Privacy on Sesame Street?

A colleague and I often joke that we live on Sesame Street.  In my job as a music teacher, I am on the stage frequently and seen by a lot of our community.  They know me, but I don’t always know them and often they are “the people that you meet when you’re walking down the street, they’re the people in our neighborhood.”   For a long time now I have walked down the street knowing that anything I do may be seen, interpreted, judged and reported to the rest of the parents in our community.   Case in point, not so long ago I was walking in my neighborhood when my husband and I ran across a brand new pet store, I stepped in to take a peek to see if there was anything new to offer our golden retrievers.   My husband (who does not work at our school and is not known by many of our school community) was waiting outside of the shop.   While he waited a group of women slowly walked past the shop and my husband; they proceeded to have a conversation about me…that’s Ms. Anderson, she’s a music teacher and she really spoils her dogs.   When I came out of the shop they had quickly left and of course my husband reported the news.  I was outraged.  Yes I do spoil my dogs, but what is wrong with that and why is it their business anyway.    It was winter vacation – couldn’t I have just a small break to do what I wanted to do without being on the stage.  I always knew that anytime anywhere someone might know me here, but it still hurt that day while I was walking on Sesame Street. 

When we use technology, aren’t we also taking a walk along Sesame Street.   It is the place where everyone meets and I guess just like on Sesame Street I have just assumed that I also have minimal privacy with technology– it is entirely possible that anything I put out there digitally will be read, viewed, interpreted, judged and or reported to others in the community, and I try my best not to be outraged by that fact.  I am careful what I put out there.   If I don’t want it copied or forwarded, I don’t put it in an email and I most definitely don’t put it on Facebook.  I’m also aware that anything I do can be put out there too, so I live my life responsibly.  As a foreigner in Taiwan who doesn’t easily blend in with the general population I live my life knowing anything I do, could potentially leave an impression of foreigners in this country, so I try to do the right things and I guess I kind of feel the same about the internet.  I consider the case of Michael Phelps that was broadcast everywhere and blogged about in, Beware: the Internet could own your future unfortunate.  Not unfortunate in that it was broadcast, but unfortunate in that obviously Michael Phelps did not realize that in being an athletic hero and role model he was also living on Sesame Street – which means no more privacy for him.  If it wasn’t the internet it would have been the paparazzi and unfortunately Phelps paid the price for his ignorance.  The truth is no one likes the fact that they have lost their privacy, but it is our reality and its best just to educate one’s self about it.

People in certain positions of leadership, power and popularity have always dealt with loss of privacy – this is not new.  What is new to our world is that this loss of privacy is no longer exclusive to a particular set of people.  Anyone walking down the street can be photographed, doing less than the right thing.  It used to be that this really only happened to people in leadership, power or popularity – a celebrity would be photographed doing less than the right thing, it would be plastered over the media and it was the public’s right to know and own the magazine that contained it.  Few felt sorry for the victims – they chose the life, should pay for their mistakes and besides they have lots of money to get over it with!  Is it really that much different when it happens to a random person parking his car outside of his mistress’ house for an affair?  Perhaps loss of everyone’s privacy will bring upon greater accountability and ultimately lead us to a higher moral ground – the photos and information are really only worth posting if there is an audience  to consume it and something tells me that when everyone’s loss of privacy is achieved, perhaps we will all be a little less interested in consuming others’ blunders.