Wired to Over-Share?
You’ll hear a lot about (lack of) privacy on the Internet, and as expected, Facebook is the lightning rod for much of the criticism on this count. But is that really true? That’s the question Ian Leslie asks in his article, “Too much information” : “But what if the problem isn't Facebook’s privacy settings, but our own?” Is the problem that we have evolved for sharing in tribal societies and our privacy instincts are not suited for the super massive community of the Internet? So what are some of these rules that are now mis-firing? For one, mistrust of authority figures and institutions. Thus, if a government asks for personal data, we cringe and ask why? But if we are offered a chance to share it voluntarily (on the Internet), we don’t think much. This offer of a choice then feeds into our feeling of control. We made the choice, so we feel we must be in control. Except we aren’t, at least, not on the Internet. And even less so on Facebook, where the privacy rules kee...