Favour N.- Blog Post #5

The New York Times

“We Want Privacy, but Can’t Stop Sharing” by Kate Murphy

Published October 4, 2014

The article introduced the idea of how there is no such thing as privacy on the internet. What you post online can be used against you in the future; for example, keep you from getting a job. And it is difficult to argue for privacy when people readily share their entire lives via social networks. The article also argues the more invisible effects of lack of privacy stating that the knowledge of being watched promotes conformity and stifles individuality causing depression, anxiety, and the like. They made an analogy between privacy and sleep saying that “just as being unconscious for a portion of the day is restorative, so is being unselfconscious.” The people who want privacy aren’t trying to hide anything as might be assumed but rather just want to hold on to themselves.

This particular article relates to SSTLS in that there is also no such thing as privacy in their world. Though in the book, they’re not necessarily posting their personal information themselves, but it is still available for anyone to see and it is ultimately used against them such as in the bar seen with the FAC (pgs. 89-90) and in the mention of the poles around town that scan and show your credit score as you pass by (pg. 80). The section of the article explaining how surveillance suppresses individuality can be directly compared and proven by how Lenny tries to avoid broadcasting his love for books and keeps them hidden in an effort to assimilate to the expectations of society (pgs. 37, 78,144).

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