October 16, 2008
Reality, reality tv and celebrity culture
Everyone who is shocked that Joe the Plumber's home address and personal info was published, raise your hand. Yeah. I didn't think I'd see any hands being raised.
I'm considering how much of the position that he deserves this because he injected himself into the limelight arises from the notion that we're all just one camera away from fame. There seems to be a growing acceptance of the notion that there is no such thing as privacy and that everyone is living life onstage. From that point of view, digging through his personal history isn't a violation of privacy because there is no such as a private life. Everyone is a celebrity, it's just that the show hasn't been on yet.
From time to time I teach a seminar on internet research for legal professionals. I always start by discussing My Space and Facebook and explaining to the 45+ crowd in the room that their clients and their young associates do not comprehend privacy the way that they do. The notion that you don't post drunken pictures of yourself because 4-5-6 years down the line some wonk in HR will find them is simply a non-issue. Life is lived in public. Things didn't happen until you blog it. That is the notion of privacy that is becoming accepted.
In that light, what's happening isn't seen as brownshirt tactics. In fact, it is fair play. He opened his mouth, he's now in public, he should expect this.
Now, I don't think that's a valid position and I am, frankly, horrified by the notion that all of life is an open book. There's a difference between running someone's name through opensecrets to see if they're actually non-partisan. Publishing a home address? That's another. But the accusation of fascist tactics is, literally, incomprehensible to many people. Hey, if you google your dates, surely you're going to google this guy. They're not being invasive jackasses, they're ferreting out the truth, man.
Welcome to the future. We're all screwed.
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I'm considering how much of the position that he deserves this because he injected himself into the limelight arises from the notion that we're all just one camera away from fame. There seems to be a growing acceptance of the notion that there is no such thing as privacy and that everyone is living life onstage. From that point of view, digging through his personal history isn't a violation of privacy because there is no such as a private life. Everyone is a celebrity, it's just that the show hasn't been on yet.
From time to time I teach a seminar on internet research for legal professionals. I always start by discussing My Space and Facebook and explaining to the 45+ crowd in the room that their clients and their young associates do not comprehend privacy the way that they do. The notion that you don't post drunken pictures of yourself because 4-5-6 years down the line some wonk in HR will find them is simply a non-issue. Life is lived in public. Things didn't happen until you blog it. That is the notion of privacy that is becoming accepted.
In that light, what's happening isn't seen as brownshirt tactics. In fact, it is fair play. He opened his mouth, he's now in public, he should expect this.
Now, I don't think that's a valid position and I am, frankly, horrified by the notion that all of life is an open book. There's a difference between running someone's name through opensecrets to see if they're actually non-partisan. Publishing a home address? That's another. But the accusation of fascist tactics is, literally, incomprehensible to many people. Hey, if you google your dates, surely you're going to google this guy. They're not being invasive jackasses, they're ferreting out the truth, man.
Welcome to the future. We're all screwed.
Posted by: alexthechick at
07:47 PM
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