I am an amateur semanticist. I have a great love and respect for words and their power. I do my very best to always choose my words with great care, to pick exactly the right word to express my thoughts. Therefore it is more than a bit jarring when I come across someone using words in a way that are objectively or subjectively incorrect. In some cases it's obvious and objective, like when someone in a recent comment on an earlier article about Obama's Business Week interview said, they didn't like his "polices" when clearly they meant to say "policies". But other times it can be much more subtle and subjective. I recently came upon such a situation in regards to the Internet.
Over the last few months it has seemed that the two most consistently recurring articles about the 'Net and the 'Web has been either proclaiming that we are in the post privacy era, or opining that we are all turning into a giant E-lynch mob. Both opinions of course have those that agree with them and those that vehemently disagree. But as I was thinking it over the other morning it occurred to me that the two situations could not easily exist simultaneously. Suddenly it occurred to me that the problem might very well be that people are not using the correct words.
Let’s start by defining our terms.
Privacy: The quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others.
Anonymity: The quality or state of being unknown or unacknowledged.
Okay, that right there gives us some idea right off the bat why people tend to use the two terms interchangeably. They are very similar in some ways, but at their essence they are really quite different.
Privacy, at it's essence is about only sharing yourself with those whom you choose. Like many things there is not one singular PRIVACY, but rather many degrees based on choice. For example you might be fine with anyone being able to see pictures you've taken of antique cars, but not with just anyone being able to see pictures of your kids. You might not mind people knowing that you are married and have children, but you don't want the whole world to know their names. Well as regards the online universe, it is still more than possible to set such distinctions. I can assure you that we are not even close to the "Post Privacy Era". Now we are to be sure past the point where privacy is automatically ensured. Many default settings for things like Facebook, etc. are slanted more towards the openness side of things, but I can assure you that with just a little effort it is still more than possible to set one’s preferences to achieve just the level of privacy you desire.
Anonymity on the other hand is quite another thing all together. Anonymity is at it's core the belief that one can act with impunity and never have to suffer the consequences of those actions. Now of course if it's something good, an act of charity say, then no one in their right mind would have even the least little problem with anonymity. But when it is something like a group of people getting together to hurt others by their actions, well precious few people would speak up and say that anonymity is a good thing under such circumstances. In the physical world it is harder and harder for people to do harmful things and remain anonymous thanks to ever increasingly sophisticated methods of detection. First finger print detection, now DNA. Online it is similar. Thanks to various means of determining a persons location, their ISP, computer browser etc, it is increasingly difficult for someone to engage in harmful action without running the risk of being found out and being made to suffer the consequences of their actions.
In addition to the technological aspect there is also the social to consider. People who speak anonymously are increasingly suspect, especially if what they have to say is hurtful and hate filled. While there are still some who prefer to protect their privacy by using a "Net Handle" in place of their offline name, most of them use that handle as if it were their own personal brand. They use it online consistently, and they do not hide behind some alter persona crafted only for them to spew bile and then run away.
Ultimately neither sets of extremists are even remotely close to articulating the truth of the times in which we find ourselves with regards to the World Wide Web. We are not even close to the "Post Privacy Era", but thanks to our entering or being close to entering the "Post Anonymity Era" it is growing increasingly difficult for people to be able to attack others online without being made to suffer some kind of consequence. If I was an optimist I might even suggest we are entering into the best of all possible scenarios as regards interpersonal interaction online.
Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!
(This article originally appeared at The One About...)