Socialmedia by Anders Sporring

One thing for sure is that we have never been so open with our thoughts or opinions as we are now.  We’re not even secret with where we are as we use Geolocation services like Gowalla, Brightkite, Foursquare, Google Latitude or just tweet where we are. And when we’re out travelling we use services like Dopplr or Tripit to tell or friends (and sometimes the World) where we’re heading or are.  In my humble opinion this is an development we can’t escape from, and do we want to escape from it?

It’s all about our privacy

Obviously we’re today so open that if someone wants to find us, they can do so and be pretty sure that they know were we are from one hour to another. And where some people see a possibility of getting stalked or burglarized, others see both business possibilities and chances of meeting with equals and maybe have a cup of coffee and discuss something. We are all different and some of us treasure our privacy highly, while others might do the same but feel they can’t miss out on chances of meetings.

What it comes down to in my mind is that since we’re social beings we all want to have that possibility, the eye to eye meeting with our friends. The possibility to interact with mannerism and expression beyond the limitation of 140 chars or just simply words.

What others say

Mark  Zuckerberg (CEO Facebook) said recently that “The age of privacy is dead” and “if I had built Facebook today I would have set public as default mood not private”.

Rob Killick (CEO Cscape) said already in February 2008 that: ”Cyberspace is not a private space” and that “In order for public and private life to thrive, we need spaces that are absolutely free from the prying eyes of officialdom and others.” (Spiked-online.com)

Walter Naeslund (CEO Honesty) asks: “Will The Death of Privacy Make The World A Better Place?” and continues by asking these questions:

1. Will the breakdown of privacy raise moral, improve individual behaviour and ultimately make the world a better place?
2. Why are people so reluctant to compromise their privacy?

I think I have answered that earlier in this article, and I can add for me personally it’s been a way to open up for more people to get in touch and connect  with me.

So what does this tell us?

For me it tells me that we’re about to enter an World where Privacy has been replaced with Openness and public appearance, whether we want it or not. Of course we can still choose to be private, to a certain level but in the long run openness and transparency will give both ourselves and other possibilities beyond how we act and interact today. There will be cases of stalkers using these ways of finding their victims, and the press (Radio, TV and papers) will scream out the dangers of being open. But in the end we will get used to it slowly and one day its more rare to be private than to be public.

Footnote

I planned to write this two days ago, and it became actual when I read Walter’s article on his blog.

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