“Communication” in “today’s culture” is “being redefined by multimedia”. “Orenstein truly expressed it saying that each “tweet” is a “tacit referendum on who I am” (2). “It’s allowed us to be consumers of information, but on our own terms” (1). Another common culture trend that social sites like Twitter promote is “instant gratification” (2). “Twitter is more than just a social network, it’s a rapid feed of news that is easily accessible and presented right in front of you” (1).

In this digital age is your information safe? How much of your interests do you share with the online databases you use? Will privacy become obsolete? The internet provides an immediate source of information capturing. How is a person supposed to protect themselves from people they don’t even know are looking at their connections? How is it even possible to protect yourself from something that you can’t know is going on? These are questions I’m sure a lot of people ask everyday and the only answer is “There is no way.” Sad, but true. You cannot protect yourself from things that you don’t even know about. You simply have to live your life, try not to be paranoid, and cross your fingers that your identity is not the one being targeted.

There is a limit to the amount of information that the Internet contains, yet there is not an infinite amount of use to be achieved and ways to navigate this data. The average person can find the information that they are looking for simply by using a search engine such as Google or Bing.  Scary. Databases collect information that you search. These topics could have very incriminating or personal details about a person’s life. Databases, like Google, are able to use this information for their own use and third-party searches. “In his study, Daniel Gayo-Avello shows how, relying on the principle of homophily and analyzing relationships, in this case on Twitter, one can determine sex, age, religious or political affiliation, race or ethnicity, and sexual orientation of a given individual with a relatively high degree of precision.” REALLY?! It blows my mind to think that someone I don’t even know could find out anything about me just by searching my connections with other people! How much of our information will we learn to censor? How much of our detailed, personal data will we allow the system to use against us?

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Stoneking and Wilkins

References: http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Surveillance/Introduction