So there’s been a lot of controversy about online privacy. Apparently, many sites online have been using people’s information for their own purposes and that’s just something that has stop because people just want to live their own lives without the negative attention.
We all have dark secrets. Mine are pretty bad and downright sociopathic when I reflect on them. And believe me, I’m pretty sure that my weird Internet fetishes are stored on some server in a Cox office and on some Federal government server.
I do value privacy. But I think I confuse it with solitude sometimes. Actually what I really want in life is to be left alone by external forces and influences. There are very few who I allow to influence my decisions and usually these are trusted people. Even then, as my wife can attest to, I usually keep such influences to a minimum. At least I’d like to think that.
Trusting people is just not something I do. I know, coming from a Christian, that seems a bit contradictory. The truth is, I trust regular folk more than I trust my inner Christian circles. Often times I find that many of them can be a little arrogant and self-righteous and such people have no qualms about using gossip to their advantage.
So when I say that the only porn I look at, much to my shame (and honestly, not that often), usually involves only two or three ladies, I say so with the complete and utter disregard for the 15 people who regularly read this. I am not proud of it nor do I wish to share any more on the subject.
The point of that solipsistic rant is that I don’t care about my online privacy all that much. While I don’t volunteer my address or anything like that, I’m sure if someone really wanted to harm me, it wouldn’t be hard to find me. When I was in college, I looked up my old girlfriend from high school. For some reason I couldn’t get her off my mind. And I ended up finding her address using the Internet and the few scraps of information she told me about her college plans. And you know what? I married that girl.
The truth is, I don’t believe that it is the privacy that people care about. If they really cared about privacy, they wouldn’t be using the Internet or be actively engaged in social networking or blogging. I think the real threat is the fear that other people might discover just how lame they really are. Deep down, the millions upon billions of people who use the Internet are simply just one series of lame individual after another. And believe me, I am no exception to this trend.
People want to think of themselves as important, as better than everyone else. This is one of the common factor of men and women throughout much of history. The truth is, most people are going to live a relatively pointless life (by the world’s standards) and die a painful, unhappy death. Oh, and don’t worry, there will plenty of pointless and unrewarding struggles along the way. I once heard someone say that husbands die before their wives usually out of despair. It would be nice to have that much power of your own life.
The solution to all this? Abandon the Internet or get over your fear of mediocrity. Either way, you’ll find that privacy isn’t all that important anymore.
And to all my fellow Church members who read this I have one thing to say to you: I fully expect funny looks when I see you on Sunday. Keep in mind that if you call me out on my disgusting and infrequent porn habits, I’ll just leave the Church. I know it’s wrong and I don’t need your self-righteous lectures on the subject matter.