FACEBOOK is A Peep Show Into Your Life; Does That Transparency Bother You?

Facebook is as transparent as my nosy neighbor’s curtains, but I have nothing to hide. The internet has turned the world into a small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business, along with a caravan of gypsies knocking at your door to sell you goods based on your preferences and searches.

We are a society addicted to our screens, and having ads based on our preferences in our feed, spoon feeds us while we can’t take our eyes off of our screens to go out shopping.

Facebook = Nosy + Rude

Although it was rude of Facebook to not disclose how much information they were gathering about us, I don’t care who sees what I think. I am not attacking anyone or defending anyone. I have my own unique mind and I am not intending on hurting myself or anyone else.

My dad and my granddad each fought a world war before I was born, and I bore their scars for my freedom of speech and liberty. They didn't have the luxury of privacy during the wars. They bunked with strangers in barracks and submarines, spent days in freezing cold rat filled ditches, and were sea sick in the middle of the rocky ocean, hit by shrapnel, took orders and risked their lives. What they taught me was to search for the truth.

I find that transparency is a NIMBY concept. We like other people to be transparent but don’t think we should have to be. We demand to view the online activities of people suspected of crimes, but demand privacy for those who haven’t crossed the lines. Of course the lines are different in every city in the world.

Steemit = The New Reality

Some predict that community based sites like Steemit will replace Facebook. Being involved with cryptocurrency on Steemit for almost two years has shown me that there is no hiding on Steemit, there is only transparency. People can open your wallet and see how much you have, and can see which posts you write and vote for. Your posts remain on the blockchain forever, so people can see what you think and feel. It is a risk and reward system, where what you put in to the system is what you get out of it.

Of course, we give all our information to our governments on our census forms and income tax. We count on them to keep our information private, but their systems have been breached, and we can’t count on them to monitor sites like Facebook. It’s not going to be a perfect system. In the end, I think the truth is we won’t have any choice but to get comfortable with transparency, as privacy becomes a thing of the past.

What's your take on it? I would love to hear it.

Photos - Pixabay
gif by @stellabelle