A Mini-Rant on Privacy and Identity

One of the peculiarities of the electronic environment is that people become so profoundly involved in each other that they lose that sense of private identity. Marshal McLuhan

The future McLuhan saw germinating in the late 1960s is growing like a weed today within the electronic garden of pervasive social networking. The identities we once fashioned within the isolation of our own nuclear-family homes, now live in the tribal consciousness of the global village. Our sense of personal identity cannot withstand the weight of the world peering at us through the SocialNet.

We've put our privacy to the knife through a thousand small cuts, bleeding status updates upon the digital waters. And although we reflexively startle and panic when Facebook or Google pushes us deeper into the ocean, we have been swimming out to sea on our own just as hard and as fast as we can. So relax. Enjoy. And be aware.