Dead Bolt
A couple years ago I read “Running with Scissors” and I was so transfixed on the story that I plowed through it in one afternoon. There were a few jarring images I will always think of when I hear the title, but a line uttered at one of the book’s strangest moments has been with me ever since, and I seem to go back to it all the time during the course of my life - “The things people do behind closed doors.”
It is wild to think that anybody, anywhere, could be doing ANYTHING, within the confines of a closed room. I find it mind-boggling! Everybody feels as though they know their friends, neighbors, co-workers, but how can you be so sure? People only truly reveal themselves when they feel completely comfortable, which is usually while they are out of life’s eye. Of course, people do trust each other and may in fact show their true colors form time to time, but for the majority of the populous, there must be a couple hidden facets about their personality that don’t see daylight.
Nowadays, with the world being more of a microcosm than ever as a result of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc., there is more of a big brother type feel to modern living, because people across the globe can receive updates about others as they happen. In turn, much more information than ever before keeps streaming the net at a rapid pace, an amount that will only continue to grow.
During the past 5 years, I guess due more to maturing than the time frame, I have noticed that I was a bit more naive than I had attributed to myself. Things that I had viewed as taboo just a short while ago, I now realize are more commonplace than advertised. Does that make it right or wrong? Not really. But it does hint to the fact that the inward activities that have been going on behind the curtain for decades may in fact become completely main-stream in the near future.
The more that trickles out to the public, the more accustomed they will become to it. It is similar to the rise of MMA. It began as a small cult-followed sport and now has cracked through the general sports scene. A lot of the hype surrounding this past weekend’s UFC 100 Pay Per View was generated through these same aforementioned internet channels. These methods of real time updates are the future of sports, business, networking, etc.
Is there a solution to this query of Pandora’s Box meets instant gratification? I am not sure either way, actually. There are such great uses and advantages to these newer media devices, but they can carry certain pitfalls as well, that everyone should be aware of. It is up to each individual to decide what degree of data about themselves is too personal to reveal to the public at large, because once you click send that information is out; like the fat kid in dodgeball.
