Perceived Privacy
Over the past year I’ve followed a blog called Raptitude. David, the author of the blog, publishes a new article on the average of about 1 every week or so. Almost as soon as he posts a new article I’ve found myself eagerly waiting with anticipation for his next bit of genius to post to my Pulse reader. I have a few favorites that really resonated with me. Some have even changed the way I tend to view and even interact with the world. I will add links to my favorite Raptitude articles at the end of this post for anyone interested.
Today I was pleased to find my Pulse reader had a new Raptitude article, of which I quickly devoured every word. It is again an article that delivers insight and perspective on the day to day happenings of a large part of the human race that is an interesting perspective to say the least. I hope you read it as well as take some time to dig around the Raptitude website, as there is sure to be something that everyone can relate to and enjoy reading.
You are a public figure
New Year’s Eve, for the first time, I had an alarming moment when I realized spaceships really were watching me through the ceiling. They knew where I was in the house. I was troubled by it and said so to my friend, but by midnight I forgot, and felt much better.
Rewind a week or two. I was taking adorable pictures of my toddler nephew typing on his grandmother’s iPad, when I had one of those bewildering, revelatory moments.
I realized I was photographing a member of the first generation that will be able to revisit its entire life in sparkling, high resolution. Between me, his parents and his grandmother, there are easily more photos of him than there have been days in his life.
His brother is six months now. In 2081, when they’re both old men, they’ll be able to access their childhood in extraordinary detail. They’ll see their first Christmases, their first bike rides, their graduations and wedding days all in high resolution images and HD video, and it might seem strange to them that previous generations did not have much access at all to their pasts, aside from memories and a few grainy photographs.
Contrast that with my father, (1947-2008) of whom I’ve only seen one or two pictures of as a child. In those pictures he’s someone I don’t know. He has a smooth sepia face that could belong to just about anyone except my dad. He wore a moustache from the day I was born to the day he died and I couldn’t recognize my father in any other face.
The kids born after about 2007 constitute the first generation that’s younger than Facebook. Today, it’s fairly normal for human beings make their first appearance on the internet when they are less than a week old. Think of how many newborn photos you’ve seen posted by your Facebook friends this last year.
David also sites this article which was written by a fellow wordpresser about 4 years ago. What then seemed kinda Jetsons-esque then, now is very close to reality. Interesting.
Here are some of my favorite Raptitude articles:
What we refer to as happiness is really just what the absence of suffering feels like.
Defeated, I stood on the mat and let the cold air flood over me. I watched the ice fog pour over the sill like freezing smoke. I just let it have its way with me. I didn’t get mad at it, I didn’t shiver or scramble to dry off. I just let it feel like whatever it was going to feel like, and noticed something peculiar.
It didn’t hurt me.
Life is uncertain by its very nature. Except for this:No matter what is happening right now,
It will never happen again.
Why should *I* be forced to help someone else?
Here’s why:
Because you’re better off if other people aren’t suffering so much.
life is the present only. The past is thoughts in the present. The future is thoughts in the present. You can argue all you want that the past “existed”, but the notion of something having existed is also just a thought in the present.
Related articles
- 3 Traffic Generation Tactics from an Ordinary Human Being (problogger.net)
- 5 Tactics of Reader Engagement From an Expert Blogger (famousbloggers.net)
- 88 truths… (benkristin.wordpress.com)
- Big Brother Is Watching Facebook (realstorypublishing.com)
- Disappearing Networks And Other Facebook Phenomena (socialpeel.com)
- Privacy Goes Public: Sharing Privacy for a Discount (nfcdata.com)
- Facebook Settles with FTC on Privacy Issue: What Does This Bode for Social Media Users and Businesses? [Analysis] (windmillnetworking.com)
- Study: Why Do People Use Facebook? (readwriteweb.com)
- What You Need To Know About Facebook’s Privacy Settlement (huffingtonpost.com)
- Do You Know What You’re Sharing? (babyfruit.typepad.com)
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