Andrew Sullivan has up an interesting essay on the erosion of privacy. No, I don't think it requires a legal redress or a retreat into Luddite isolation; but even the most ardent techno-geek has paused to consider the multitude of leashes to which we tie ourselves. Premiums have been placed on immediacy and reaction; less important now are thougtfulness and precision. It's more difficult to find time to be alone and almost impossible to ever escape the tyranny of the constant flow of information. As Sullivan writes:
We live in some ways in a completely paradoxical new world. On the one hand, technology has enabled us to retreat into niches and personal spaces with protective precision. We can communicate more easily and more intimately than ever before - texting, emails, cell-phones, blackberries, cell-phone cameras, blogs, instant messaging, and on and on. But as we become more cut off from general social contact, our personal communications are increasingly completely transparent. We have rising social atomization with a collapse of personal privacy. We are alone. And at the same time on stage.
Read the whole thing.
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