How social networks are invading our privacy Essay

How social networks are invading our privacy - Essay Example This paper examines four articles that discuss the issue of social networking and invasion of privacy as a relevant issue today. In his article that appeared in the American Quarterly in 1999, Rosenzweig argued that the digital revolution and the rise of the information superhighway has big implications on how people lived and worked. His article is actually a summary of four books describing the reactions of people at various times how technology will impact their lives. There were a lot of conflicting visions about what will happen with one side claiming a new utopia where people will be able to re-organize society and establish a new kinship of humanity by bringing people closer together (Rosenzweig 160) while critics feared new technologies, like what the telephone of an earlier era, will enable the government to have a listening box (eavesdrop) on its citizens and invade their privacy without the people knowing. The same critics said that a new technology like the Information Highway and the Internet will destroy home life, prevent people from visiting other people (instead use technology to keep in touc h), and create a new nations of slugs too lazy to go out of their homes and offices. It is technology that had shaped societies in the past and it is the same technological changes that shape society today. The important thing about technology is that it is socially neutral and it is how people will use technology that determines the outcome or the ensuing changes that occur. Social networking sites operate and thrive under the open access policy of the Internet as the World Wide Web is conceived as the best example of liberal democracy where the individual person is a superior being entitled to protection of his rights as enshrined in democratic laws. However, this vital aspect of rights protection is conveniently ignored at times by some evil people who make other people who use these social networking sites