Chapter 5 "Privacy: Looking for Solitude in the Global Village

There was a certain line in this chapter that grabbed my attention immediately when I saw it. I feel like it holds solid ground for discussion and potentially debate, so I thought I would give some input into my reaction. It lies at the top of page 113 when the authors were talking about the interconnection between privacy and community: "Responsibility for keeping things private is shared: individuals have to learn when to share or withhold information, while the community has to learn when to avert its eyes." I bolded the clause that grabbed my attention because I feel that in this day and age, communities don't truly ever avert their eyes. In an extremely fast-paced, interconnected technological society, "averting eyes" doesn't hold the same standard that it might have back in earlier times. My question (in accordance with the current time period) is: How can one person, let alone a community, avert their eyes when information is constantly surrounding them in so many different mediums? There's TV, cell phones, internet and social media, and perhaps most crucial: word of mouth. We live in a time where information holds a central role in our lives so we are constantly talking about things we've seen, heard, read, or watched to others - especially the things that we find shocking, funny, or heartwarming. Legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen talks about avoiding the "unwanted gaze" but unfortunately, I don't think we ever can truly avoid it. It's definitely a mind-boggling, if not alarming thought to see the concept of personal privacy waning. As Rosen discusses, it sometimes leads us to lead more restricted lives because we are afraid of the immediate transparency; this is a disheartening thought as well. I'm interested to see where we'll be in 20 years in regards to our level of privacy; will our privacy rights have a higher or lower priority in our future society and how will they be upheld in ethical dilemmas such as the ones discussed? These are my main questions in regards to my thought process about this chapter.