In the wake of the mass celebrity nude scandal leak on Reddit and 4Chan, attention has been called to cellphone privacy settings and in general, privacy in the technological age.
Our society is embracing a new age of constant connectivity and online engagement—a contributor to the decline of civic engagement and face-to-face communication, but with this surge of online self-expression, are we subjecting ourselves and our attempts at privacy, to violation? Furthermore, when we encourage ourselves and others through the continued use of social media, to divulge personal information and our interests, isn’t it hypocritical for us to be angry when our personal and private information becomes public?
With the evolution of social media, we are encouraged to divulge every little detail of our lives, from Instagramming our meals, tweeting about our political views, digestive processes, opinions on Joan rivers or that new episode of the Mindy Project, or Facebook stalking our enemies and love interests; everything we do online is tracked and publicized. All of these sites have privacy settings that can be customized according to the individual, but the appearance of privacy by the little lock and key signal or the need to request to be a follower, such as with Instagram or Twitter, is not a confirmation that our actions and interests online are actually protected.
The millennial generation, which is arguably the most connected generation online, has developed an online counterculture encouraging authenticity and espousing “catfishing” or any expression that isn’t authentic or factual information about the individual. If you admit to liking Nickleback (but really, who still listens to Nickleback?) on Facebook, then you better be belting it from the mountain tops; or us, the crazy children of the 90s who grew up online, will not be amused and get Nev and Max to expose your cheating lying facebooking ways for millions to see on MTV.
In addition to authenticity, our online lives also present our idealized self, or the person we hope to be—our best version of ourselves. Our Facebook pages, Instagram and twitter feeds only present the true and best side of ourselves; or the distorted image of our self we wish to become true, void of all insecurities. The same applies to celebrities, who have chosen to put themselves in the public eye and be open to public scrutiny. The celebrity image put out into the public is additionally their idealized self or at least their manager’s and reps attempts at projecting their client’s best self; so, when an image, quote, article, nude photo leak, etc. exposes more than what the public is used to seeing, chaos ensues. Now in the form of a privacy war undertaken by the FBI, the legitimacy of privacy settings on cell phones or social media accounts are now being called into question. Everyone now lives in fear that those racy Snapchats from drunken Tinder conver-mistakes will be exposed for all to see and scrutinize. All those efforts to authentically project your idealized self, online, are wasted in light of privacy violation.
Now, I’m not into victim shaming and if I could volunteer as tribute to have racy photos of me leaked instead of, America’s sweetheart and feminist goddess, JLaw (Jennifer Lawrence for those not aware of the moniker), I totally would. Hacking into anyone’s ICloud account and downloading nude photos of anyone, celebrities included, is a major violation of our human right to privacy, especially when those photos are clearly meant for the photographer themself and perhaps their significant other.
Although, despite everyone being in accordance that hacking into someone’s phone or online profiles and leaking personal information about them, is fundamentally and morally corrupt, there also seems to be a counter trend on the rise of people willingly exposing more of themselves, than say what is socially acceptable online.
When Beyoncé projects nude images of herself while pregnant during a concert or Kourtney Kardashian authorizes for the live birth of her children to be filmed on camera (in which millions of viewers got all up close and personal with Kourtney as she pulled her own children out of her birth canal), is it really fair for these same celebrities to shame paparazzi or feel violated when their personal photos of them or their children or any personal information is leaked to the public? im thinking it makes them pretty hypocritical.
In addition, by choosing to engage in online social media and providing authentic information about your idealized self, you cant feel violated when you start receiving emails or pop-up ads for Nickleback concerts and merchandise. If you put yourself out there, you cant get angry when it doesn’t go your way or when you’re confronted with the reality of your true self and if you dont like it, then get offline.
and you dont like what i have to say, id love to get into a comment war, that would make for an amazing Tuesday night.
So long, farewell,auf wiedersehen, good night,
Taylor
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/24/celebrities-stfu-about-your-privacy.html
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