Privacy

So, I read this article today. It’s about how people are more likely to give up information about themselves as they see other people do the same. It made mention of sites such as Facebook where many of us share our lives with people. Often we share more than we should or more than we thought we wanted to. Essentially as we see people share very personal secrets we are willing to do the same. The secrets don’t have to be the same, but as the level of secrecy increases in other peoples’ sharing so does our. Their example was to say that when other people admit to cheating on their spouses we might feel more at ease with admitting to cheating on our taxes. Reading this made me think of a few things.

1. I think it’s better that we’re sharing because we stop feeling so alone knowing that we’re not the only ones with certain secrets. We aren’t the only ones who make mistakes, but just as they pick up and move on so can we.
2. This constant sharing and knowing that others are doing the same can give us a false sense of security. We start to feel that the “bad” things we’re doing can’t be that bad if so many other people are doing the same. It kind of makes bad choices acceptable because they’re normal.
3. It’s interesting to me that so many people have so many BIG secrets. People tend to hold onto secrets because they are painful to share or they did something wrong. Perhaps if people didn’t so many inappropriate or immoral things they wouldn’t have so many secrets to keep.
4. The people who commented on this article did not read the same article I read. They all went on about how much information we’re giving away like our names, email addresses, etc. Sure, it’s important to protect our privacy from those who might do us harm, but I’m fairly certain that wasn’t the point of this article; at least not for me. We are giving away far more important personal information than that. We are confessing our sins to the world and not to God anymore. We are trying to find absolution by the easing of our conscience when we admit wrong-doing. That however, is not the way for us to find forgiveness from the ones we’ve hurt or from God.
5. Perhaps, this shredding of privacy is a sign of distancing from God in our society. If we lose those intimate relationships in our lives we seek for them elsewhere. Part of intimacy is sharing the deepest part of ourselves with someone else. Without an intimate, close relationship with God perhaps we’re seeking it with the open world. I don’t know, but I thought I’d throw the idea out there.
   
   Okay, those are my ideas on privacy. What are yours?