Between the long awaited unveiling of the newest iPhone as if it was a visit from the President, the overall obsession with "checking in", and our incessant "hash tagging", the Internet and, just as well, the entire world of electronics, is seriously taking over. With hundreds of ways to share, catch up and, inevitably, stalk each other, there is no escaping it! The young digerati is in full force and, to be honest, I love it and I hate it.
It's great to be able to see what your friends are up to, grab information in a matter of seconds, and do practically everything short of eating sushi via cell phone but the reality of it all is sorta creepy! If you haven't noticed, Facebook always seems to know what you're thinking. On the side bar, they're able to post ads for products and services that you may like. And how did they know you wanted to take Salsa dancing lessons last Friday? Metadata. You're checking in to places, commenting on friends' photos, and searching for pages like there's no tomorrow and all of that information is now public - and Facebook - knowledge. By voluntarily providing all of your information to the Internet, multiple sources can now use that data to strategically implement their product or service right in front of your face so that you might click on it and potentially become a customer. Pretty smart, huh? Yep, and somewhat creepy! But that's what happens when our culture is making the shift from personal and private to totally disconnected and public.
We can't really complain about "lack of privacy" because we're to blame for choosing to blog, tag, and update our status 15 times each day. By the time our kids have kids, there will literally be no such thing as privacy, or paper books for that matter. As a certified nerd, I don't really mind the technology take over because it's just too fun getting in on the latest gadgets but when you sit back and think about it...it's just really crazy how far we've come, even from when I was a kid - and I'm only 21! Imagine the crazy factor for my parents...
