Privacy, Anyone?

An article in today's New York Times got me thinking about identity, the various roles we play, who we are and what's on our minds. "The Web Means the End of Forgetting" offers a look at where we came from, how we evolved technologically and our near-addictive fascination with offering our selves up to the world for scrutiny. How many people do you know who do not have a Facebook or MySpace page, Twitter account or other social-networking site? Maybe you can count them on two hands. Narrowing the field further, who among your friends and co-workers doesn't own a cellular, iPhone or iTouch? Know anybody without a desktop, laptop, Kindle, Notebook or iPad? Now we're down to one hand, I'll bet. Younger readers probably have no acquaintance with such a Luddite.

The most oft-cited reference to our desire to be known by the public for our accomplishments, position, education or sex appeal is Andy Warhol's prophetic observation, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." It runs the gamut from YouTube covers to Balloon Boy and the unfortunate victim of media-run-amok, Shirley Sharrod. It's all out there-- someone's cellphone footage, the cameras descending, your embarrassing admission in a weak moment status update or this blog entry: our need to make an imprint on the collective consciousness. My baby is beautiful, here's a feat worth filming, I was quoted out of context, he threw the first punch. Whatever the fodder, the mill is always running.

At what point did we cross this threshold and plunge boldly in where man heretofore had never gone before? How eager we are, in general, to expose ourselves, report our activities, political slant, spiritual point of view or tag the latest digital photo. The expression, "She's a very private person," has little currency in the new millennium, not when she's broadcasting details of her personal life for the Internet to gobble and forever enshrine. True, some eschew instant-access machines in favor of subtlety or subterfuge. But by and large, we as a nation have become consumers of tidbits barely worth our consumption, let alone hours basking in the glow of an animated screen.

I joined Facebook because a old friend "invited" me to, which simply meant the engine scanned his email list and sent out the word. Into Face Forum I leaped, contacting people I hadn't seen or spoken to in decades, "friending" strangers and fending off pseudo-stalkers. Pictures of me in my prime went up, as did my opinions on everything from food to fascists. Like a child with its new toy I took quizzes asking absurd questions with misspellings aplenty, reported important and insignificant events, took sides and sought advice. Above all, I solicited attention. When some guy speaking Farsi begged me to watch his music video I hit delete and "defriended."

Sure, it's fun, I'm connected, in touch and aware but at what cost? I have a mobile phone that dates back to the Stone Age and prefer to read the written word on paper. I'm irritated when the bank can't reply to a simple query because of C. A. D. : Computers Are Down. Is it old-fashioned, to use an antiquated phrase, not to jump on the bandwagon and ride into infinity with notoriety nipping at my heels? Once you put it into our spinning sphere it ain't gonna boomerang. Call it second thoughts or abject regret, but I'm wishing I could retrieve a whole lotta data.