Matthew DeAngelo CST 373 Ethics & Current Issues Spring 2014 Assignment Four Privacy is a thorny issue.

For me though it seems rather clear cut, dont bother me and I wont bother you and you only need to know what I think is relevant about me. Yet our culture today seems beset by breeches of privacy left and right. Much of this can be blamed potentially upon the advent of the internet yet I say its more often an individuals fault. Dont want an embarrassing situation spread around? Dont put yourself in a situation where it would even come up. Dont want a company to spread the information you gave them around? Perhaps you should have read that Terms and Agreement a bit closer. People these days just dont seem inclined to take ownership for their own mistakes. To start with as an individual I seem to favor being on my own. That is not to say I favor being alone, but that I seem to gravitate more readily towards interaction with others through the internet rather than being physically there. Being with people physically feels grating to me sometimes as I tend to be over polite in person, as in I have a hard time breaking off a conversation I dont want a part in. There is also the fact that most of what I like to do in my free time is located on a computer or similar electronic device. What is so great about being on the internet where I seem to perform most of my interactions with others? A sense of freedom. Its far easier to push, or otherwise ignore, an undesirable person online away given the tools at my disposal. Mute, ignore, just not visiting that part of the internet anymore, or even if the person continues to harass me bringing in the moderators. Not to mention being secluded means I can essentially do what I want when I want. Really though I think it might stem from the fact that I dont find much outside electronic media to be very interesting, without

spending money at least, and thus when interacting with others physically oftentimes Im beset by feelings of boredom. Within my family I still have my father and mother, an older sister, an older brother, with me as the youngest. One could say that a result of being the youngest is that I am most likely to turn out the most different. My parents had had time to figure out what worked and what didnt with my siblings yet it is somewhat odd to see how outgoing my sister and brother is compared to my introverted self. Regardless all three of us were brought up to be respectful of others. The main reason for my introversion lies elsewhere than my parents teaching I believe however but that explanation will come later. My sister was already in college by the time I started coming into my own individuality whereas my brother was an avid athlete and later also working part-time, thus often leaving me on my own as I grew older. Im uncertain how much being white has influenced my concept of privacy, perhaps there might be a correlation between that, my parents income, and the electronic media that we have as a result of that but I am having a hard time seeing a direct correlation. My siblings and I were raised Christian though, a good religion for values while not being overbearing with its demands. Yet right around middle to high school I started to distance myself from religion. The reason? Boredom which was exasperated by continual bombardment. In middle school I was sent to a private Christian middle/high school where one religion class and a weekly service were mandatory, on top of the usual Sunday service my family went to. It should also be noted that my siblings had gone through the public school system. Back to the subject at hand it felt like the same lessons and stories were told to me over and over and over again, with very little variation between them. If anything the only religious class I actually enjoyed was World Religions because that focused on religions other than Christianity which was a breath of fresh air. Furthermore to me, again exasperated somewhat by the constant bombardment of what He was supposedly doing in our lives, God didnt

seem to be doing much to me. And so towards the later end of high school and since graduation Ive distanced myself from religion. That is not to say I dont disrespect it, religion can do wonderful things for people even though it can do some horrible things as well, thus I tred the neutral path of agnosticism. However, I do acknowledge that perhaps part of my distancing from religion may stem from a preference of being on my own and not in the middle of a big crowd. On the other hand I tend to prefer to actually be doing something as opposed to just sitting there and listening to something Ive already heard two or three times. My family has always lived in relatively comfortable living arrangements. About the time that my brother and I were starting to outgrow our shared room as children my family added a second story to our house, thereby giving us more than enough room. As mentioned previously however I was left to my own devices increasingly often growing up. With my sister living on her own and my brother often gone due to work or sports I effectively had the upstairs to myself. Wed always lived in town as well, for most of my life just off of a major street and later after my siblings had both moved out deeper within another neighborhood away from the busy streets. I think growing up on a busy street sort of encouraged me to stay inside. Furthermore there wasnt much for a young child to do in the city of Salinas as at the time the city was suffering from a bad gang problem, thus inside was safety. The biggest thing that I believe drove me towards relative isolation and technology was school, or rather what happened there. From as early as elementary school Id been bullied at school. Most likely it had all begun due to a minor speech impediment I had as a child, something which set me apart even when Id gotten over it. Changing schools to go to the previously mentioned private school didnt work either, I still ended up bullied despite having no one from my old school there. I cant say for certain whether I was just unlucky to be the one singled out or if Id picked up certain habits which naturally regulated me to the bullied status. No matter how much I went to the teachers it seemed to do

nothing to stem the bullying, made even worse in middle/high school since the school would need to be careful least they lose funding from a parent who pulled their child out of school. Furthermore the school was in another city requiring upwards of an hours bus ride just to go one way and a majority of the schools population didnt even live in the same city. Thus what few friends I did make tended to be unreachable by casual physical means. I also didnt have a cell phone until partially through high school, and even then it was for emergency calls only for the longest time while everyone around me had access to texting. It wasnt even until college that I had access to texting and the ease of communication it provided. Perhaps the internet has played a far bigger part in my views of privacy than I give credit for yet credit must be given to what drove me towards it. One does not wish to give their bullies info about oneself if they can avoid it and being distant even from my physical friends was just a matter of course due to the physical distance between us. That the internet has so many fun things one can do upon it, for free no less, compared to real life where often times one needs to pay something in order to go somewhere or for the ability to do something. Furthermore on the internet you are effectively faceless while simultaneously being able to reach out to thousands. A facelessness which gives a sense of security. Security that I dont like to see peeled away unless I relinquish it voluntarily. I dont like the idea that Google and other companies may be spreading my information about yet if I am willingly using there service who else is there to blame but I?