In this digital age, we use citations to give credit to other thinkers that share common ideas with us. We have a complete system of cell lines that acknowledges the age, gender, ethnicity, and cell type of each contributor. We use passwords to ensure that our privacy is protected by technology.
However, the very items that are keeping us safe may be the same ones holding us back. Just like how George Orwell has predicted in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four, we are progressing towards a future with no privacy. In fact, the tension between progress and privacy in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot continues to persist in society today.
Big brother is watching you by Ana Villar via Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0
Yes, it’s the Internet again.
Social media seems simple and perhaps inseparable from our lives. Just by a single click, a connection can be made between two strangers. Familiar profiles pop out in the friend recommendation list as a reminder to add another friend. However, as convenient as it may seem, it is without question that we are becoming more and more paranoid on the privacy that we are “guaranteed” on social media.
Privacy by g4ll4is via Flickr / CC BY-NC 2.0
The programming behind all social media seems to establish a mindset where our data is protected under technology, yet it captures every movement that we make on the Internet. In order to ensure that the content is presented to each person’s interest, there is a database for each person’s internet history that gives the program an idea of what to show on the feed. In a nutshell, social media companies are in fact exploiting our reliance on the privacy we think they provide in order to further increase our usage on social media and hence earn more profit.
If a country as huge as has the ability to censor Internet usage for their political benefit without their citizens being aware, there is no definite answer as to whether our privacy may already be invaded for other purposes or not.
Wait, was one of the words censored?
Works Cited
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Books, 2010. Print.