Andrew Keen author of Digital Vertigo “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us,” is best-known for his concerns on the current Internet culture and how it is disorienting us as a society. Keen is an Internet entrepreneur who founded Audiocafe.com, which advocated for the idea of peoples privacy and how it has been diminished through Web 3.0.
In the book “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us,” Keen describes Facebook as a network where we as a society are constantly updating ourselves, and becoming more social. We have the ability to literally live our every day lives on the Internet, and know everything about everyone with just a click of a button. This is frightening in my eyes; do we as individual exploit too much information about ourselves and forget about our personal privacy? Once you put something on the Internet it is there for the world to see, but why do we do this? Keen argues that social media plays an enormous role in individuals lives today. It is so much easier to look someone up on the Internet, versus going on a date and trying to figure out the person face-to-face. That takes too much work, our society is lazy!
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are some of the few social networking sites that allow an individual to share their personal information, and what’s going on in their daily life. This makes surfing the web, and people staking disconcerting easy to do. Keen describes this as a warning in his book, and wonders why we are embracing this so much. What is frightening is that not only individuals are making first impressions when viewing your site but, businesses and universities are using this form of web surfing to get a feel for their future employees or students, and judging their character based on their site whether they are hired or accepted.
This revolution is dramatically reshaping not just the Internet but also our identities and personalities. Whether we like it or not, twenty-first century life is increasingly being lived in public. Four out of five admissions offices, for example are looking up applicants’ Facebook profiles before making a decision on whether to accept them. Almost half of HR managers believed it was likely that our social networking profiles are replacing our resumes as the core way for potential employers to evaluate us.”44
To, too many people, this can be frightening. In our society today, too many people feel too comfortable exploiting themselves on the Internet. They do not filter as much because they do not have to deal with face to face and therefore believe that they are somewhat “hiding”.
“Like the network itself, our mass public confessional is global. People from all around the world are revealing their most private thoughts on transparent network that anyone and everyone can access.”
Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who would fall under this category, and I cant lie I must include myself. I am apart of the social networking world, and I post pictures and information so that everyone can access it. Thinking about it, its kind of frightening. All of my friends on FB and Instagram know exactly what I am doing and where I am when I post something. By me posted is targeting my own privacy.
Keen argues that we as individuals are destroying our privacy and ourselves by using these social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Sadly the world of privacy is no longer as present as it once was however it is an important part to life today. How do you feel about this??
XOXO
Jordi
Good job introducing the reading and discussing its arguments, but you are mostly just adding your own voice to the chorus or relaying your emotions while doing the reading. Try to add something to the discussion such as an outside example, a critique, a further extension of an idea, etc. Also, proofread carefully as small errors are abundant.