I have encouraged people to be themselves online for years. I knew that everyone running around pretending to be 20 different people and acting in a range of bad behavior from impolite to horrid, would not be tolerated for long. People were just loading up corporate cannons with reasons for a siege on anonymity. I also knew that when it DID start to change it would probably be at the hands of a big powerful entity. Back in the 90's I would have thought MS would be the one, then maybe Google... but of course the big winner of all our data now looks like it will be FaceBook, Google only WISHES you were building such a detailed profile into their database compared to what you shovel into FB each day.
I am of two minds, I look forward to a day when there is two thirds less crap polluting the web, but of course I don't want to tie all my opinions, thoughts, hopes and dreams back to a single (clearly untrustworthy) corporation. I just wish more people had decided to act civilized and not made such a service an easy sell.
The internet is the MOST public place you will ever make your voice heard. I believe that anything you post may someday be attached to your actual identity and viewed by anyone. I am a firm believer that de-anonymization tools will largely remove the illusion of anonymity in the near future. So its best to act the way you would in any very public place. Your home, work, or even a bar, all seem to be much more private places than any place you post online... but strangely, others seem to imagine the internet as the most private of places and assume everything they post under a pseudo identity would never be tracked back to them... even long before all the successful de-anonymization research, I just could not see that lasting.
In real life we feel pained and sometimes shamed for the stupid things we do and say, I causes us to examine ourselves and hopefully grow, mature, and respect others. Being held accountable for what you say is a fundamental part of being a person that exists in society. Bringing that accountability to the internet is long over due. We can't have a more meaningful dialog without looking each other in the eye.
6 comments:
My heart is there to you, i'm in a bad divorce and she took the kids..courts.. me man... I lose my girls lose.. if you were handy I love to help, but your gonna make it. And being sort of shameless as my heart don't care to being you out there yourself on the internet as self... I put a big sign on the house with my youtube address. I can't reveal my last name as they forced down my videos of the girls and could kick me off they think internet... but then I have plans to go local maybe national, big hill large view no wind break money for banners, no pussy no tent no trouble all winter long... i'm soppose to be evicted on Wednesday but their thinking-10 Celsius wind chill, I deep sea fisherman when younger no prob...steel factories and loud boats seasoned for hardship......its 3 am the dum guy thinks reving the motor 10 pumps in his van helps them sleep. Prayers fer yours and mine.
I totally Love that like myself, you know what is happening.
The real sad part is that we can't say what we think and have to Politically correct no matter where we go. I do miss the time when you could speak freely and honestly.
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