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Burn all the letters
Oct. 3rd, 2008 06:03 pmA classmate of mine is fond of internet stalking. She was kind enough to let me know that my "Facebook photos arne't secured." I don't know how many she went though, but in actuality, only some of them were visible to her: mostly ones from about one to two years ago. I don't know how many she looked at, if any, or what she thought of it. She's given no feedback. The photos in question are early transition and pre-transition. I left them open to members of the University network because, hey, I went through three names administrating the student society, so what's the point of hiding it from the people who voted for me under said names?
That was a while ago.
Going through and irreversably de-indexing each photo was burning the past:
- Uncomfortable in its resemblance to burning books.
- Welcome in its similarity to burning a body before it putrifies.
The age of ubiquitous computing, user-generated indexed content, and/or panoptic surveillance, redefines the closet. It's harder to keep secrets, and easier to uncovering them, even accidentally. .
With cameras everywhere, all it takes is one person's mouseclick to capture and index your image to make that moment, or at least one cropped-and-lit angle of it, accessable to everyone who might want to know.
I hope this will pan out into a more honest society. Where we realize that we all have bad hair days, and we all did some stupid things in our youth. Where we recognize that honesty is vulnerability is strength; that seeing another's naked face is an opportunity to smile warmly, not to judge harshly.
I look forward to the day when politicians can honestly say "Yes I toked up. Then I failed the exam." and people will shrug, and begrudge whomever miguses it as an attack.
But we haven't quite made the shift yet.
That was a while ago.
Going through and irreversably de-indexing each photo was burning the past:
- Uncomfortable in its resemblance to burning books.
- Welcome in its similarity to burning a body before it putrifies.
The age of ubiquitous computing, user-generated indexed content, and/or panoptic surveillance, redefines the closet. It's harder to keep secrets, and easier to uncovering them, even accidentally. .
With cameras everywhere, all it takes is one person's mouseclick to capture and index your image to make that moment, or at least one cropped-and-lit angle of it, accessable to everyone who might want to know.
I hope this will pan out into a more honest society. Where we realize that we all have bad hair days, and we all did some stupid things in our youth. Where we recognize that honesty is vulnerability is strength; that seeing another's naked face is an opportunity to smile warmly, not to judge harshly.
I look forward to the day when politicians can honestly say "Yes I toked up. Then I failed the exam." and people will shrug, and begrudge whomever miguses it as an attack.
But we haven't quite made the shift yet.
