With regards to communication on the internet and new technologies, these reading suggest that the issues society will face deal with privacy, archived personal information, and trust. These issues will be significantly affected by how individuals define private information and how they feel about personal information online. As technology advances and online communication becomes more prevalent and accepted in society, more people are concerned about its effect on privacy and on their lives.
Older adults and young people have different definitions of what constitutes private information and the importance of keeping certain information private. For older adults identifying personal information such as your name, address, phone number, etc. should be kept private. However, young adults see no harm in sharing personal information. Young adults are more concerned with their online image and how they will be perceived by other online users.
Along with the fear of sharing personally identifying information is the concern that the information will be permanently accessible. The fear of people being able to go back and gain access to this archived information makes some people uncomfortable. Although it is common for people to grow and change, they might be held accountable in their adult years for information put on the internet earlier in their lives. Yet, advances and use of technology such as cell and smart phones are creating a requirement for archived personal information. Is it possible to trust that these archives will not hurt rather than help?
I believe we will see these same problems and fears in the next 5 and 20 years. However, due to growing privacy concerns, we will see the development of more sophisticated technology to protect individual private information and, at the same time, more effectively and discriminately able to share information with selected recipients. Although the above issues pose problems, the opportunities associated with them can prove beneficial. The use of the archived information can shed light into internet use and about how to improve upon its current functions.
I think adults are more concerned with their privacy online because they didn’t grow up with so much exposure. Young adults are used to the norm that everyone in their age group has a digital footprint. For example, in our department, I would expect anyone going into the job market in the communications field would have a well crafted, and well edited, digital footprint. I think an employer hiring for someone in a communications role should expect that of an applicant as part of their portfolio. Also, young people may think its inevitable that everyone has a digital profile, so the best they can do is manage the image that theirs portrays.
I’ve worked in corporate communications for almost six years, and I too would expect anyone going into the job market in the communications field to have a well maintained digital footprint. But, I would make the case that the older generation of managers, directors and VPs still don’t look into these types of things because they aren’t familiar with social network sites, blogs, personal web pages, etc. Not to name names, but I’ve had managers who did not have social network accounts nor had any idea how to use or monitor them. But I think as that wave of leadership retires in the next 10-15 years, it will become much more important to have a strong digital footprint. When I’m a manager, you can bet that I will do a quick web search to make sure there’s nothing drastically inappropriate floating around out there.
It’s definitely the case that there are generational differences in the way privacy is perceived. A lot of people will argue that in the “future” (whenever that is exactly), people will just stop caring about privacy. Maybe I am just an “old” but I have a hard time accepting that – do we really need to know every last detail about every single person’s life all the time? Even for younger adults and the teens who have really grown up with Facebook, for example – I bet they’re still not sharing everything with their parents that they share with their friends. Are people really going to want that creepy neighbor to know what goes on in their house at night?
If we think back to our discussions about self-disclosure, one of the benefits is intimacy. What happens to intimacy if we are in a world where everything about everyone is already disclosed up front? This is what I think is one of the hidden costs of the “war on privacy” by companies like Facebook, which is particularly troubling because Facebook does not care about us as people, they just care about our data so they can serve us more ads.
I heartily agree with both of your points. Oscar Wilde once said that keeping some things about ourselves to ourselves is one of the things that makes life exciting.
It’s also very true that there is a real difference between the ways different generations perceive what “privacy” is. I’ve even met certain members of my generation who see sharing even the most mundane details of their lives as sharing too much information. So, I suppose, like most things, it just depends on the individual, to a degree.
I believe the youth is not that concern with privacy because at their age they feel that they do not have a care in the world. Adults are more cautious because of experience. I do feel that we will be still facing a problem with privacy years from now.