THE DEATH OF PRIVACY

I haven't been blogging much lately.

There are several reasons. Life has been busy, personal matters, a minor illness. But I've also been experiencing a cyber-backlash, of sorts.

I've never been a big fan of the Internet... but I use it every day. Know what I mean? I'm a writer/editor by trade so I sit in front of a computer for about 10 or 11 hours a day, just for work. I also like to check sports scores, check out stuff on YouTube because I hate TV and don't have TV, and write this blog. And then there's the mammoth Email Imperative.

Toss in a casual acquaintance with Facebook, using the Net to order things I need, the many sites I've written for or commented on, and it starts to sink in that, in the new millennium, we are cyberspace and cyberspace is us. And that's scary.

I mean, I remember many times my father refused to fill out personal information on a paper form because it was being called for unnecessarily and therefore constituted an invasion of his privacy. (He would have hated the Internet with a passion.) But these days, someone can throw down a few bucks (online!) and get your freakin' life story emailed to them.

Then there are hackers; don't even get me started on those tossers.

And just the usual abuse of information. Like Facebook (and everybody else) selling your profile to third parties. And how many servers -- government, corporate and otherwise -- do you think we are all living on? A dozen more than a s***load, I'd say.

I'm just a bit tired of it. Jaded. I want my privacy back -- even though I know it's gone forever. Like I said, I've never liked the Internet, I've just tried to use it more than it used me. More and more that feels like a losing battle.

I write this blog because I want to do my little bit to make a difference. One of my few talents is the ability to write reasonably well. And so I blog. But the downside, for me, is that to be sincere, to be persuasive, I have to share certain stuff about myself, concede a little of my privacy. As I get older, that feels like a pretty substantial cost.

Over the years that I've worked as a journalist or writer or blogger or whatever, I've had some exposure to the psycho contingent out there too. I've always stuck by my views and, man, do some people hate my views (or maybe they just hate anyone with a view). Who knows if they're "sad sacks" living in their mother's basement or gun owners with mental issues and a death wish. Usually it's just nonsensical crap from near-illiterate whiners or bluster boys who just refuse to think. But again, it gets old.

It's kind of like that old gag: One guy says to another, "I didn't come here to be liked" and the other guys says "Well, you came to the right place."

I'll keep blogging for now; but this cyber-privacy thing is something I feel we all need to think about. And something we are all responsible for. I'm not sure what to counsel here, other than keep your wits about you and make careful choices. And I do think it's important that, since the Net is here to stay, at least until we all get our micro-chip implants in our skulls, that it not be totally overrun by the money hounds of hell... which is happening already. So I'm all for Net Neutrality.

Maybe I'm just getting more suspicious in my old age. Or maybe it's like the man said: I might be paranoid, but that don't mean they ain't out to get me.

Take care and check your rear view mirror ;-)
Adrian

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