It seems hard to believe, but apparently there are plenty of people who don't fully realize when what they're doing is "online" or not. Case in point, this article posted for the readers of Reddit, that details the difference between being online and, for example, just typing on your computer. Give it a read.
I get the basic point: everyone becoming so used to just sitting in front of a screen and typing that many people don't discern between the different flavors of programs out there and what they all do. Typing a blog post on Blogger vs. a letter on Microsoft Word these days isn't much different. They both have similar interfaces, with different fonts and colors and alignments and what not. But where the document lives after you type it makes a very big difference indeed.
Some people ask me at times, "How do I keep what I'm doing online secret?" How do I keep a blog secret. Or keep what I post to Facebook secret.
Here's the thing, folks: if you're online, it's not secret. If you don't want something to ever be revealed publicly, writing it and posting it *anywhere* online isn't the best choice you can be making. Far better to assume that anything you're writing online can and will appear in public at some point.
There's just too many ways for information online to get out. Too many holes in the sieve. Once anyone has it, then they're free to do with it what they want (not legally speaking, but practically). Even if you never identify yourself as the author, there are ways to track you--finding the IP address of the computer that wrote the article, for example.
Bottom line: the internet isn't private. It wasn't designed to be.
I wonder sometimes whether this is the sign of a growing problem society will encounter, as more and more people start being able to use technology they don't fully understand to do things they don't know it can do. As devices and programs get more and more streamlined, it becomes easier and easier to use them. Don't get me wrong--I'm all for that ease of use. It's just that I'm not realizing there could be some drawbacks to that, as well.
What do you think?
I think you hit the nail on the head here, "I wonder sometimes whether this is the sign of a growing problem society will encounter, as more and more people start being able to use technology they don't fully understand to do things they don't know it can do." It seems like there are so many devices, in so many hands, and each of those hands has vary skills and ages.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
-Mick
Thanks!
ReplyDelete