) and Flickr are useful tools for preserving memories. I understand that five years from now you might want to go back and read your blog posting on how you felt when your dog died or see the pictures on Flickr of your cousin from across the country. I understand that need and I follow the logic behind it. But please, somebody tell me how Twitter fits into that pattern? Five years from now are you really going to look back at messages like “that was a great ham sandwich” and fondly reflect on the memories? Come on people, it isn’t like Twitter is posting the idle ramblings of Thoreau or Shakespeare! No, it’s the mental gibberish of all those “average” users. Here is a fine sampling (these are all from the Twitter homepage mind you):

• I, I wish you could swim, like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim.
• I’m trying to download something from megaupload (without success at the moment…)
• think it should be a curb day tomorrow
• Pagliaci’s in 20.
• Yum! Leek, snapper and prawn stew!
• has had cheezburger
• I think it’s gonna turn out to be both really bad and really fun..

I can’t make this stuff up.

This is the kind of information pollution that, apparently, thousands of people seem quite eager to share with the rest of us. Do you care? Because I don’t. What’s more, it isn’t just the fact that Twitter exists that bothers me. Rather, it is the fact that there are so many self-absorbed idiots out there that make it successful. Do you really want to know/work with/date/befriend someone who feels that their life is so important that every stray thought that comes out of their head has to be posted to a website, emailed to you, and then sent to your phone? What kind of people think this is a good idea? And what kind of society are we that applauds yet another attempt to garner attention to one’s self?

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to America. Social responsibility has hit rock bottom and asked for a shovel.

I want to believe that this trend, like all trends, will eventually pass. I want to believe that one day people will wake up and realize that it is more important to live your life than to document it.