Recently many people have been talking about the Internet privacy.
Such as scandals related to Facebook, or the latest blog post I made on “sharenting“, it seems that it is time we considered seriously our privacy on the Internet.
Nevertheless, whenever I reflect on this topic, I find myself stuck between two complete opposite positions ; one part of me says that I should just delete all my social media in order to protect myself from the cruel world, and the other part of me says that I should stop worrying about it because everyone is using social media, everyone is exposed to the same level of privacy and so even in the worst case, I would not be the only one who gets hurt…
In other words, I am torn between :
a) I should quit social media and have a “real life”
b) I rely too much of my life on social media that it becomes a part of my “real life”
Social media has turned my “virtual life” of the Internet into my “real life” in the actual world.
Erasing myself form the Internet sounds as if I were erasing myself from the real world I live in… Although people claim their privacy on the Internet, I guess a lot of them would never actually be able to protect themselves by demanding more privacy. The Internet is a naked place, there is no room for privacy.
When people are faced with the extreme choice between a) no Internet and privacy protected and b) Internet and no privacy protected, most people may choose the latter, because their existence on the Internet has become a part of their identity, a part of their social recognition and a part of their “real life”. Deleting themselves from social media means denying who they are, so they would not be willing to do so, no matter how much their privacy matters to them…
This is the Internet dilemma I’ve been stuck with these days… What should I do?
Ceaseless mind 