Blind Faith

So while i would like to write another post simply expounding out great books and all the reasons why you should read them instead i find it nessesary to write this one about the death of privacy (but luckily i am using a book as a prop so i get the best of both worlds :D).

See, the book Blind Faith by Ben Elton takes place in a future world where privacy has been deemed a perversion of the worst regard. People spend the majority of their lives broadcasting themselves online, everything from their birth, to their first time having sex, to nights spent making love to their husband or wife.

His book is loosely based on the plot of the book 1984 by George Orwell. I hope you know the basic dealio but if not let me lay it out.

The government is now an authoritarian state where if they consider you a threat, your a threat, and threats must be killed. Faith is one of the most important things in Blind Faith, the church and the government are basically the same thing. Science has been labeled about as bad as privacy and books. Yes, books are also banned. There are people resiting but they aren't very successful.

Now the reason i am writing about this is because i have a problem with the lack of privacy increasing over the internet. Sites like facebook and flicker are both things which promote the utter lack of privacy in increasing ways.

There was a section on a radio broadcast not long ago where one of the DJs talked about how they were "friends" with members of Coldplay and Green Day. The other responded with "no, your not, they don't really care that much about what happens to you.I'm your friend, but they are just people you follow online."

My problem with this is the same one i have with facebook. There are people on facebook who have 700 and some odd friends, and to call them all friends is insane. To think that you have the level of intamacy with that number of people to call them friends is simply nuts.

Things like reality TV and websites like these reduce privacy and the idea of privacy. There was once a time where if you wanted to watch someone break down and express every single range of emotion and laugh at them you watched Jerry Springer. Now instead you flick to nearly any channel and you can usually find something on throughout the day where you can mock people.

And yes i know i am on facebook, i admit i am a bit of a sellout, i want to expand my network in an effort to help myself become both more well rounded and more successful as an author. I know that i don't really stand up against it enough anymore but what i dislike is more people calling several hundred people friends or handing out updates to whoever feel like it.