Today's WSJ includes a piece by L. Gordon Crovitz about whether our concern for privacy online is overwrought. Crovitz quotes liberally from Jeff Jarvis, the provocateur journalism professor whose new book Public Parts is a plea for more sharing in the digital age. For Jarvis, the more we share the more we all mutually benefit. And new technologies often bring concerns about privacy; Theodore Roosevelt banned cameras from Washington parks, deeming them a privacy violation. So we should not be overly concerned.
These days frequent posting on social media is often derided as over-sharing. Quoth Jarvis: "They sometimes accuse me of oversharing. Well, I say they're over-listening. If they don't like what I say and don't choose to enter a discussion, they shouldn't follow me -- and they shouldn't try to tell me what not to say."
Cranky? To be sure. But Jarvis has a point. One man's ceiling is another man's floor, so any laws that attempt to protect privacy in the digital sphere will over-reach. Nobody should be compelled to share what they don't want to, but we shouldn't presume that everyone wants to be secret.
During my divorce year of 2009, writing about the experience very publicly on this blog kept me sane. I don't think I'd be in the same healthy position today if I hadn't blogged then. These days I'm focused more on traditional essay-writing and going to writing workshops and events. Back then the immediacy of the blog form was compelling. Like Jarvis I figured that anyone who didn't want to read didn't have to. But I'm glad many people did.
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